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[Thread] A @USAID, @StateDept, and @USIP pilot project was meant to help prevent violence in Burkina Faso. Instead, it was derailed by interagency infighting and bureaucratic hurdles. @tmawelsh’s investigation into the project shows what went wrong

After nearly a year of planning, research, and travel but before any activities ever took place in Burkina Faso, the project was called off as violence across the country became more widespread. Its failure is a foreboding sign for interagency success in the #GlobalFragilityAct.

“It illustrates, in one discrete effort, so many different worst practices of how the interagency does not work effectively together,” a person familiar with the project told @Devex.

What exactly went wrong? There's not universal agreement on that, but explanations from those involved include: — A lack of true interagency cooperation. — A missed prevention window in Burkina Faso. — COVID-19.

The project grew out of the @USIP Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States, driven by @LindseyGrahamSC, examining the U.S. track record in countering violent extremism and past failures to effectively execute counterterrorism programming in fragile states and intervene in time.

The process of choosing Burkina Faso for the demonstration project took several months, delayed by desk reviews and interagency meetings. When it was formally picked in August 2019, the country had already exceeded the total number of attacks it had experienced the previous year.

“I’m a big believer in bureaucratic momentum, and I think one of the things we need to do sometimes is try to move processes faster than processes want us to work them. … This kind of got bogged down in process,” @USAID’s Rob Jenkins said.

A delegation from Washington visited in October to scope out the project, but only a few weeks later the U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou ordered nonemergency staffers out of the country due to increased violence. This left them with little capacity to implement the pilot project.