Ketan Sood

Ketan Sood serves as a Regional Acquisition & Assistance Specialist for USAID/Kenya, overseeing the procurement and assistance mechanisms that advance U.S. development objectives across Kenya and the East African region. In this role, he manages the full lifecycle of professional services contracts, ensuring alignment with USAID’s mission to foster private sector growth, strengthen democratic institutions, improve public health systems, and build climate resilience. His portfolio primarily consists of complex, performance-based acquisitions for technical consulting, institutional capacity building, and program evaluation services, all governed by FAR and USAID’s Automated Directives System. He works closely with mission technical teams to translate strategic priorities into competitively awarded contracts that deliver measurable outcomes. Ketan maintains consistent procurement relationships with AMD INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC, a key provider of specialized technical assistance in governance, economic development, and monitoring & evaluation. His contracting patterns reflect a preference for experienced, high-capacity firms capable of delivering multi-year, cross-sectoral services across diverse geographic contexts. He engages with a limited but highly vetted pool of contractors, prioritizing those with demonstrated regional expertise, robust project management frameworks, and proven success in implementing USAID-funded initiatives. His set-aside preferences are heavily skewed toward open competition, with 85.3% of awards issued without socioeconomic set-asides, reflecting the specialized nature of the services required. While small business participation is modest—accounting for 5.9% of awards under Total Small Business Set-Asides—he actively encourages eligible firms to compete through targeted outreach and simplified solicitation structures, particularly under FAR 19.5 and local area set-asides. Ketan’s procurement focus is overwhelmingly centered on NAICS 541990—All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services—encompassing policy analysis, economic modeling, electoral support, and climate adaptation planning. He routinely procures technical advisory services, data analytics, stakeholder engagement frameworks, and capacity-building interventions, demonstrating deep expertise in managing complex, results-oriented consulting engagements critical to USAID’s development impact.