USAID General Publications

Policy on Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

USAID, March, 2020

The identification of Indigenous Peoples can be challenging. Not all countries in which USAID works recognize the rights, or even the existence of, Indigenous
Peoples. This Policy provides USAID’s Missions with a consistent approach to identifying and working with Indigenous Peoples to improve the measurable impact and sustainability of our programs.

Indigenous Peoples are not a monolithic group, and it is critical to recognize that many distinct voices exist within each community. It is important to address this heterogeneity in USAID’s programming. USAID has developed an Inclusive-Development Analysis (IDA)8 annotated9 to help our Operating Units to identify and understand Indigenous Peoples.

This annotated IDA provides a helpful resource for understanding the socio-political dynamics within and among Indigenous Peoples’ communities and organizations.

How to Conduct a Data Quality Assessment

DQA Fundamentals
A DQA is a process to help USAID staff and implementing partners understand the strengths and weaknesses of their data and the extent t o which the data can be trusted to influence management d ecisions. A DQA refers to USAID’s standard practice for assessing data quality, documenting any limitations in data quality, and establishing a plan for addressing those limitations. A DQA should be conducted to understand and document the extent t hat data meet o r do not meet t he five data quality standards documented in ADS 201.3.5.7:

1. Validity: Data should represent the intended result clearly and adequately.
2. Integrity: Data should have safeguards to minimize risk of bias, transcription error, or data manipulation.
3. Precision: Data should have a sufficient level of detail to permit informed management decision making.
4. Reliability: Data should reflect stable and consistent data collection processes and analysis methods over time.
5. Timeliness: Data should be available at a useful frequency, should be current, and should be timely enough to influence management decision making.

Private-sector Engagement Policy

USAID, 2021

Private-sector engagement is fundamental to our goal to end the need for foreign assistance. This policy is a call to action for staff from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and our partners to embrace market-based approaches as a more-sustainable way to support communities in achieving development and humanitarian outcomes at scale. This is based on our premise that private enterprise is one of the most powerful forces for lifting lives, strengthening communities, and accelerating countries to self-reliance.

I believe the future of international development is enterprisedriven. “Enterprise-driven development” means aligning with private enterprises as co-creators of market-oriented solutions, with shared risk and shared reward. It means recognizing the value of engaging the private sector in development and humanitarian assistance to help shape solutions that achieve sustained impact and can carry forward long after USAID’s support has ended, and reorienting our investments to open markets for U.S. firms.

Disinformation Primer

USAID, February, 2021

This primer presents an overview of disinformation culture to give readers a sense of key concepts, terminology, select case studies, and programmatic design options. Disinformation is by no means new. Although social media platforms have emerged as the most efficient spreaders of false information, disinformation is also spread through analog media such as radio, television, and newspapers. It is, however, the combination of traditional analog media, in concert with new digital technologies, that allows information to spread faster and more broadly (even across borders) in unprecedented ways. Experts have described this phenomenon as “information disorder,” a condition in which truth and facts coexist in a milieu of misinformation and disinformation—conspiracy theories, lies, propaganda, and half-truths. They have labeled its ability to undermine democracy and individual autonomy “a wicked problem,” i.e., a problem that is difficult and complex, such as poverty or climate change. Despite the immensity of the challenge, there are promising ways that journalists, civil society organizations, technology specialists, and governments are finding to prevent and counter misinformation and disinformation. This primer presents several programmatic ideas to consider for standalone or integrative approaches as part of democracy and governance-related programming.

Advancing Climate-Resilient Education Technical Guidance

USAID, 2023

Education programs and activities that seek to integrate climate change considerations and action should aim to achieve climate-resilient education systems and build climate-resilient learners, while adhering to the USAID Education Policy and identifying meaningful opportunities to contribute to the USAID Climate Strategy. The seven steps to facilitate the design of climate-resilient education programming and the strategic entry points for application across the education continuum should serve as a guide to Missions’ and partners’ strategic approaches to integrating climate change and education as well as advancing climate action in local contexts.

Semiannual Report to Congress - March 2024 - 2024-03-20

USAID

Simply put, our goal at USAID OIG is to improve U.S. foreign assistance programmed by the agencies we oversee by providing assurances to Congress and the American people that critically important aid dollars are going where intended and having the desired impact.

Our oversight work during this reporting period tracked USAID’s major programs and initiatives. For example, we continued to prioritize USAID’s Ukraine response, expanding our on-the-ground presence in Kyiv, and issuing an evaluation of USAID’s direct budget support to the government of Ukraine administered through the World Bank. We also audited USAID’s response to the Rohingya crisis in Burma and Bangladesh and evaluated USAID’s role in evacuating aid workers during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, all while expanding our evaluation and inspection capacity.

Program Cycle Operational Policy - 2024-03-20

USAID, Revised 2024

The Program Cycle is USAID’s operational model for planning, delivering, assessing, and adapting development programming in a given region or country to advance U.S. foreign policy. It encompasses guidance and procedures for:

1) Making strategic decisions at the regional or country level about programmatic areas of focus and associated resources;

2) Designing supportive projects and/or activities to implement these strategic plans; and

3) Learning from performance monitoring, evaluations, and other relevant sources of information to make course corrections as needed and inform future programming.

Driving Progress Beyond Programs - 2023-01-20

USAID, March, 2023

Since USAID’s founding more than 60 years ago, we have helped tackle many of the challenges of our time. With development partners around the world, we helped lift communities out of poverty, push back against oppression, and secure peace after conflict. We helped spark the Green Revolution and avert an age of global and continuous famine. We helped eradicate smallpox, reverse the spread of AIDS, end Ebola outbreaks, lead the campaign that has nearly eradicated polio, and dramatically decrease the incidence of malaria and tuberculosis. We supported dozens of transitions from autocracy to democracy, enabled tens of millions of girls to attend school, and provided lifesaving aid to communities torn apart by disasters, wars, and other crises.

Yet despite this remarkable progress, the development challenges of today are more formidable than those the world has faced at any time since World War II, with significant implications for America’s national security. The COVID-19 pandemic caused mass devastation, resulting in millions of deaths, economic turmoil, and rising global inequality. The climate crisis bears down on us all, with particularly vicious and destabilizing impacts on those least able to withstand its effects—and least responsible for the emissions that caused it. Vladimir Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine has led to widespread misery and death and exacerbated a global food crisis to levels not seen in decades. In every region of the world, autocrats have become increasingly brazen, while democratic institutions and governance face a multitude of threats. All of these developments have combined to inflict significant economic harm on the world’s most marginalized communities.

These headwinds are occurring at a speed and scale never before witnessed, bypassing borders and affecting nations regardless of ideology or system of government. They are deeply interconnected, with climate change accelerating global hunger, the pandemic exacerbating long-standing economic challenges, and pervasive inequality contributing to democratic decline.

Artificial Intelligence Action Plan - 2022-05-20

USAID, 2022

As AI technologies are embedded and intertwined in digital ecosystems, a responsible approach to AI should include strengthening key aspects of the enabling ecosystem. This includes data systems, connectivity, and local workforce capacity. In addition, there must be a focus on strengthening the civil society structures holding AI systems and actors accountable, and shaping policy environments that in turn encourage open, inclusive, and secure digital ecosystems. Together, these investments will support governments, businesses, and individuals to sustainably and equitably benefit from the use of AI technologies