USAID, in partnership with Humanity United, awarded a grant of up to $45 million over five years to launch the Powered by the People (PxP) initiative. PxP provides flexible and accessible support that strengthens the agency, resilience, and efficacy of organizers and citizen-led social movements that are advancing human rights, social justice, democracy, and inclusive development around the world.
PxP will use conflict sensitive approaches to provide demand driven support to social movement organizations and organizers. This includes flexible funding and rapid response resources to support social movement organizations in the ways and at moments that are most helpful to them. And it will support peer-to-peer learning, training in strategic-decision making, and leadership development; as well as relationship building between civil society organizations, grassroots organizers, historically excluded communities, scholars, and donors.
President Biden announced the PxP initiative at the first Summit for Democracy in 2021 as a key deliverable under the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal. PxP will be implemented by a broad consortium of over two dozen local, regional, and international organizations in over a dozen countries. PartnersGlobal, an international non-governmental organization that works at the intersection of peacebuilding and democracy strengthening, leads this consortium of partners. Consistent with USAID's localization goals, local actors will take the lead in making decisions and taking action as part of PxP.
USAID is also pleased to announce that Humanity United, a philanthropic organization dedicated to cultivating the conditions for enduring peace and freedom, has committed $750,000 over three years toward PxP. Humanity United intends to host a multi-donor fund through its sister organization, Humanity United Charitable Fund, that will provide additional resources in response to priorities identified through PxP.
USAID’s commitment to advancing human rights, social justice, democracy, and inclusive development in the places where we work, is further evidenced by its commitment to PxP. This initiative helps ensure that support and resources are available to address the needs, opportunities, and challenges identified by the local, grassroots, and social movement organizations around the world fighting for these principles as they work to bring greater dignity, agency, and prosperity to their communities.
This is the one of the first new projects launched under USAID’s newly formed Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance, which seeks to foster citizen-responsive democratic governance and inclusive development through relationships with non-traditional and diverse partners including historically excluded and under-represented communities.