Taking Transparency to the Next Level

Why USAID is making foreign assistance data available with the click of a mouse

The recently re-launched ForeignAssistance.gov is a one-stop-shop for information on the U.S. Government’s work in international development and humanitarian assistance.

Today’s global challenges are interrelated and complex. They can devastate public health, threaten food systems, erode education opportunities, and more — perpetuating the cycle of poverty and bringing instability to our communities in every corner of the world.

Fragile countries and marginalized communities are certainly more vulnerable to the impacts of today’s challenges. But, as the COVID-19 pandemic so concretely demonstrates, what happens overseas also equally impacts Americans here at home.

U.S. foreign assistance — the less than one percent of the federal budget that funds work to address these development and humanitarian challenges — is a powerful tool in our foreign policy toolkit. It complements the U.S. Government’s defense and diplomacy efforts and bolsters the capabilities of the countries we work in today so that tomorrow they can be even bigger, better partners. U.S. foreign assistance cements America’s place as a responsive, global leader.

In Kenya, Feed the Future works with smallholder farmers to introduce high-value crops such as sweet potatoes, which can boost household food security and increase incomes. / Fintrac Inc.

USAID just marked its 60th anniversary as the premier development agency leading the U.S. Government’s responses to humanitarian crises and international development challenges. And with each new birthday, the Agency continues to break barriers and reach key milestones with its work.

But we cannot tackle these global challenges alone. A coordinated, transparent approach to foreign assistance is critical to helping our world become more peaceful and prosperous for all. Our partners from the U.S. government, the private sector, nonprofit and civil society organizations, and more bring forth new and innovative development solutions.

In order for us all to work better together, foreign assistance data — how and where the U.S. government invests our foreign assistance dollars — must be easily, readily, and freely available to the public, media, and our international partners.

To uphold these core values of transparency and openness, USAID and the U.S. Department of State jointly re-launched ForeignAssistance.gov.

This one-stop-shop helps the American taxpayer and other stakeholders understand the depth and breadth of the U.S. Government’s work in international development and humanitarian assistance, so that how much we invest and where and when we invest it is easier to access, use, and understand.

The new ForeignAssistance.gov provides a wealth of global information (above) as well as specific details for countries (below).

The new, consolidated ForeignAssistance.gov is a visual, interactive website that advances transparency by publishing U.S. foreign assistance budget and financial data that is usable, accurate, and timely. The site empowers users to explore U.S. foreign assistance data through visualizations, while also providing the flexibility for users to create custom queries, download data, and conduct analyses by country, sector, or agency.

This powers demand for accountability locally and internationally, empowers citizens to hold governments accountable for how assistance is used, and increases the efficacy of development cooperation investments by providing a clearer understanding of what we are doing, where, and to what effect.

Children take notes during a farmer’s field day in western Kenya. With ForeignAssistance.gov, anyone with internet access can understand the depth and breadth of the U.S. Government’s work in international development and humanitarian assistance. / Siegfried Modola, USAID

With ForeignAssistance.gov, users can:

• Access U.S. foreign assistance data dating back to 1946 and up to the present day to paint a more fulsome picture of the history of the generosity of the American people.
• Become more than passive consumers of data and analytics by using the Application Programming Interface, or API, to pull raw data directly for use in their own applications and visualizations.
• Drill down by U.S. Government or internationally recognized sectors and activities to capture the distinct data desired for their specific needs — whether crafting a presentation on the history of USAID’s health work in Malawi, or interested in reviewing the flow of U.S. foreign assistance for democracy programs in Thailand, or curious about how much a particular U.S. government agency provided to a country in Latin America in a given fiscal year.

Simply put: ForeignAssistance.gov puts foreign assistance data directly into the hands of people — empowering them with information that could lead to viable solutions to today’s most complex challenges.

By better understanding which countries and sectors are recipients of foreign assistance, USAID, our partners, and our stakeholders can reduce overlap, collaborate more effectively, and work more cohesively to tackle today’s most pressing global challenges.

About the Authors

Michele Sumilas is the Assistant to the Administrator in USAID’s Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning, and Colleen Allen is the Assistant Administrator in the USAID Bureau for Management.