In its bid to achieve long-term development outcomes in the countries where it works, the U.S. Agency for International Development starts by developing a country development cooperation strategy, or CDCS, for each one, which serves as the blueprint for project and activity implementation there. Since 2018, the stated aim has been to drive the recipient country toward “self-reliance” — the capacity to plan, finance, and implement solutions to development challenges domestically.
There were 24 new country development cooperation strategies released in 2020, which will serve as guides until 2024 or 2025. Devex has dug into them to identify common development objectives, priorities, and new initiatives that USAID will implement over the next five years.
While tackling COVID-19 is not among the development objectives in most cases, the agency says it will continue to reevaluate each strategy to identify areas affected by the pandemic and make necessary adjustments.