Please mark your calendars for the 7th Annual Event on Competitiveness, Finance and Economic Growth — May TBC, 2012 in Location TBC. This event isjointly hosted by the USAID Europe & Eurasia (E&E) Bureau’s Regional Competitiveness Initiative (RCI) and Partners for Financial Stability Program (PFS) in the Office of Economic Growth and will bring together USAID Economic Growth Officers, implementing partners, and key counterparts from across the E&E region.

The first day will focuson key topics such as “New and Innovative Programs Implemented by Different Missions”, “Experiences and Best Practices of Sustainable USAID Legacy Organizations” and “Looking towards Graduation, Sustainability and Legacy”. For the panel session on “New and Innovative Programs Implemented by Different Missions”, we invite Missions and Projects to submit their ideas to be presented as best practices in the E&E Region. The best 5 will be chosen for Day 1.

The second day will befocused on grass roots issues, through a series of round tables. We will look at examples of practical solutions, sustainable examplesand successes within sectors and cross-sectoral activities.

The third day will befor more internal discussions. First we will have two parallel sessions – one for USAID internally and the other of USAID Projects and then a joint group looking into future challenges and opportunities within countries, but also regionally.