Interactive: How USAID spent its money in 2023
The U.S. Agency for International Development spent $38.1 billion through the assistance and acquisition mechanism in the fiscal year that ended in September 2023. We analyzed the data to see how the money was spent.
The U.S. Agency for International Development partners with government agencies and private organizations to carry out development and humanitarian activities in over 100 countries. USAID does this primarily through the assistance and acquisition, or A&A, mechanism. A&A accounts for around 85% of the agency’s total spending. The rest of the money goes to government-to-government agreements. USAID recently released its latest annual progress report which shows that it spent around $38.1 billion through the A&A mechanisms in the fiscal year that ended in September 2023. This figure is slightly higher than the amount reported on USASpending, worth $37.8 billion. This is because USASpending does not include data on interagency agreements, which amounted to $185.6 million. In this analysis, we take a deep dive into USASpending data to see how USAID spent on A&A in 2023 — including the countries that received the most funding and where the projects were implemented. We also looked into the agency’s sectoral priorities based on its latest data. We adjusted all figures to 2023 U.S. dollar constant prices so that we could make year-on-year comparisons with respect to changes in the inflation rates. Understanding A&A According to USAID, A&A is the “process of awarding grants and contracts to implement USAID’s development and humanitarian projects and activities.” Basically, assistance refers to funding support to organizations — usually awarded mostly in the form of grants and cooperative agreement — for the implementation of development and humanitarian activities. The difference between grants and cooperative agreement is with the level of oversight that USAID extends over project implementation. USAID maintains a limited but substantial involvement with cooperative agreements, while it has more limited oversight with grants. Meanwhile, acquisition is the purchase of goods and services mainly through contracts. There are several contracting methods used by USAID, including purchase orders, definitive contract, delivery order, and blanket purchase agreement — or BPA — call. In the last two fiscal years, FY 2023 and FY 2022, USAID also utilized another assistance mechanism that it doesn’t normally use — direct payments. Between 2019 and 2021, direct payments accounted for just around 0.4% to 0.6% of the total A&A spending. Grants — which is reported by USASpending jointly with cooperative agreement — represented between 62.2% and 75% in the same time period, while contracts accounted for between 24% and 36.5%. Less than 1% of the total went to indefinite delivery contracts and “other,” which includes reimbursements and indirect financial assistance. However, direct payments saw a massive leap in 2022, with $7.9 billion — more than a fifth of the total. This almost doubled in 2023, with $14.7 billion, or 39% of the total. This means that in 2022 and 2023, direct payments overtook contracts among broad categories. The data shows that direct payment was the overall most used mechanism in 2023, ahead of grants, contracts and cooperative agreements. A closer look reveals that the increase in direct payments was driven by the U.S. government’s additional support to Ukraine. In 2023, USAID mobilized $14.4 billion through direct payment to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for assistance to Ukraine. This accounted for 46.2% of the total assistance and 37.8% of the total A&A spending. A World Bank report shows that as of February 2024, nearly $23 billion of the $32.7 billion total funding it disbursed for Ukraine came from the United States — accounting for 70.2% of the total. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1709279862655' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='USAID A&A Spending in 2023 ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/US/USAIDAAspendinginFY2023/USAIDAASpendingin2023/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='USAIDAAspendinginFY2023/USAIDAASpendingin2023' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/US/USAIDAAspendinginFY2023/USAIDAASpendingin2023/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /><param name='filter' value='publish=yes' /> </object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1709279862655'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='600px';vizElement.style.minHeight='927px';vizElement.style.maxHeight='1727px';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='600px';vizElement.style.minHeight='927px';vizElement.style.maxHeight='1727px';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='927px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>Breakdown of USAID A&A spending by award type in FY 2023, based on USASpending. </i> Where did the money go? As mentioned, nearly all of the direct payments in 2023 went to IBRD for assistance to Ukraine. The rest of the direct payments, worth $347.4 million, went to other multilaterals, such as the Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corporation. Nearly $9.3 billion went to project grants, while almost $6.9 billion went to cooperative agreements. The rest, worth $119.5 million, went to reimbursements and other indirect financial assistance. This brings the total assistance spending to more than $31 billion. Overall, around $27.1 billion of assistance funding was awarded to U.S.-based organizations — 87.5% of the total. Grantees from Switzerland ranked next, with $1.7 billion. Then Italy, with $239.2 million; Kenya, with $223.6 million; France, with $174.6 million; South Africa, with $171.4 million; and Denmark, with $114.1 million. Meanwhile, USAID awarded all of its acquisition money, worth nearly $6.8 billion, through contracts. As previously mentioned, the agency uses a range of contracting mechanisms — such as BPA calls, definitive contracts, and delivery order, which differ in terms of requirements and process. Overall, nearly 96% of USAID contracts, worth $6.5 billion went to U.S.-based suppliers. Contractors from Uganda received $60.9 million, followed by Turkey, with $33.3 million; Zambia, with $32.5 million; Mozambique, with $22.1 million; Tanzania, with $18.9 million; and Rwanda, with $15.2 million. <div class='tableauPlaceholder' id='viz1709282021524' style='position: relative'><noscript><a href='#'><img alt='Geographical distribution of A&A in FY 2023 ' src='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/US/USAIDAAspendinginFY2023geographicaldistribution/GeographicaldistributionofAAinFY2023/1_rss.png' style='border: none' /></a></noscript><object class='tableauViz' style='display:none;'><param name='host_url' value='https%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableau.com%2F' /> <param name='embed_code_version' value='3' /> <param name='site_root' value='' /><param name='name' value='USAIDAAspendinginFY2023geographicaldistribution/GeographicaldistributionofAAinFY2023' /><param name='tabs' value='no' /><param name='toolbar' value='yes' /><param name='static_image' value='https://public.tableau.com/static/images/US/USAIDAAspendinginFY2023geographicaldistribution/GeographicaldistributionofAAinFY2023/1.png' /> <param name='animate_transition' value='yes' /><param name='display_static_image' value='yes' /><param name='display_spinner' value='yes' /><param name='display_overlay' value='yes' /><param name='display_count' value='yes' /><param name='language' value='en-US' /><param name='showShareOptions' value='false' /><param name='filter' value='publish=yes' /></object></div> <script type='text/javascript'> var divElement = document.getElementById('viz1709282021524'); var vizElement = divElement.getElementsByTagName('object')[0]; if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 800 ) { vizElement.style.width='650px';vizElement.style.minHeight='587px';vizElement.style.maxHeight='887px';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else if ( divElement.offsetWidth > 500 ) { vizElement.style.width='650px';vizElement.style.minHeight='587px';vizElement.style.maxHeight='887px';vizElement.style.height=(divElement.offsetWidth*0.75)+'px';} else { vizElement.style.width='100%';vizElement.style.height='727px';} var scriptElement = document.createElement('script'); scriptElement.src = 'https://public.tableau.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js'; vizElement.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, vizElement); </script> <i style=font-style: georgia;”>Breakdown of USAID A&A spending by geography in FY 2023, based on USASpending. </i> What about sectoral priorities? USAID’s A&A data does not specify the target sector for each of the activities that the agency funds. But it has a separate portal that maps out its total sectoral spending — not just A&A’s. Based on the latest data available, USAID spent $40.3 billion ($38.7 billion in current prices) in 2022 across 29 sectors in 158 countries. Government and civil society was the top recipient sector, with $10.4 billion. Incidentally, we also found in a separate analysis that this sector received the largest portion of official development assistance in 2022. Emergency response ranked next, with $8.5 billion. Then HIV/AIDS, with $7.1 billion; basic health, with $4.3 billion; maternal and child health and family planning, with $1.4 billion; agriculture, with $996.4 million; and food aid, with $841.4 million. A further $2.9 billion was used on operating expenses. 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The U.S. Agency for International Development partners with government agencies and private organizations to carry out development and humanitarian activities in over 100 countries.
USAID does this primarily through the assistance and acquisition, or A&A, mechanism.
A&A accounts for around 85% of the agency’s total spending.
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Miguel Tamonan is a Senior Development Analyst at Devex, where he analyzes data from public and private donors to produce content and special reports for Pro and Pro Funding readers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a Major in International Relations from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
