The U.S. Agency for International Development began 2024 celebrating the correction of a four-decade separation of policy, strategy, and budget: Administrator Samantha Power swore in Michele Sumilas as head of the newly instituted Bureau for Planning, Learning and Resource Management on Jan. 10.
With the PLR bureau now fully functional, there are further steps to take for its full potential to be reached, including adequate staffing, ensuring the PLR bureau is led by a Senate-confirmed assistant administrator, and establishing productive workflows with USAID’s new independent Offices of Policy and the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance.
The rejoining of these critical and interdependent functions into a single bureau has been a key recommendation for improving USAID’s effectiveness for more than a decade.
About the authors
George Ingram
George Ingram is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; a board member of MFAN and USGLC and chair of Friends of Publish What You Fund; with a career in development spanning U.S. Congress, USAID, and civil society.
Susan Reichle
Susan Reichle is the International Youth Foundation’s president and chief executive officer. She came to IYF in 2017 after 25 years with USAID as a foreign service officer. She has served in Haiti, Nicaragua, Russia, and Colombia as well as Washington. As the assistant to the administrator for policy planning and learning, Susan spearheaded policy development, including the agency's first youth and development policy.
