USAID has been involved in hundreds of programs, and some of these publications also had the privilege of partnering with them. USAID work included many projects that helped countries through tourism-related projects.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the United States government agency that leads international development and humanitarian assistance efforts to partner countries.
USAID works with individuals, communities, and countries globally to improve everyday lives. USAID’s efforts provide humanitarian assistance, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance, advance economic opportunities, and help achieve progress beyond programs. Their work benefits people worldwide, including those in the United States.
USAID’s investments help achieve sustainable development progress, advancing our collective security, health, and prosperity.
Recognizing a drastic change in the US Government on Monday, Samantha Power issued a press statement today saying:
Serving as USAID Administrator has been the privilege of a lifetime. As the Biden-Harris Administration comes to a close. USAID’s key accomplishments over the past four years have been tremendous.
We’ve worked together to transform USAID into a more responsive, efficient, and catalytic Agency. We’ve evolved to partner far more closely and often with the private sector, navigate rapidly changing digital technologies, counter the threats posed by the People’s Republic of China’s approach to development, and more – all while responding to a series of crises, from historic natural disasters to devastating conflicts.
Despite continuing challenges worldwide, I am leaving this role enormously hopeful about the future of USAID and its work—and the stories will demonstrate how.
Under a new plan crafted by incoming president Trump’s allies, a federal agency that distributes international aid and helps poorer countries respond to climate impacts may be transformed to boost coal, oil, and gas.
Under a sweeping plan developed by conservatives, including former Trump administration officials, the U.S. Agency for International Development and dozens of other agencies may be reinvented.
Conservative organizations working on the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 would propose ending USAID’s work supporting public health and gender equity and the aid it distributes to help communities deal with climate change, disease, and poverty.
Under Trump, USAID may boost faith-based organizations that frequently discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community, ban abortion funding, and eliminate any agency policy that restricts or inhibits fossil fuel usage.
“All climate policies may be eliminated from our foreign aid programs,” the 920-page policy proposal says.
“USAID should cease its war on fossil fuels in the developing world and support the responsible management of oil and gas reserves as the quickest way to end wrenching poverty and the need for open-ended foreign aid.”
The plan to remake USAID highlights the expansive nature of conservative organizations’ plan to transform every aspect of the federal government. Including USAID shows, Trump allies intend a reinvention of government that goes far beyond the usual targets of EPA and the Departments of Energy and Interior.
Under President Joe Biden’s administration, officials have used USAID and DOS to promote transgenderism and other elements of gender ideology through grants. Efforts have also been made to leverage foreign aid programs and influence international financial institutions and the United Nations to pressure countries into embracing transgenderism and gender ideology.
The administration ended policies that previously banned funding for foreign organizations that promote abortion in other countries as well.
In 2021, President Biden pledged that the United States would “help lead the world toward a more peaceful, prosperous future for all people.” Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USAID has played a central role in advancing that goal while strengthening America’s national security, expanding our economic prosperity, and upholding our nation’s values. With a presence in more than 100 countries and a deep global network of partnerships in communities, businesses, and governments around the globe, USAID is America’s foreign policy ground game.
With bipartisan support from both houses of Congress, the Biden-Harris Administration has ushered in a new era in USAID’s history, transforming the Agency’s impact by making USAID more responsive to global challenges, more efficient in its operations, and more catalytic in its approach.
Over the past four years, USAID has responded to various of the world’s most pressing and complex challenges.
US AID bolstered democracies, fostered inclusive economic growth, supported women’s empowerment, fought climate change, played a central role in the U.S. government’s strategy to help the people of Ukraine fight back against Putin’s unjust war, and countered the influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and other authoritarian actors.
US AID also led the world in addressing natural disasters and humanitarian crises, expanded our presence in strategically important areas around the world, including in Angola, Ecuador, Fiji, Maldives, and Papua New Guinea, and responded to threats posed by conflicts and global health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the first time in history, the Agency served as a permanent member of the National Security Council, bringing development and humanitarian considerations—as well as essential perspectives from the communities where we work—to the center of government decision-making.
US AID has gone further than ever in maximizing the efficiency of every dollar spent.
US AID modernized the Agency’s structure, creating three new Independent Offices to bring together expertise on major cross-cutting issues and reorganizing core aspects of their work into four new Bureaus focused on core development challenges in the 21st century.
A second Deputy Administrator position was created to provide better the full operational, programmatic, and budgetary leadership required for one of the United States’ premier foreign policy agencies.
The agency strengthened teams on the ground by taking unprecedented steps to empower the overseas local workforce and recruit the most diverse foreign service classes in USAID’s history. USAID rebuilt its foreign service workforce to its highest staffing level in a decade.
Finally, the Agency was more catalytic, delivering progress far beyond programs.
Power explained: “Through USAID’s convening power, our global footprint, our influence in key multilateral institutions, our growing linkages to the private sector, and our strategic communications channels, we have the potential to drive collective action far beyond the scope of our programming.
We’ve strengthened USAID’s role in the foreign policy space and urged our teams at home and abroad to see themselves as change agents rather than program implementers.
Since 2021, we have boosted private sector contributions to USAID activities by 42 percent, and our public-private partnerships leveraged an average of $5 from partners for every $1 we provided in taxpayer money. We also made important progress on empowering local actors as we seek to make USAID’s work more effective and sustainable, including by doubling the amount of funding provided to local partners compared to 2021.
USAID’s achievements over the four years of the Biden-Harris Administration highlight how this agency has driven progress in the world’s challenges.