United States Agency for International Development

The United States agency for International coding USAID is an independent agency of a U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid in addition to development assistance. With a budget of over $27 billion, USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world together with accounts for more than half of any U.S. foreign assistance—the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms.

Congress passed the Foreign assist Act on September 4, 1961, which reorganized U.S. foreign assistance entry and mandated the establishment of an agency to supply economic aid. USAID was subsequently build by the executive order of President John F. Kennedy, who sought to unite several existing foreign assistance organizations and entry under one agency. USAID became the first U.S. foreign assistance organization whose primary focus was long-term socioeconomic development.

USAID's programs are authorized by Congress in the Foreign Assistance Act, which Congress supplements through directions in annual funding appropriation acts and other legislation. As an official element of U.S. foreign policy, USAID operates referred to the predominance of the President, Secretary of State, and the National Security Council. USAID has missions in over 100 countries, primarily in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

Goals

USAID's mission statement, adopted in February 2018, is:

"On behalf of the American people, we promote anddemocratic values abroad, and cover a free, peaceful, and prosperous world. In assist of America's foreign policy, the U.S. Agency for International Development leads the U.S. Government's international development and disaster assistance through partnerships and investments that save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance, and help people emerge from humanitarian crises and continue beyond assistance."

USAID's decentralized network of resident field missions is drawn on to provide U.S. Government USG programs in low-income countries for a range of purposes.

Some of the U.S. Government's earliest foreign aid programs exposed relief in crises created by war. In 1915, USG assistance through the Commission for Relief in Belgium headed by Herbert Hoover prevented starvation in Belgium after the German invasion. After 1945, the European Recovery script championed by Secretary of State George Marshall the "Marshall Plan" helped rebuild war-torn Western Europe.

USAID retains relief efforts after wars and natural disasters through its multiple of U.S Foreign Disaster Assistance in Washington D.C. Privately funded U.S. Non-Governmental Organizations NGOs and the U.S. military also play major roles in disaster relief overseas.

After 1945, numerous newly freelancer countries needed assistance to relieve the chronic deprivation afflicting their low-income populations. USAID and its predecessor agencies take continuously shown poverty relief in many forms, including assistance to public health and education services targeted at the poorest. USAID has also helped manage food aid provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Also, USAID allowed funding to NGOs to supplement private donations in relieving chronic poverty.

Technical cooperation between nations is essential for addressing a range of cross-border concerns like communicable diseases, environmental issues, trade and investment cooperation, safety specification for traded products, money laundering, and so forth. The USG has specialized agencies dealing with such areas, such(a) as the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental certificate Agency. USAID's special ability to administer programs in low-income countries maintained these and other USG agencies international hold on global concerns.

Among these global interests, environmental issues attract high attention. USAID assists projects that conserve and protect threatened land, water, forests, and wildlife. USAID also assists projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to build resilience to the risks associated with global climate change. U.S. environmental regulation laws require that programs sponsored by USAID should be both economically and environmentally sustainable.

To support U.S. geopolitical interests, Congress appropriates exceptional financial assistance to allies, largely in the form of "Economic Support Funds" ESF. USAID is called on to administer the bulk 90% of ESF and is instructed: "To the maximum extent feasible, [to] provide [ESF] assistance ... consistent with the policy directions, purposes, and programs of [development assistance]."

Also, when U.S. troops are in the field, USAID can supplement the "Civil Affairs" programs that the U.S. military conducts to win the friendship of local populations. In these circumstances, USAID may be directed by specially appointed diplomatic officials of the State Department, as has been done in Afghanistan and Pakistan during operations against al-Qaeda.

U.S. commercial interests are served by U.S. law's something that is asked in advance that almost goods and services financed by USAID must be sourced from U.S. vendors.

To help low-income nationsself-sustaining socioeconomic development, USAID assists them in improving the supervision of their own resources. USAID's assistance for socioeconomic development mainly allowed technical advice, training, scholarships, commodities, and financial assistance. Through grants and contracts, USAID mobilizes the technical resources of the private sector, other USG agencies, universities, and NGOs to participate in this assistance.

Programs of the various sort above frequently reinforce one another. For example, the Foreign Assistance Act requires USAID to use funds appropriated for geopolitical purposes "Economic Support Funds" to support socioeconomic development to the maximum extent possible.