What is the GSTA?

The Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance (GSTA) is a Leader with Associates cooperative agreement that allows USAID to access sustainable tourism development technical expertise to support a variety of objectives (such as biodiversity conservation, economic growth and poverty alleviation, education and workforce development, etc.)

What is a Leader with Associates (LWA)? 

A Leader with Associates mechanism is a cooperative agreement to fund and carry out development activities. The “Leader” is the core-funded (through USAID/DC) activity of managing the partnership. “Associate Awards” are USAID Mission buy-ins for specific technical assistance and development support in their host country. The GSTA is a pre-competed, single award that enables USAID operating units to rapidly access short, intermittent, or long-term technical assistance and advisory services without an additional competition process. It also allows for their active involvement in sharing and approving an activity or project, negotiating costs, and seamless transition to activity or project implementation. This LWA mechanism was created to speed up the award-making process while, at the same time, assuring USAID that they will receive best-value solutions to any tourism development challenge. 

What are the advantages of the GSTA?

The GSTA offers USAID unique procurement advantages.  These include:

Ability to Stretch Limited Budgets:  The cost share ratio against Mission/Operating Unit funding is 1:1. GSTA cost share can be in the form of cash, in-kind contributions, or leveraged funds that apply directly to approved implementation plan activities.  
Flexibility:  The project/program design and implementation capabilities are under a single mechanism, which has the flexibility of an agreement (rather than a contract) to be able to adapt and modify as necessary.
Ease of Access:  The program does not go through the typical competition process because it is already competed. This allows for a quick engagement and access to world-class expertise with proven success in addressing tourism development challenges in under-developed, under-valued, or under-marketed destinations.
Ready access to the private sector tourism industry leaders and corporate world resources:  GSTA member institutions have an unparalleled ability to mobilize and secure private sector resources to participate in the design, implementation, and co-financing of any initiative. This powerful capability helps to ensure sustainability of program activities and interventions as well as augment USAID investments.  
Time:  Associate Awards can be issued for a period up to five years and can be issued at any time during the five-year life of the Leader Award.  
Responsiveness:  A streamlined process is in place for rapid deployment of technical teams and program start-up.  
Accountability:  GSTA institutions remain directly accountable to the Mission/Operating Unit issuing the award.  
Wide Range of Integrated Services:  The GSTA has the collective breadth and depth of tourism-related expertise and experience needed to respond to Mission/Operating Unit requests for comprehensive services throughout the tourism value chain at the destination, national, regional, or global level.  
Scaled-up Development Impact:  The GSTA will apply a holistic, systems-oriented, inclusive approach to development activities that has a proven track record in achieving widespread impact throughout the tourism value chain and its enabling environment.    
Expertise:  The GSTA boasts 15 managing and implementing partners with experience working all over the world in the tourism sector.

What types of assistance does the GSTA apply to sustainable tourism development?

A range of cost-effective and proven activities and services are available under Associate Awards, including:
•    Upgrade local/indigenous SMME-level capabilities (e.g., improve products, processes, capacity, and capture market
     segments)
•    Improve sector support and markets (e.g., financial, cross-cutting)
•    Improve cooperation and linkages along the value chain (both vertically and horizontally) to stimulate growth, create
     economies of scale, increase bargaining power, and generate investment
•    Foster development of an enabling environment by addressing the policy framework and working with global, regional,
     national platforms, fora, mechanisms, and governing bodies
•    Improve destination market opportunities and growth through cluster development that increases efficiencies of micro, small
     and medium enterprises, services, product delivery, and offerings to meet changing demands
•    Grants management

Associate Awards also provide a wide range of short, intermittent, and long-term tourism development services that match program needs specific to a particular Mission/Operating Unit. These services include but are not limited to tourism destination assessments, impact evaluations, tailored training programs, or large scale, multi-year project implementation.   

What is the specific expertise of the GSTA?  

Specific GSTA areas of expertise include among others:
•    Sustainable Tourism Planning
•    Tourism Product and Service Development
•    Tourism Development Assessments
•    Tourism Industry Competitiveness
•    Tourism Policy Development and Reform
•    Small, Micro, and Medium Enterprise Development and Improved Market Access
•    Workforce Development
•    Economic and Financial Analysis of Tourism Projects
•    Destination Marketing and Promotion
•    Information, Interpretive, and Education Services
•    Cultural Heritage Tourism
•    Institutional Capacity Building
•    Tourism Investment Promotion and Investor Mobilization
•    Ecotourism and Geotourism
•    Tourism Infrastructure Assessments and Economic Analysis
•    Monitoring and Evaluation of Tourism Projects
•    Biodiversity Conservation
•    Protected Area Management
•    Wildlife Management
•    Natural Resource Policy and Economics
•    Community-based Natural Resource Management
•    Aquatic/Coastal Resource Management
•    Watershed Management 

Who are the Target Audiences of GSTA activities?

•    Local/International Investors
•    SMME In-bound Tour Operators
•    Hoteliers and Eco-Lodge Owners/Developers
•    Local Restaurateurs and Food Service Providers
•    Retail Store Owners
•    Handicrafts Producers and Artisans
•    Small Farmers and Food Producers
•    Public-Private Tourism Boards and Destination Management Companies
•    Host Country Governments
•    Attraction Operators and Festival Organizers
•    Media
•    Protected Area Managers, Concessionaires and Guides
•    Transportation Operators
•    Vocational Schools and Universities

How does the GSTA engage the private sector, host governments, and other donors?  

Early in the project, the GSTA works with the Mission to identify key stakeholders in the tourism value chain – including host government, private sector, and organizations/institutions. These stakeholders are included from the beginning in mapping the context of tourism in the host country. They participate in a workshop to form a common vision and commit to collaborative actions to help reach that vision. Many of them directly contribute resources toward accomplishment of project activities.

What is the two-phased approach to GSTA programs?  

Phase I includes an in-depth assessment of the tourism context in a country or region, an analysis of any previous tourism development projects, as well as an identification of all relevant stakeholders (local and national government, NGO’s, donor groups, and the private sector) related to tourism in the region. Phase I also includes forming a Technical Advisory Group including one USAID representative, a Ministry representative and a high-level private sector player to help steer the project.  Phase I culminates in the Whole-System-in-the-Room workshop and the launching of initial activities that serve to build momentum for the remainder of the project. 

Phase II involves the implementation of a variety of activities based upon stakeholder feedback collected during Phase I.

The GSTA applies a two-phased approach for several reasons:
•    To apply the best practices currently known to facilitate social change and increase linkages and action along the tourism value chain;
•    To allow partners and the Mission to clearly understand the context and issues involved in addressing sustainable tourism in the host country;
•    To identify key stakeholders who should be involved in the process from the beginning;
•    To identify potential contributing partners (match); and
•    To develop an implementation plan in partnership with stakeholders.   

What is the focus of the Leader Award?  

The Leader Award supports:

Sustainable Tourism Partnership Development:  GSTA partners facilitate, foster, and strengthen the relationships between private sector entities from all stages (global, regional, national, and destination) of the sustainable tourism value chain and participating USAID operating units. In so doing, the GSTA helps both meet their respective bottom lines; in the case of the private sector, this includes profitability and socially responsible investments; and for USAID, it means using tourism as an engine to power poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, economic growth, and other strategic development objectives.  

Tourism Awareness & Education:  The GSTA informs, educates, and strengthens the capacity of USAID program managers, potential private sector investors and industry leaders, and in-country practitioners in sustainable tourism best practices, tools, standards, opportunities, and innovations. This is made possible through training seminars and workshops, dissemination channels such as tourism-related websites, as well as various print and multi-media presentation formats.  

Monitoring & Evaluation of Leader Award Activities:  The GSTA establishes a data collection and performance monitoring schedule that will be used to establish clear objectives, design appropriate interventions to meet those objectives, monitor their effectiveness, and make course corrections for all Alliance activities. This allows the Agency to assess the impact of sustainable tourism projects as a development tool. 

What is SCALE?

SCALE is a framework, a process, and a set of practical tools and techniques that catalyze system-wide change and result in enhanced livelihoods, improved governance, increased civil society participation, and the adoption of best practices. SCALE effects widespread social change in three primary ways:

•    SCALE starts big by engaging significant segments of a country or region’s population and gets bigger by generating simultaneous top-down/bottom-up action and change across many levels and sectors of society. Solutions with impact beyond a few communities or villages are necessary to have impact at a level that produces real, positive, and lasting change. SCALE provides a means of permeating all levels of society to realize broad shifts in attitudes and actions that result in improved practices.
•    SCALE allows for an understanding of the larger context surrounding a particular natural resource issue. These issues are often very complex. By utilizing a system-wide approach, SCALE effectively maps the larger context and identifies the strongest leverage points for positive change.
•    SCALE helps stakeholders combine social change methodologies—advocacy, social marketing, education, mass communication, social mobilization, and conflict resolution—for widespread and lasting change. Rarely is there one answer to a complex problem. SCALE makes it possible to implement several methodologies simultaneously to achieve change through the most effective means possible according to a particular issue and its unique social, economic, governmental, and environmental context. This simultaneous engagement with many segments of society builds on itself, allowing for faster change on a broader scale.

SCALE is a combination of the best practices from various disciplines. Much of it is not new to communication and other development practitioners. What makes SCALE innovative is the way it combines these best practices in a framework and process that creates and supports system-wide change.

How does applying SCALE benefit USAID Missions?

Applying SCALE benefits programs by:
•    Facilitating the development of innovative partnerships and coalitions across sectors, disciplines, institutions, and groups
•    Accelerating adaptation of new technologies
•    Boosting adoption of new technologies, alternative income generation activities, and best practices
•    Strengthening citizen constituencies for effective decision making and action
•    Increasing private sector involvement
•    Generating demand for, ownership of, and compliance with new policies, technologies, and services
•    Fostering civil society participation in the development of new policies
•    Enhancing decentralization of government and strengthening local government capacity
•    Accelerating and improving the flow of information among stakeholders
•    Strengthening the ability of all sectors to apply a variety of social change methodologies
•    Supporting the adoption of environmentally friendly behaviors that help resolve the problem
•    Providing a process that catalyzes change on a scale large enough to make a real and lasting impact

How do I access the GSTA services?

Step 1:  A Mission/Operating Unit technical officer, in consultation with his/her Agreement Officer, sends a Program Description (PD) to USAID CTO Roberta Hilbruner with a copy to the GSTA Coordinator Aideen Mannion—or sends a draft and the CTO will assist in PD development.

Step 2:  The CTO reviews the PD for eligibility as an Associate Award under the overall Leader program description and notifies the Mission/Operating Unit.  

Step 3:  Once the PD is deemed eligible, the GSTA team prepares a response to the PD outlining their approach, activities and budget for Phase I Project Design. When this is approved by the Mission/Operating Unit, the Associate Award obligates funds for design and implementation. Implementation funds will be obligated and set aside for Phase II.  

Step 4:  Upon signing the Associate Award, the GSTA Team is rapidly deployed (through a combination of Leader and Mission/Operating Unit funds) to collaborate with the Mission/Operating Unit staff to design and budget project implementation activities through a stakeholder-inclusive process (Phase I).  

Step 5:  Phase II Project Implementation begins once the implementation work plan and budget have been approved and fully negotiated between the Mission/Operating Unit and AED (approximately three months after initiation of the design phase).  

Aideen Mannion, GSTA Coordinator
Center for Environmental Strategies
Academy for Educational Development
1825 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20009
Tel: (202) 884-8018
Fax: (202) 884-8997
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Roberta Hilbruner, GSTA CTO Development
Communication & Sustainable Tourism
USAID EGAT/NRM/LRM 3.8.135
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20523-3800
Tel: (202) 712-5688
Fax: (202) 216-3174
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

What type of funding should be used for a tourism development project (economic growth, biodiversity conservation, etc)?

Sustainable tourism development is cross-sectoral. Addressing the tourism value chain and enabling the environment can be used as a platform to accomplish multiple development goals from biodiversity conservation to good governance and policy reform to poverty reduction, alternative livelihoods, sustainable agriculture, improved health, and increased workforce capacity. Funds should match project goals.

What type of match does the GSTA bring and what counts as a match?  

Is sustainable tourism the right industry to help meet the strategic objectives of the mission? 

To help determine whether sustainable tourism is the right industry to achieve a mission’s strategic objectives, the GSTA suggests taking the following steps:  

• Review USAID's tourism web site and platform paper regarding utilizing tourism to accomplish multiple development objectives;
• Review the World Economic Forum’s travel and tourism competitiveness report here; and 
  
• Contact the host country tourism board and Ministry of Tourism to obtain an understanding of the current demand for the tourism product and discuss obstacles and needs.