News

USAID rolls out country strategies

In line with its USAID Forward reform agenda, which aims to transform the way the largest U.S. aid agency does business, the U.S. Agency for International Development is now preparing five-year country development cooperation strategies for the roughly 70 countries where it operates.

By Lorenzo Piccio // 28 May 2012
Ugandan women at work in a flower farm. Photo by: Zubedah Nanfuka (U.S. Embassy Kampala) / CC BY-NC-SA

In line with its USAID Forward reform agenda, which aims to transform the way the largest U.S. aid agency does business, the U.S. Agency for International Development is now preparing five-year country development cooperation strategies for the roughly 70 countries where it operates.  According to USAID, its missions have been working closely with host country governments, civil society and private sector groups and other relevant stakeholders to develop evidence-based and results-oriented strategies that help focus investments in key areas that maximize development impact.

Country development cooperation strategies must include goals, objectives and expected results for U.S. foreign assistance, as well as performance indicators and a supporting narrative. Each CDCS must also integrate country-level plans from the Obama administration’s signature aid initiatives: Feed the Future, the Global Health Initiative, and the Global Climate Change Initiative.

The first step in USAID’s program cycle, country development cooperation strategies will serve as the basis for agency-wide planning, budgeting and reporting, including the annual congressional budget justification. Subsequent USAID projects will flow from these strategies.

With the exception of those implementing single sector programs or phasing out operations in fiscal 2014, all USAID missions must develop a country development cooperation strategy by October 2013. By the end of this year, the bulk of USAID missions are expected to complete their respective strategies, subject to the agency’s final approval. Public versions of each CDCS are made available within two months of approval.

As of October 2012, USAID has approved and released the following country development cooperation strategies: