2022: Power of Partnerships

Building progress for a more peaceful and prosperous world

While a key mission of USAID is to partner with communities to forge a path to self-sufficiency, this kind of progress — incremental, sometimes with setbacks, but ultimately sustainable — cannot happen alone. Our work over the past year highlights the power of partnerships big and small.

These partnerships allow communities to rebuild after disasters, empower women and girls to share their voice, promote economic growth that can pull families out of poverty, and ultimately lead to transformative changes and improve everyday lives.

Here’s a closer look at a few of the key areas where USAID partnership work has addressed some of the biggest challenges we faced in 2022.

UKRAINE

USAID has stood with the Ukrainian people for 30 years, and Putin’s war has only deepened our commitment to an independent, democratic Ukraine.

With more than 6 million people internally displaced in Ukraine, and nearly 8 million fleeing to neighboring countries, the challenges are complex — especially during the winter months.

Putin’s forces have been ordered to attack critical infrastructure, including power supplies and utilities, that will amplify humanitarian concerns as winter weather worsens.

USAID has worked with humanitarian partners, including the International Organization for Migration, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization to help with much-needed winterization work to support Ukrainians. Since mid-2022, partners have helped prepare collective centers, family housing, and medical facilities for winter by providing shelter support, solid fuel, radiators, and generators, while also stockpiling and distributing household heating appliances, thermal blankets, and winter clothing to keep people warm as temperatures drop.

The security and stability of Ukraine will impact the future of Europe, and in turn, the entire world. That’s why some of USAID’s most experienced staff have deployed on the ground with partners in neighboring countries like Poland and Moldova as well.

Together with partners from across the world, we are committed to helping Ukraine achieve a full and lasting victory as a free, prosperous, and independent nation. That goal will require a well-functioning state, a vibrant, inclusive economy, a free press, and strong institutions that are free of corruption. We will stand steadfast in support of Ukraine in 2023 and beyond.

FOOD SECURITY & HUNGER

The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and conflict, have led to the most challenging food insecurities our generation has ever seen. The crisis in Ukraine, a key producer of critical grain, has put a squeeze on the global food markets.

USAID and its partners across the globe are working to identify what needs to be done to prevent a global catastrophe — and that means working right now to bolster the world’s most vulnerable food systems.

Nowhere is the severity of this crisis more pronounced than in the Horn of Africa where four consecutive failed rainy seasons have decimated livelihoods and pushed approximately 21 million people to the brink of starvation.

In the Horn and elsewhere, USAID has been at the forefront of efforts to fight the food security crisis. In the last year alone, we provided emergency food and other complimentary humanitarian assistance to people in need in 55 countries — including Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, and Yemen — amounting to nearly $11 billion. Because hunger cannot be fought with emergency food alone, we also made substantial investments in local economies, agricultural productivity, and other investments aimed at building resilience.

USAID has provided funding to the UN World Food Program to secure and ship 210,000 metric tons of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea to feed people facing the most severe food crises in Ethiopia, Yemen, and Afghanistan. In 2022 USAID and our partners have surged support for the Black Sea Grain Initiative to ensure the initiative will keep moving Ukrainian products, and be available to help feed nations in need.

While this global food security crisis has revealed vulnerabilities in our food system, USAID’s partnerships are working overtime to mitigate the worst effects of this hunger crisis while establishing more sustainable practices long term. We’ll keep working to combat the underlying issues of food insecurity — by helping farmers grow crops that can withstand climate change and making sure families have safe, nutritious food to thrive.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The evidence is clear that climate change is already causing irreparable damage and threatens to erase decades of development progress as sea levels and temperatures rise across the globe. Addressing both the consequences and causes of climate change are necessary to sustain reductions in poverty and gains in food security, water security, health care, and more.

USAID leads efforts to address climate change by working across the U.S. Government, with partner governments, local communities, and a wide range of organizations to protect critical ecosystems, support just energy transitions, help people adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change, and increase capital flows to climate-positive investments.

In 2022, USAID released a new whole-of-agency Climate Strategy to guide our humanitarian and development work through 2030. USAID set ambitious targets to reduce, avoid or sequester 6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions; conserve 100 million hectares of key ecosystems like tropical forests; support 500 million people to be better prepared and resilient to climate impacts; and mobilize $150 billion in public and private climate finance.

In Colombia, we have partnered with the Ministry of Mines and Energy to make more impactful transitions to renewable energy, training young people in Indigenous communities for jobs in the clean energy sector. In Malawi, USAID’s Feed The Future program listened to feedback from local communities to develop new varieties of cowpeas with traits that both male and female farmers find desirable. Studies showed that women prefer cowpeas that are easy to grow and cook, and men prefer cowpeas that grow quickly so they can reset their field quickly. Developing crop varieties that meet the needs of the entire community means greater resilience all around.

USAID’s partnership with 18 other U.S. departments and agencies through the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE) allows us to mobilize the many tools of our government to advance our climate goals. This year, the White House released the PREPARE Action Plan, which details the strategic objectives and over 60 activities we are undertaking to help 500 million people adapt to the impacts of climate change by 2030.

The current global food crisis leaves millions at risk of famine. So we’re supporting farmers to take up climate-resilient seeds that can better withstand things like drought. In one such partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research we saw smallholder farmers increase their yields by 25 percent and benefit more than 44 million people in 2022.

Equity and inclusion underpin all of USAID’s work in climate change. We know that while climate change makes providing services and support to communities more difficult, the impacts disproportionately fall on youth, women, LGBTQ+, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities. Partnership with these communities ensures that our work is responsive to their needs.

ADVANCING DEMOCRACY

Free and democratic societies produce healthier and more prosperous citizens, reduce violent conflict, and uphold human dignity. Through our democracy assistance, we aim to do our small part to achieve a more inclusive, equitable, and peaceful world. This includes demonstrating the value of democracy and how it can deliver for everyone.

In President Biden’s first-ever Summit for Democracy last year, the United States called on the free world to commit to concrete actions individually and collectively we can take to stand up for our shared values and tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today.

For our part, the United States has worked to deliver on our commitment through the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal — a landmark set of foreign assistance and policy initiatives that build on our government’s work to bolster worldwide democracy, combat corruption, and defend human rights.

Efforts under this initiative range from surging support to countries experiencing democratic openings to reinforcing independent media to harnessing technology for democratic renewal.

Over 100 world leaders seized the Summit as an opportunity to announce individual and collective commitments, reforms, and initiatives that defend democracy and human rights at home and abroad. Together, we made over 750 commitments to counter authoritarianism, combat corruption, and promote respect for human rights through concrete action. During this Year of Action between the first and second Summits for Democracy to be held in March 2023, various stakeholders, including key civil society actors and the private sector, are working to support and hold governments to account for these promises.

This year, USAID also revamped its approach to helping reduce corruption from all levels and all sectors, especially addressing the pernicious impacts of transnational corruption and kleptocracy. Our new Anti-Corruption Policy, for example, establishes concrete agency commitments to transform the fight against corruption, recognizing the need to expand our anti-corruption work across sectors, forge new partnerships and coalitions, foster innovation, and bolster support for and protection of frontline journalists, activists, and reformers. We’ve also doubled down on efforts to provide partner countries emerging as bright spots of democracy with the tools to support them, including financial assistance, access to technology, and support to governance reforms.

The partnerships we’ve built on the ground to further democracy — from Kosovo and Côte d’Ivoire to the Kyrgyz Republic — play a pivotal role in managing and mitigating conflict, and kickstarting economic growth. That’s why we’ve integrated a focus on strengthening human rights and building independent civil society into all the work we do across the world.

We look forward to building new partnerships and strengthening current ones as we continue our mission to advance sustainable progress and build a freer, more equitable, and more humane world.

About the Author

Steven Norris is the Strategic Communications Intern in USAID’s Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs.