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Goal Overview
Nearly 800 million people in the world suffer from chronic hunger; the vast majority live in developing countries. In addition, the world’s population is projected to increase to nine billion by 2050. This population increase and changes in diets will require at least a 60 percent increase in global food production, without adversely affecting the environment. Investments in global agriculture and nutrition are the key to addressing these issues.
Improving food security has risen to prominence as a global development goal in recent years due to factors such as food price spikes, increasing poverty rates, and social unrest related to poverty and hunger. To address this challenge, President Barack Obama called upon global leaders in 2009 at the G-8 L’Aquila Summit to unlock the potential of agricultural development as the key to reducing hunger, extreme poverty and malnutrition. President Obama’s leadership at L’Aquila helped spur commitments from other donors, totaling more than $22 billion, as well as new and expanded financial commitments in host countries.
Feed the Future emerged from this commitment as the center of U.S. Government efforts to end global hunger, poverty and malnutrition. Led by USAID, Feed the Future leverages the expertise and programs of 10 additional U.S. Government departments and agencies to work in partnership with host-country governments, businesses, smallholder farmers, research institutions and civil society organizations to promote a comprehensive approach to global food security and nutrition.
With an emphasis on smallholder farmers, particularly women, Feed the Future aims to reduce the prevalence of poverty and the prevalence of stunted children under five years of age by an average of 20 percent, in the areas where USAID works.
Feed the Future will continue to support the U.S. Government’s aim to promote inclusive economic growth, reduce extreme poverty, and improve food security, as outlined in the State Department-USAID Joint Strategic Plan and the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review.
The momentum created by President Obama’s commitment at L’Aquila has helped inspire a series of related development efforts centered around inclusive, collective global action. For example, it helped pave the way for the 2010 establishment of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, an innovative multi-donor trust fund that to date has allocated about $1.4 billion to 25 low-income countries to help boost agricultural productivity.
And in 2012, recognizing the critical role of the private sector in sustainable agricultural transformation, President Obama, African leaders and other G-8 members announced the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition to significantly expand responsible private-sector investment in African agriculture and nutrition. National governments made specific policy commitments to improve the enabling environment for responsible private sector investment. As a result, more than 200 global and African companies have committed to invest $10.2 billion to benefit 8.7 million smallholders through sourcing or services.
Collectively, these and other efforts are reducing hunger and poverty, improving nutrition, building a strong foundation for continued economic growth, and promoting resilient communities.
Strategies
To achieve impact, Feed the Future focuses on cost-effective results; aligns with priorities established in technically sound country-led plans; embraces innovative partnerships; fosters a policy environment that enables private investment; helps build resilience to food crises in vulnerable populations; integrates nutrition, climate change, and gender equality and women’s empowerment into programming; and works to increase the adoption of transformative technologies. Led by USAID, Feed the Future draws on the agricultural, trade, investment, development, and policy resources and expertise of 11 federal agencies (USAID; the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, State, and Treasury; the U.S. Geological Survey; the Millennium Challenge Corporation; the U.S. African Development Foundation; the Peace Corps; the Overseas Private Investment Corporation; and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative).
In alignment with the U.S. Global Development Policy, Feed the Future is focused and selective about the countries and areas where it works to strengthen the impact of USAID's investments. USAID currently targets efforts in 19 focus countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia), Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, and Tajikistan), and Latin America and the Caribbean (Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras). The Agency selected these countries based on country commitment to increasing food security, level of need, opportunity for partnerships and regional synergies, potential for agriculture-led growth, and resource availability. USAID focused its efforts even further by zeroing in on specific geographic zones (called “zones of influence”) that aligned with each country’s agricultural investment plan.
Feed the Future reflects a new model for development – one that emphasizes partnership, linkages, and access to tools, technologies, and the global economy. Whereas in the past success meant helping farmers grow more crops, success today means also helping them learn how to be entrepreneurs. This requires coordinated efforts across governments, aid agencies, foundations, nongovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, and the private sector to develop scalable technologies and ensure they can be effectively deployed to support smallholder farmers. Feed the Future’s public-sector investment and commitment to host-country leadership have promoted policies to facilitate expanded private-sector contributions to ending hunger and poverty, a critical ingredient for long-term success and sustainability of results. Success also means building communities that are resilient and better able to withstand crises or disasters, with the aim of reducing the amount of emergency assistance required in the long-term.
Within Feed the Future programming, the principal challenge to achieving a reduction in stunting and poverty are external risk factors that may inhibit reductions in poverty and stunting, such as food crises and changing host government priorities. Country implementation strategies account for these externalities by allowing a certain degree of flexibility in their programming and assumptions to address unforeseen events.
Progress Update
Overview
USAID, with its partners in the U.S. Government and the global community, is committed to the goal of transforming lives toward a world where people no longer face the agony and injustice of extreme poverty, undernutrition, and hunger. USAID aims to meet this goal through its leadership of the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future. Feed the Future leverages the resources and expertise of 11 federal departments and agencies, partnering with 19 focus countries worldwide to develop their agriculture sectors and break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
By supporting these countries to develop their agriculture sectors to generate opportunities for economic growth and trade as well as better nutrition, Feed the Future is making progress toward its goals of reducing the prevalence of poverty and child stunting each by an average of 20 percent in the areas where it works. Feed the Future's focus on evidence, results and accountability has also created a new standard for development. Understanding how it got to these results—what interventions are successful, in what contexts, and why—is also a priority for the initiative. The Bureau for Food Security (BFS) leads USAID's work under Feed the Future to accelerate agriculture-led growth and achieve nutrition outcomes, collaborating with a diverse group of private-sector and civil-society partners to ensure that activities are aligned to achieve these objectives.
For the fourth quarter of FY 2016, USAID met its target of two BFS evaluation reports being made public; and achieved one instance of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) being used to support project design and implementation, missing its target of three. USAID exceeded its quarterly milestone of completing four cost-benefit analyses of key Feed the Future value chains and programs.
Explanation of Results
USAID released two Bureau for Food Security evaluation reports during the fourth quarter. The first report is a final evaluation report for the Solutions for African Food Enterprises (SAFE) activity. The goal of SAFE is to reduce poverty and improve the nutritional status among poor and vulnerable households in priority countries in Africa. SAFE does this by expanding and increasing the competitiveness of the food-processing sector and increasing the availability of nutritious foods. The evaluation examined the extent to which the SAFE program has achieved the outputs, outcomes, and goals in its theory of change. The evaluation found that the large majority of the small and growing businesses that adopted recommendations have experienced a number of benefits in terms of improved performance in production, volume, sales, profits, investment, or employment. The majority of businesses interviewed reported improvements in how they do business as a result of SAFE. These improvements include changes to internal operations, production technologies, plant layout, or software. This suggests the realized improvements are not just a result of external circumstances or other fortuitous events, but are the result of internal improvements made as a direct result of SAFE technical assistance. The evaluation also recommends additional research on informal markets to determine more effective ways to improve nutritional outcomes for poor and vulnerable households. Because of heavy reliance on informal markets by low-income populations, the evaluation suggests any follow-on work assist food processors increase their presence in and penetration of the informal wholesale and retail food markets for processed foods.
The second report is a mid-term evaluation of the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) activity. The goal of Africa RISING is to reduce hunger and alleviate poverty through the adoption of improved technologies by smallholder farm households. USAID does this by using a research-for-development approach to assist poor, farming-reliant households move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that increase food, nutrition and income security. The evaluation examined regional programs under Africa RISING to provide USAID and implementing partners with feedback on what is working and what aspects of program management and organizational structures can be improved. Recommendations include graduating direct beneficiaries and replacing them with new beneficiary households to maximize the communities’ exposure to improved technologies; increasing the use of monitoring and evaluation to build the evidence base for scaling interventions; emphasizing sex-disaggregated planning to support women’s specific areas of interest, including small ruminants, poultry, dry-season vegetable production, and homestead production; and including more nutrition-focused activities to elicit greater participation from younger women.
BFS recorded one instance of use of the WEAI during the fourth quarter in project design and implementation. In Ghana, the WEAI was included in a presentation and gender training with a Feed the Future implementing partner. In September, the Center for Global Development additionally recognized the importance of the WEAI in a policy recommendation brief for the next U.S. administration, recommending the administration continue to improve the availability and quality of data on women's economic empowerment. USAID expects the Bangladesh Mission to expand use of the WEAI to entrepreneurship and employment with the Mission's next Project Appraisal Document and round of activities. There are also training sessions and workshops scheduled for FY 2017 Q1 on the WEAI and Gender Integration Framework.
During 2016, USAID completed cost-benefit analyses in nine Feed the Future focus countries (Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Guatemala, Ghana, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, and Liberia), covering a wide range of value chains, including analysis of orange flesh sweet potato, iron-fortified beans, sunflower, ground nut, soy, rice, maize, sorghum, millet, dairy, and goat. USAID completed interim population-based surveys to determine progress against the Feed the Future topline goals of reducing poverty and stunting. The Agency completed cost-benefit analyses of key value chains to provide data to support evidence-based programmatic decision making, and to track performance. In some cases, the cost-benefit analyses indicated positive economic and financial outcomes from value chain investments. This validated the Agency’s approach, and demonstrated the long-term sustainability of small holder farmer use of improved varieties and technologies. In other cases, the results of the analysis indicated that investments in other value chains would generate higher return. In Liberia for example, cost-benefit analysis helped inform a decision to move away from the goat value chain and focus efforts in other areas.
Challenges and Opportunities
Ensuring that all instances where the Agency has used the WEAI in project design and development are noted continues to be a challenge for USAID. It is likely the figures reported are an underestimate of WEAI use, as it is difficult to collect data on these activities due to the level of effort in using decentralized systems.
Next Steps
Milestones:
FY 2016 quarter one: Reduce the percentage of Feed the Future bilaterally obligated funding that is not yet subobligated to 21 percent, compared to 23 percent in FY 2015 quarter one. Subobligating funding demonstrates continued progress in programming Feed the Future food security and agriculture activities. USAID met this milestone in the second quarter of FY 2016. In FY 2016, available un-subobligated balances include funds bilaterally obligated during FY 2011 to FY 2015. Of the funds that remain un-subobligated as of March 31, over 67 percent were appropriated in FY 2015. Most of the FY 2015 appropriated funds did not become available to begin making obligations until the third and fourth quarters, impacting our ability to sub-obligate the funds to implementing partners. USAID reduced the percent of un-subobligated funds to 18.5 percent in the second quarter of FY 2016. We expect the percentage of un-subobligated funds will increase later this fiscal year as FY 2016 funds become available.
FY 2016 quarter two: Hold one Global Learning and Evidence Exchange on Agriculture. This event will focus on using evidence to refine a Climate Smart Agriculture approach that supports Feed the Future goals of reducing poverty and improving nutrition on a population level. USAID met its second quarter milestone by holding a Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Global Learning and Evidence Exchange (GLEE) in Lusaka, Zambia, from March 13 to March 16, 2016. Workshop sessions emphasized that CSA is an approach and that appropriate practices are context-specific and depend on a number of lenses, including gender and scaling potential. The event covered climate-smart agriculture topics related to regional and host country leadership and priorities, including climate concerns, climate services, private sector, seed technologies and systems, program design, monitoring and evaluation, and the creation of a sustainable, enabling environment for climate-smart agriculture. Additional information on the event, including the agenda and downloadable presentation materials, are available on Agrilinks.org (https://agrilinks.org/events/climate-smart-agriculture-glee).
FY 2016 quarter three: Conduct at least 15 Bureau for Food Security(BFS) and Feed the Future country portfolio reviews. Portfolio reviews provide USAID an opportunity to review activities and progress during the past year, discuss best practices and lessons learned, and ensure activities are on track.
USAID surpassed this goal by completing annual reviews with 27 USAID Missions: Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Nigeria, India, Rwanda, Senegal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, USAID Central America and Mexico Regional, USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia, USAID East Africa Regional, USAID West Africa Regional, and USAID Southern Africa Regional. These portfolio reviews provide USAID and interagency partners the opportunity to review activities and progress during the past year, discuss best practices and lessons learned, and ensure activities are on track.
FY 2016 quarter four: Complete four cost-benefit analyses of key Feed the Future value chains and programs. Cost-benefit analyses help determine when and where to invest for maximum results, inform program course corrections, and support the design of new and follow-on activities.
During 2016, USAID completed cost benefit analyses in nine Feed the Future focus countries (Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Guatemala, Ghana, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, and Liberia), covering a wide range of value chains, including analysis of orange flesh sweet potato, iron-fortified beans, sunflower, ground nut, soy, rice, maize, sorghum, millet, dairy, and goat. Alongside completing interim population based surveys to determine progress against the Feed the Future topline goals of reducing poverty and stunting, USAID completed cost benefit analyses of key value chains to provide data to support evidence-based programmatic decision making and track performance. In some cases, the cost benefit analyses found positive economic and financial results, validating our approach and demonstrating the long-term sustainability of small holder farmer use of improved varieties and technologies. In other cases, the analysis recommended investments in other value chains. In Liberia, cost benefit analysis helped inform a decision to remove the goats value chain and focus efforts in other areas.
FY 2017 quarter one: Reduce the percentage of Feed the Future bilaterally obligated funding that is not yet subobligated to 19 percent, compared to 21 percent in FY 2016 quarter one. Subobligating funding demonstrates continued progress in programming Feed the Future food security and agriculture activities.
FY 2017 quarter two: Commission and publicize a comprehensive external evaluation of Feed the Future. The external evaluation will highlight Feed the Future’s achievements and areas for improvement and will be a valuable tool to inform future programming.
FY 2017 quarter three: Conduct at least 15 BFS and Feed the Future country portfolio reviews. Portfolio reviews provide USAID an opportunity to review activities and progress during the past year, discuss best practices and lessons learned, and ensure activities are on track.
FY 2017 quarter four: Complete four cost-benefit analyses of key Feed the Future value chains and programs. Cost-benefit analyses help determine when and where to invest for maximum results, inform program course corrections, and support the design of new and follow-on activities.
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Performance Indicators
Value of incremental sales
Number of farmers and others who have applied new technologies or management practices as a result of U.S. Government assistance.
Value of private sector investment
Number of Bureau for Food Security evaluation reports
Use of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
Contributing programs within the agency:
Feed the Future is integral to achieving the FY 2016-2017 Agency Priority Goal (APG) for Food Security. USAID’s BFS will track performance of investments. BFS coordinates closely with the U.S. Global Health Initiative and USAID’s Office of Food for Peace non-emergency programs to: 1) align investments in focus countries’ “zone of influence” to the extent possible; and 2) maintain a common set of core indicators to track performance. The USAID Administrator will report on behalf of the Agency and Feed the Future, and the BFS Assistant to the Administrator will have lead responsibility for accomplishment of this APG. BFS’ Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management and the Feed the Future Deputy Coordinator for Development will work closely to track milestones and progress toward this APG.
Contributing U.S. Government programs or partners outside the agency:
Representatives from the U.S. Departments of State, Treasury, and Agriculture, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Peace Corps, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative approved 19 multiyear strategies, which detail Feed the Future investments and donor coordination for each of the Feed the Future focus countries. This interagency group continues to meet regularly to monitor progress and coordinate program implementation. USAID’s Feed the Future Results Framework also captures the whole-of-government level of effort and impact. Several programs in these respective departments and agencies impact achievements in agricultural productivity and food security. These programs provide data that will feed into USAID’s tracking of the 2016-2017 APG through the Feed the Future Monitoring System.
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Strategic Goals
Strategic Goal:
Strengthen America’s Economic Reach and Positive Economic Impact
Statement:
Strengthen America’s Economic Reach and Positive Economic Impact
Strategic Objectives
Statement:
Expand Access to Future Markets, Investment, and Trade
Description:
In an interconnected world, America’s prosperity is closely linked with the global economy. In 2011, the United States exported $2.1 trillion of goods and services, which supported 9.7 million American jobs. In the Western Hemisphere alone, U.S. trade with Latin America and the Caribbean reached $1.3 trillion in 2012, with Canada and Mexico trade alone exceeding $1.5 billion per day, making Canada our top trade partner and Mexico our third largest partner. Foreign markets – especially in developing and emerging economies – are growing more rapidly than the U.S. domestic market.
As one of the world’s most competitive and innovative economies, the United States benefits as markets open and trade barriers are lowered. A proven way to open markets and lock in transparent trade and investment rules is through trade negotiations. The United States has free trade agreements with 20 countries, and is actively negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Doubling down on our already-robust partnership with Europe and linking the eastern and western halves of the Pacific is in our economic and security interest.
Free trade agreements are only part of the story. All around the world, State and USAID work hard to establish clear, transparent, and open markets outside of formal negotiations. U.S. firms succeed abroad when government and private sector procurement decisions are based on commercial and technical merits, when rules and regulations are transparent and enforceable, when intellectual property rights are respected, and when foreign competitors, including state-owned enterprises, do not benefit from unfair advantages or unsustainable labor and environmental practices.
We also work through international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Trade Organization (WTO), International Labor Organization (ILO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and with private sector organizations. Reaching global consensus on economic rules through these organizations minimizes the potential for barriers to trade and investment, directly benefitting U.S. companies.
Information and communications technology drives growth and prosperity in every sector of the economy. The government and private sector partnership in this sector is essential to success. We conduct negotiations and engage with international organizations to set agreed rules and standards, paving the way for private sector innovation and prosperity.
Our educational, technical, and scientific exchanges and collaboration also bring clear economic benefits. They serve as a bridge between the United States and foreign countries and leaders; advance research and policy collaboration in addressing common challenges; and build respect for the United States as a meritocracy driven by knowledge and innovation. With America’s higher education sector perched at the pinnacle of the global education market, the United States is the preferred destination for international students, making education and training our nation’s fifth largest export.
International travel supports an estimated 1.2 million U.S. jobs. Facilitating quick, efficient, and secure travel remains an important goal of the State Department. We facilitate over 67 million visitors traveling to the United States each year. Travel and tourism-related goods and services accounted for $166 billion in 2012. Efficient issuance of U.S. passports also facilitates international travel by American citizens, promoting international tourism and commerce.
Factors affecting U.S. government efforts to expand access to future markets, investment, and trade include the strength of the U.S. economy and fiscal situation, which in turn determines our leadership on global economic issues. Another financial crisis or deep recession could trigger resurgence in protectionist sentiment worldwide, rolling back efforts to open markets. Political instability can shock financial markets and lead to a deteriorating investment climate. On the education front, slower growth in students’ homelands, a stronger dollar relative to local currency, and greater competition from other countries could lead to fewer students attending U.S. universities. Successful science and technology cooperation depends on foreign partners with the right resources and expertise. Encouraging innovation depends upon foreign governments’ commitment to policy and regulatory reform – including strong support for intellectual property rights – and making the right investments to build a knowledge economy.
Strategies for Achieving the Objective
Today’s increasingly competitive global environment compels the U.S. government to strengthen its advocacy for free, transparent, and open markets; promote equal legal and regulatory treatment for American and local companies in foreign markets; expand support for U.S. companies looking overseas for customers and partners; broaden access to the United States for foreign students and leading researchers; and intensify international collaboration on innovation and technology. Our diplomatic missions are on the front-line in achieving these goals advocating for U.S. exporters, pushing to eliminate impediments for our companies, and promoting job-creating foreign direct investment in the United States.
The Department of State, together with the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, and USAID, support the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as it negotiates bilateral and multilateral trade, investment, and transportation agreements that reduce barriers to trade and foster a more open, transparent, inclusive, and rules-based international economic environment. Moreover, USAID and State deliver targeted trade capacity building and technical assistance to foster adoption of agreed trade and investment rules. USAID further facilitates improvements in country trading systems and helps build capacity for trade, working with developing countries and countries in transition to identify and reduce trade and other barriers that inhibit business formation and growth. Assistance also encompasses reforming laws and regulations, reducing compliance costs for businesses and individuals, and ensuring implementation and enforcement capacity. The Department and USAID also promote regional economic integration as a way to reduce tensions among states, promote growth, and create larger common markets for U.S. exporters.
The Department partners with the Department of Commerce to advocate for U.S. companies bidding on foreign government tenders, to help U.S. companies find new markets for exports, to continue policies that open markets to trade and investment, and to encourage investment in the United States. The ability of U.S. companies to bid successfully on foreign government tenders is a measure of U.S. government success working with other governments to negotiate market-opening agreements and resolve regulatory issues, and in ensuring fairness for our companies in the face of aggressive foreign competition.
U.S. industries and operators are at the forefront of information and communication technology development and innovation. The State Department, in collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Commerce, other executive branch agencies, and industry, actively promotes the regulatory and policy environment necessary for market confidence and economies of scale for a global information and communications technology sector. U.S. engagement with organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) enables agreement on the technical standards and policies that drive this sector, facilitating scientific advancement, expansion of affordable broadband Internet access, and the evolution of wireless devices.
The Department of State promotes educational and professional exchanges and links between the United States and foreign educational, non-profit, and private sectors; promotes U.S. educational exports such as study in the United States through student advising centers; and prioritizes the visa applications of students, scholars, and exchange visitors, regularly expediting appointments and maintaining short appointment queues for these priority travelers. These efforts, and the people-to-people connections they foster, advance research and collaboration while building respect for the United States.
USAID assistance to strengthen foreign markets makes other countries better trade and investment partners for the United States. USAID tailors programs for individual countries. Some need assistance in broad-based economic policy reforms; others need help developing market-supporting institutions such as improved commercial law, industrial relations systems, trade regimes, banking structures, stock exchanges, or tax collection systems.
USAID has prioritized support for the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA), which is aimed at streamlining borders, including enhancing technical assistance and capacity building for developing countries. Implementation of this seminal agreement is expected to provide cost and time savings for companies trading goods regionally and internationally. Programming will focus on reforms that boost trade by reducing costs and delays for traders, and increase the predictability, simplicity and uniformity in customs and other border procedures. USAID is working with the private sector as an important partner in this work, involving U.S. and local business communities on public-private partnerships that expand and deepen bilateral trade and investment opportunities.
The intersection between economic growth and competitiveness, rapidly advancing technology, and the complexity of critical issues such as climate change require the Department of State and USAID to integrate traditional economic policy approaches with our support for entrepreneurship, environmental stewardship, innovation, and scientific collaboration. Expanding international collaboration on science, technology, and knowledge-based industries, facilitating fair access to emerging markets for U.S. companies, and fostering the free flow of goods, services, and ideas, while protecting intellectual property rights, have a powerful impact on growth and innovation.
Throughout all these efforts, the Department and USAID seek to increase the positive impact of economic growth. This means promoting gender and ethnic equality; increasing access to and defending a free, open Internet; advancing human rights and labor rights; encouraging responsible business practices; and protecting the environment. Gender activities are guided by the Presidential Memorandum on Coordination of Policies and Programs to Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women and Girls Globally.
Statement:
Promote Inclusive Economic Growth, Reduce Extreme Poverty, and Improve Food Security
Description:
Reducing extreme poverty and its causes has long been a central goal of the U.S. government’s development efforts. The Administration has prioritized inclusive economic growth and democratic governance as the only sustainable ways to accelerate development and eradicate extreme poverty. President Obama has called for the United States to “join with our allies to eradicate . . . extreme poverty in the next two decades.” Recent progress toward this goal is encouraging: since 2000, faster growth has led to falling aggregate poverty rates throughout the developing world, including sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Developing countries have cut their poverty rates in half in 10 years, with strong support from the United States and the international community.
Inclusive economic growth, in which all members of society benefit, can reduce political turmoil and conflict by stabilizing countries and regions. When the causes of poverty and hunger are addressed by helping youth gain access to economic opportunities, connecting people to the global economy, building resilience to economic and social stresses in conflict-prone societies, empowering women and minorities, and saving children from disease and preventable death, the United States and the world are stronger and more secure. As countries develop, they open their markets, become potential consumers of U.S. goods and services, and contribute to regional stability. To meet the goal of a world without extreme poverty, we continue to pay particular attention to the need for inclusive economic growth in fragile or conflict-affected states, where extreme poverty is likely to be concentrated in the coming decade and where growth can be uneven and volatile.
Through diplomacy and development programs, the Department of State and USAID encourage both governments and increasingly influential non-state actors to: demand and implement sound macroeconomic policy, good public financial management and accountability, and transparent and effective financial institutions and regulation; invest in public goods (like safe water and infrastructure); and establish an environment that permits the private sector, innovators, entrepreneurs, and civil society to flourish. We also encourage governments to work with civil society organizations, including labor organizations and business chambers. These groups have an important role as partners in development, influencing decisions regarding government resource allocation and the development agenda at the country level.
The Department of State and USAID can also play a critical role facilitating private sector engagement and private-public partnerships throughout the world. The private sector paves the way for reform efforts, creating bonds among people that foster a virtuous cycle of investment, growth, profits, and jobs in which everyone benefits.
We also support gender and minority integration and encourage governments to consider the impact of new policies on both men and women and majority and minority groups. This is a proven way to ensure that growth is inclusive and that it leads to better outcomes. We also support accessible quality education to reduce extreme poverty. An educated populace is healthier, more productive economically, and more active and empowered politically at all levels of society.
To help make countries more resilient in the face of shocks, USAID has developed Policy and Program Guidance to Building Resilience to Recurrent Crisis. This policy promotes resilience as an analytical, programmatic, and organizing concept to address the causes of chronic vulnerability and recurrent crisis. Greater resilience can help vulnerable communities emerge from cycles of crisis onto a pathway toward development.
Globally, 842 million people are chronically hungry. Climate change will make meeting the food and nutrition needs of a growing global population even more challenging. The resulting malnutrition can translate to a loss of as much as eight percent of a country’s gross domestic product. To tackle these food and nutrition security challenges, the U.S. government engages on policy, trade, investment, and development tracks – both bilaterally and through multilateral organizations such as the World Food Program. Through the Feed the Future Initiative, we work to increase agricultural productivity by partnering with governments, donor organizations, the private sector, and civil society. By focusing on small farmers, particularly women, we promote inclusive growth that increases incomes and reduces hunger, poverty, and under-nutrition. We also support food security goals through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and Partnerships for Growth.
External factors influence whether we attain our development goals. U.S. government development programs are typically only a small fraction of the economy in countries where we operate, so the political and economic environment inside a country is critical. Success is more likely when partner governments set a good policy and regulatory foundation for growth and improved public service delivery and encourage a vibrant private sector that invests and creates jobs. Events such as another global economic slowdown, political instability, conflict, drought, floods, and other natural disasters could all cause setbacks. In times of government austerity, donor resources can drop, making it more difficult to achieve development goals.
Strategies for Achieving the Objective
The world is coalescing around a goal to end extreme poverty by 2030, with growing optimism that this remarkable goal is within reach. The U.S. role is critical to ensuring continued global progress. American ingenuity is essential to solving the most complex development challenges that stand in the way of a world without extreme poverty.
The Department and USAID are making critical contributions toward achieving this goal. Ending extreme poverty requires enabling inclusive growth and promoting free, peaceful, and self-reliant societies that build human capital and create social safety nets for the poorest members of society, including women and other marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people, and members of indigenous or ethnic minority groups. Engagement can open doors for development by resolving conflict, fostering political stability, and advocating development-friendly policies. U.S. government initiatives that increase food security, reduce deaths from preventable illness, and improve energy access address fundamental causes of poverty. USAID's work on education and resilience in the face of recurrent crisis is reaching millions in extreme poverty, and cross-cutting efforts on gender, governance, and climate are key to sustainability. USAID is also strongly positioned in the countries - many of them fragile - where extreme poverty affects the most people.
The Department and USAID promote inclusive growth through initiatives such as the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), which provides professional networking, business development, and trade capacity building opportunities for prominent women entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa. AWEP includes an export readiness program, technical assistance, and access to capital. It empowers small-and-medium-sized African enterprises to capitalize on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, increasing trade regionally and with the United States. USAID’s Women’s Leadership Incentive Fund is also used annually to leverage Mission funding in support of women’s economic empowerment and female entrepreneurs are key participants in USAID’s worldwide economic growth projects. For example, using Leadership Funds, women in Bangladesh will be empowered to lead on employment and labor reform in the apparel sector, a crucial arena for promoting inclusive economic growth.
USAID's Policy Framework features eight interrelated development objectives: (1) increase food security; (2) promote global health and health systems; (3) reduce the impact of climate change and promote low emissions growth; (4) promote sustainable, broad-based economic growth; (5) expand and sustain the ranks of stable, prosperous, and democratic states; (6) provide humanitarian assistance and support disaster mitigation; (7) prevent and respond to crises, conflict, and instability; and (8) improve lives through learning and education. Poverty is multi-dimensional, and elements of each of these eight objectives are essential to address the causes and consequences of extreme poverty and promote inclusive growth.
USAID is establishing a new development model that focuses on creating public-private partnerships and harnessing science, technology, and innovation to deliver measurable results. The new model is grounded in the reality that political leadership and policy reform are essential preconditions to driving investment to the regions and sectors where it has the biggest impact on reducing extreme poverty and ending the most devastating consequences of child hunger and child death. This approach requires integrated diplomatic and development efforts as we seek policy reform and promote investment and responsible business conduct in complex and transitional environments.
Agency Priority Goals
Statement:
Increase food security in Feed the Future initiative countries. By September 30, 2015, increase the number of farmers and others who have applied new technologies or management practices to eight million, from a corrected base of five million in 2012.
Description:
Approximately 840 million people in the world remain hungry today, and 98 percent of them live in developing countries. In addition, the world’s population is projected to increase to nine billion by 2050. This population increase and changes in diets will require at least a 60 percent increase in global food production, all in a world that will have less arable land and less access to water under changing climate patterns.
Improving food security has risen to prominence as a global development goal in recent years due to factors such as food price spikes, increasing poverty rates, and social unrest related to poverty and hunger. At the G-8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, in July 2009, global leaders—including President Obama—agreed to take significant action to improve food security through agricultural development and reforms to the way the international community approaches food security. The U.S. committed at least $3.5 billion and other countries committed over $18 billion through 2012. In May 2012, at the Camp David G-8 Summit with African heads of state and corporate and G-8 leaders, President Obama again led global food security efforts by launching the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition for Africa, a shared goal to achieving sustained and inclusive agricultural growth and raising 50 million people out of poverty by 2022.
The Feed the Future initiative is the U.S. Government’s contribution to the global effort launched by President Obama at L’Aquila. Feed the Future works with the global community, strengthening coordination with other donors and stakeholders, to:
- Advance comprehensive, country-led strategies that focus on accountability and improving the productivity and market access of small-scale producers, particularly women, who make up the majority of small farmers in developing countries;
- Catalyze private sector economic growth, finance, and trade with necessary investments in public goods as well as policy, legal, and regulatory reforms;
- Use science and technology to sustainably increase agricultural productivity;
- Protect the natural resource base upon which agriculture depends;
- Build resilience and help to prevent recurrent food crises in vulnerable regions; and
- Invest in improving nutrition for women and young children as a foundation for future growth.
Feed the Future is well-positioned to support the U.S. Government’s aim to promote inclusive economic growth, reduce extreme poverty, and improve food security, as outlined in the State Department-USAID Joint Strategic Plan.
Strategic Objectives
Strategic Objective:
Promote Inclusive Economic Growth, Reduce Extreme Poverty, and Improve Food Security
Statement:
Promote Inclusive Economic Growth, Reduce Extreme Poverty, and Improve Food Security
Description:
Reducing extreme poverty and its causes has long been a central goal of the U.S. government’s development efforts. The Administration has prioritized inclusive economic growth and democratic governance as the only sustainable ways to accelerate development and eradicate extreme poverty. President Obama has called for the United States to “join with our allies to eradicate . . . extreme poverty in the next two decades.” Recent progress toward this goal is encouraging: since 2000, faster growth has led to falling aggregate poverty rates throughout the developing world, including sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Developing countries have cut their poverty rates in half in 10 years, with strong support from the United States and the international community.
Inclusive economic growth, in which all members of society benefit, can reduce political turmoil and conflict by stabilizing countries and regions. When the causes of poverty and hunger are addressed by helping youth gain access to economic opportunities, connecting people to the global economy, building resilience to economic and social stresses in conflict-prone societies, empowering women and minorities, and saving children from disease and preventable death, the United States and the world are stronger and more secure. As countries develop, they open their markets, become potential consumers of U.S. goods and services, and contribute to regional stability. To meet the goal of a world without extreme poverty, we continue to pay particular attention to the need for inclusive economic growth in fragile or conflict-affected states, where extreme poverty is likely to be concentrated in the coming decade and where growth can be uneven and volatile.
Through diplomacy and development programs, the Department of State and USAID encourage both governments and increasingly influential non-state actors to: demand and implement sound macroeconomic policy, good public financial management and accountability, and transparent and effective financial institutions and regulation; invest in public goods (like safe water and infrastructure); and establish an environment that permits the private sector, innovators, entrepreneurs, and civil society to flourish. We also encourage governments to work with civil society organizations, including labor organizations and business chambers. These groups have an important role as partners in development, influencing decisions regarding government resource allocation and the development agenda at the country level.
The Department of State and USAID can also play a critical role facilitating private sector engagement and private-public partnerships throughout the world. The private sector paves the way for reform efforts, creating bonds among people that foster a virtuous cycle of investment, growth, profits, and jobs in which everyone benefits.
We also support gender and minority integration and encourage governments to consider the impact of new policies on both men and women and majority and minority groups. This is a proven way to ensure that growth is inclusive and that it leads to better outcomes. We also support accessible quality education to reduce extreme poverty. An educated populace is healthier, more productive economically, and more active and empowered politically at all levels of society.
To help make countries more resilient in the face of shocks, USAID has developed Policy and Program Guidance to Building Resilience to Recurrent Crisis. This policy promotes resilience as an analytical, programmatic, and organizing concept to address the causes of chronic vulnerability and recurrent crisis. Greater resilience can help vulnerable communities emerge from cycles of crisis onto a pathway toward development.
Globally, 842 million people are chronically hungry. Climate change will make meeting the food and nutrition needs of a growing global population even more challenging. The resulting malnutrition can translate to a loss of as much as eight percent of a country’s gross domestic product. To tackle these food and nutrition security challenges, the U.S. government engages on policy, trade, investment, and development tracks – both bilaterally and through multilateral organizations such as the World Food Program. Through the Feed the Future Initiative, we work to increase agricultural productivity by partnering with governments, donor organizations, the private sector, and civil society. By focusing on small farmers, particularly women, we promote inclusive growth that increases incomes and reduces hunger, poverty, and under-nutrition. We also support food security goals through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition and Partnerships for Growth.
External factors influence whether we attain our development goals. U.S. government development programs are typically only a small fraction of the economy in countries where we operate, so the political and economic environment inside a country is critical. Success is more likely when partner governments set a good policy and regulatory foundation for growth and improved public service delivery and encourage a vibrant private sector that invests and creates jobs. Events such as another global economic slowdown, political instability, conflict, drought, floods, and other natural disasters could all cause setbacks. In times of government austerity, donor resources can drop, making it more difficult to achieve development goals.
Strategies for Achieving the Objective
The world is coalescing around a goal to end extreme poverty by 2030, with growing optimism that this remarkable goal is within reach. The U.S. role is critical to ensuring continued global progress. American ingenuity is essential to solving the most complex development challenges that stand in the way of a world without extreme poverty.
The Department and USAID are making critical contributions toward achieving this goal. Ending extreme poverty requires enabling inclusive growth and promoting free, peaceful, and self-reliant societies that build human capital and create social safety nets for the poorest members of society, including women and other marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people, and members of indigenous or ethnic minority groups. Engagement can open doors for development by resolving conflict, fostering political stability, and advocating development-friendly policies. U.S. government initiatives that increase food security, reduce deaths from preventable illness, and improve energy access address fundamental causes of poverty. USAID's work on education and resilience in the face of recurrent crisis is reaching millions in extreme poverty, and cross-cutting efforts on gender, governance, and climate are key to sustainability. USAID is also strongly positioned in the countries - many of them fragile - where extreme poverty affects the most people.
The Department and USAID promote inclusive growth through initiatives such as the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), which provides professional networking, business development, and trade capacity building opportunities for prominent women entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa. AWEP includes an export readiness program, technical assistance, and access to capital. It empowers small-and-medium-sized African enterprises to capitalize on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, increasing trade regionally and with the United States. USAID’s Women’s Leadership Incentive Fund is also used annually to leverage Mission funding in support of women’s economic empowerment and female entrepreneurs are key participants in USAID’s worldwide economic growth projects. For example, using Leadership Funds, women in Bangladesh will be empowered to lead on employment and labor reform in the apparel sector, a crucial arena for promoting inclusive economic growth.
USAID's Policy Framework features eight interrelated development objectives: (1) increase food security; (2) promote global health and health systems; (3) reduce the impact of climate change and promote low emissions growth; (4) promote sustainable, broad-based economic growth; (5) expand and sustain the ranks of stable, prosperous, and democratic states; (6) provide humanitarian assistance and support disaster mitigation; (7) prevent and respond to crises, conflict, and instability; and (8) improve lives through learning and education. Poverty is multi-dimensional, and elements of each of these eight objectives are essential to address the causes and consequences of extreme poverty and promote inclusive growth.
USAID is establishing a new development model that focuses on creating public-private partnerships and harnessing science, technology, and innovation to deliver measurable results. The new model is grounded in the reality that political leadership and policy reform are essential preconditions to driving investment to the regions and sectors where it has the biggest impact on reducing extreme poverty and ending the most devastating consequences of child hunger and child death. This approach requires integrated diplomatic and development efforts as we seek policy reform and promote investment and responsible business conduct in complex and transitional environments.
Agency Priority Goals
Statement: Increase food security in Feed the Future initiative countries. By September 30, 2015, increase the number of farmers and others who have applied new technologies or management practices to eight million, from a corrected base of five million in 2012.
Description: Approximately 840 million people in the world remain hungry today, and 98 percent of them live in developing countries. In addition, the world’s population is projected to increase to nine billion by 2050. This population increase and changes in diets will require at least a 60 percent increase in global food production, all in a world that will have less arable land and less access to water under changing climate patterns. Improving food security has risen to prominence as a global development goal in recent years due to factors such as food price spikes, increasing poverty rates, and social unrest related to poverty and hunger. At the G-8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, in July 2009, global leaders—including President Obama—agreed to take significant action to improve food security through agricultural development and reforms to the way the international community approaches food security. The U.S. committed at least $3.5 billion and other countries committed over $18 billion through 2012. In May 2012, at the Camp David G-8 Summit with African heads of state and corporate and G-8 leaders, President Obama again led global food security efforts by launching the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition for Africa, a shared goal to achieving sustained and inclusive agricultural growth and raising 50 million people out of poverty by 2022. The Feed the Future initiative is the U.S. Government’s contribution to the global effort launched by President Obama at L’Aquila. Feed the Future works with the global community, strengthening coordination with other donors and stakeholders, to: Feed the Future is well-positioned to support the U.S. Government’s aim to promote inclusive economic growth, reduce extreme poverty, and improve food security, as outlined in the State Department-USAID Joint Strategic Plan.
