USAID Forward

What People Are Saying

"The two of us are strong believers in the power of U.S. development and the important role these programs play in protecting our security, advancing our economic interests, and in demonstrating our values to the world. As the head of one of America’s largest non-profits and as a senior executive at one of our country’s greatest companies, we both know the importance of the bottom line – getting cost-effective results on our investments." - Carolyn Miles-Save the Children, Bill Lane-Caterpillar

"I hope to see more donors adopt the USAID Forward model to expand partnerships and to enable local organizations to have a more active stake in the development of the country." - Marissa Camacho, Ayala Foundation USAID Blog

“The development community has embraced the enthusiasm behind USAID FORWARD. The future of development is bright so long as together we continue to rise and adapt to evolving development challenges.” - Charito Kruvant, Creative Associates International

"Completing the transformation of U.S. foreign assistance will reposition the U.S. as not just the most generous, but also the most strategic, innovative, and effective player in global development." David Beckmann, George Ingram and Jim Kolbe

"It's not your father's USAID. That's the big message in USAID's first progress report on how the agency, under Administrator Rajiv Shah's leadership, is trying to be smarter about where and how it delivers aid around the world." - Center for Global Development

"As outlined in the progress report, the evolution of USAID Forward certainly moves the agency closer to this goal" - Mark Lowtis, InterAction

Several years ago, USAID set the ambitious task of transforming itself as an agency. This large-scale reform agenda, USAID Forward, is an effort to strengthen the Agency by embracing new partnerships, investing in the catalytic role of innovation and demanding a relentless focus on results. Taken together, the reforms have formed the foundation of a new model for development; one that can represent the best of American ideals abroad, while advancing the security and prosperity of Americans at home.

On March 20, USAID released our first ever USAID Forward Progress Report highlighting the past year’s successes and challenges in reforming the Agency and delivering better, more sustainable results. Over the past two years, the reforms have touched upon every part of our work and set important, evidence-based targets for us to meet. USAID Forward hasn’t just changed the way we work; it’s changed the results we can deliver.

USAID Forward At a Glance

Three years ago, President Obama and former Secretary of State Clinton called for the elevation of development as a key part of America’s national security and foreign policy. They set forth a vision of an empowered and robust Agency that could lead the world in solving the greatest development challenges of our time and, ultimately, meet the President’s goal of ending extreme poverty in the next generation.

To meet these expectations and approach our mission with renewed capacity, we undertook an ambitious reform agenda called USAID Forward. The reforms are focused on three main areas:

  • Deliver results on a meaningful scale through a strengthened USAID. In order to maximize our impact with every development dollar, we have to pursue a more strategic, focused and results-oriented approach. From strengthening our policy and budget management to enacting a world-class evaluation policy, USAID Forward is helping us to do that.
  • Promote sustainable development through high-impact partnerships. In order to achieve long-term sustainable development, we have to support the institutions, private sector partners and civil society organizations that serve as engines of growth and progress for their own nations. USAID Forward is helping us to do that through new models for public-private partnerships and increased investment directly to partner governments and local organizations.
  • Identify and scale up innovative, breakthrough solutions to intractable development challenges. At USAID, we have a strong history of partnerships with the scientific community that helped pioneer some of the greatest successes in development to date. USAID Forward is helping us to further this legacy by strengthening our work with scientists, researchers and universities, investing in new technologies to source and scale game-changing solutions, and supporting mobile solutions to dramatically expand opportunity.

Bill Gates on Innovation
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Strengthening Local Systems
USAID Forward Infographic - Delivering Results

Forward Progress

USAID has made significant progress since USAID Forward was first announced in 2010.

  • We are testing what works and what doesn’t through rigorous evaluations and making changes as needed. We’ve completed 186 quality evaluations since 2011 and are making all of these evaluations publicly available so that we can learn and improve together.
  • We are fostering a culture of innovation and using our convening power to source and scale new and creative solutions. We’ve sponsored 4 Grand Challenges, with 50 percent of applicants coming from the developing world.
  • We are building the capacity of countries to lead their own development. We’ve doubled the amount of mission funding we invest in local governments, businesses and NGOs over the past two years.
  • We are beginning a critical shift in the way we deliver assistance and have substantially strengthened both our Development Credit Authority (DCA) and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). We leveraged an additional $383 million of non-U.S. Government money towards our development goals through public-private partnerships over the last year alone.
  • We are renewing our internal capacity to make sure we have the right people, with the right skills, in the right places. We have 1,100 new staff and have filled nearly all the vacant positions we had in our missions in Africa.

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Last updated: May 17, 2013

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