People Power
How USAID is incorporating a movement mindset to its work
Throughout history, particularly in the 20th century, nonviolent collective action became known as a powerful force for democratic progress around the globe. From South Africa to India, the Philippines, Ukraine, Chile, and the United States, democratic freedoms were preserved and expanded due to nonviolent collective action.
In fact, these movements have been twice as effective as violence at achieving its goals.
During the most recent decade, people around the world participated — online and offline — in civic life through social movements, grassroots organizing, and other forms of nonviolent collective action more than ever before in recorded history.
And the effects of nonviolent collective action reverberate around the world.
In the South Pacific, organizers are campaigning for preservation of and local governance over oceans. In Guatemala, an anti-corruption movement had success in the courtroom and at the ballot box. And around the world, young people are organizing and mobilizing for action on climate change.
Through new efforts at USAID and increased coordination with other governmental and nongovernmental donors and stakeholders, the Agency has made its biggest commitments ever to fostering the agency, resiliency, and effectiveness of regular people around the world to achieve their own hopes and dreams for democratic development.
Fostering New Partnerships
Critically, USAID is not going it alone in this work. We are partnering with local civil society and with private philanthropies.
In October 2023, USAID awarded a grant of up to $45 million over five years to launch the Powered by the People initiative. This initiative provides flexible and accessible support to organizers, citizen-led social movements, and social movement ecosystems that are advancing human rights, social justice, democracy, and inclusive development around the world.
President Biden announced Powered by the People at the first Summit for Democracy in 2021 as a key deliverable under the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal. It is being implemented by a broad consortium — of over two dozen local, regional, and international organizations in over a dozen countries — led by PartnersGlobal.
By having local actors take the lead in Powered by the People decision making and action, USAID is living by its commitment to locally-led development.
Different donors are able to support the work of movements in different ways — and coordination among them helps to avoid collective action problems that could be harmful to movements. To that end, USAID partnered with Humanity United to co-create Powered by the People, alongside activists, movement-based organizations, and scholars.
And this year, Humanity United will host a pooled fund through its sister organization, Humanity United Charitable Fund, which will be independent from and complementary to Powered by the People. This fund will include a participatory mechanism for social movement actors and their allies to play a central role in decision making, further upholding principles of locally-led development.
As a civic leader once said, “sometimes organizers and movements strategize in silence.”
Training and relationship building in those moments of silence have a more consistently positive impact on movement success than any other form of assistance. Therefore, our assistance focuses in large part on providing educational materials and training, as well as online and offline spaces where organizers can develop trust and learn with each other in safety.
It is through these public-private partnerships that USAID can leverage taxpayer dollars to unlock additional support for shared goals.
Building on Past Progress
In January 2024, USAID launched a primer on Nonviolent Collective Action in Democratic Development. The primer is a reference tool for USAID personnel and partners interested in deepening their understanding of social movements, grassroots organizing, and other forms of nonviolent collective action.
It includes actionable principles and practices, as well as assessment tools that help to effectively evaluate and learn from this work. The primer explores specific opportunities and challenges USAID and its partners face in this work. It also strengthens our ability to effectively determine whether, when, where, and how to support nonviolent collective action.
The primer represents another concrete commitment by USAID to respond to the needs, opportunities, and challenges of regular people around the world engaged in grassroots organizing, social movements, and other forms of nonviolent collective action. Ensuring that support is flexible and follows the guidance of local civic actors is critical to movement success. Or, as one philanthropy professional noted, “the restrictions funders impose can be as problematic as the absence of money.”
In advance of the third Summit for Democracy in March, hosted by South Korea, USAID and its implementing partners are developing public discussions around the strategic, legal, and tactical considerations for expanding cross-border support for nonviolent social movements. These discussions will center on youth-led movements. And they will be action oriented for donors, organizers, and movement support organizations.
As USAID leans into this work, we are focusing not only on supporting the processes that lead to more just and democratic power relationships within a society, but also on how to shift power in our relationships with partners and the communities that they serve. We are committed to doing no harm in the process, to being transparent about and learning from mistakes, and to keep showing up when movements experience repression and failure, just as when movements succeed.
About the Author
Ben Naimark-Rowse is the Social Movements and Collective Action Advisor in USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance.
