Margaret McCarthy

Margaret McCarthy serves as Supervisory Executive Officer for USAID/Central Asia/Kazakhstan, overseeing the strategic execution of technical assistance acquisitions aligned with U.S. foreign assistance goals. In this role, she leads the planning, solicitation, and award of professional services contracts that support governance reform, economic resilience, and public service delivery across Kazakhstan and the broader Central Asian region. Her procurement portfolio centers on advisory and capacity-building initiatives, ensuring that technical expertise is effectively leveraged to advance locally led development outcomes. She works closely with program officers and technical specialists to translate mission priorities into compliant, results-driven contracting actions under the Federal Acquisition Regulation. McCarthy collaborates with a diverse array of international and local professional service providers, including consulting firms, research institutions, and technical advisory organizations with demonstrated expertise in public sector reform, nutrition, education systems, and enterprise development. Her contracting approach emphasizes performance-based outcomes and long-term sustainability, fostering partnerships with vendors capable of delivering context-specific solutions in complex, resource-constrained environments. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages firms with proven regional experience and robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks. McCarthy’s procurement activity is entirely non-set-aside, reflecting a strategic focus on open competition to ensure the highest quality technical expertise is selected regardless of business size or socioeconomic status. This approach prioritizes merit-based selection over socioeconomic preferences, aligning with USAID’s emphasis on program effectiveness and value-driven outcomes in international development contexts. Her primary contracting focus is on NAICS 541990—All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services—encompassing a wide range of technical advisory services including institutional strengthening, policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity-building training. She routinely procures services that require deep subject matter expertise in governance, health systems, economic policy, and sustainable development, ensuring that USAID’s technical assistance remains agile, evidence-based, and responsive to evolving partner needs.