Maychin Ho

Maychin Ho serves as a Contracting Officer for USAID/Afghanistan (720306), responsible for managing the full lifecycle of procurement actions that support the agency’s mission of sustainable development and institutional capacity building. In this role, Ho oversees the solicitation, award, and administration of contracts for professional, scientific, and technical services critical to governance, education, health systems strengthening, and civil society empowerment. Working closely with program offices, Ho ensures acquisitions align with U.S. foreign policy objectives and international development best practices, prioritizing performance-based contracting and risk-mitigated procurement strategies to deliver measurable outcomes in complex operational environments. Ho’s contractor relationships are primarily with U.S.-based and international professional services firms providing technical assistance, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, and advisory services. While no single contractor dominates the portfolio, Ho consistently engages with firms possessing demonstrated expertise in Afghanistan’s socio-political context, emphasizing local knowledge, cultural competency, and compliance with U.S. government standards. These partnerships are typically structured as cost-reimbursement or fixed-price task orders under indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) vehicles, fostering long-term collaboration and adaptive program implementation. Ho’s procurement pattern reflects a strong preference for open competition, with 100% of awards issued under non-set-aside authorities. There is no current reliance on 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, or other socioeconomic programs, indicating a focus on technical capability and mission alignment over socioeconomic categorization. This approach prioritizes the highest-quality service providers capable of operating in high-risk, resource-constrained environments. The agency’s procurement activity is exclusively concentrated under NAICS 541990, encompassing all other professional, scientific, and technical services. This includes expertise in public administration, institutional reform, gender and inclusion programming, and data-driven monitoring systems. Ho’s technical domain expertise lies in procuring advisory services that build Afghan institutional resilience through evidence-based, locally led interventions.