USAID Policy Framework 2011-2015

Rajiv Shah Statement to USAID-

On the eve of the first anniversary of the President's Policy Directive on Global Development, I am pleased to announce the release of the USAID Policy Framework 2011-2015 LINK. This document is the first in what will become a regular strategic exercise every four years, reflecting the hard work our Agency has engaged in to become a policy and thought leader in development. The President's Directive recognized the importance of international development to our nation's security and called on the U.S. Government to strengthen our capabilities to deliver effective development assistance. In particular, the President made clear his vision for strengthening USAID in order to establish it as the world's leading development Agency. Secretary of State Clinton has also strongly echoed this vision, articulating a path toward strong partnership in the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. I am proud of the steps that we have taken as an Agency to reflect on, strengthen and deliver real results towards this vision. Drawing on extensive consultation with colleagues in Washington and in our field missions, this document provides our staff and partners worldwide with a clear sense of our core development priorities; translates the President's Directive and the Secretary's Review into more detailed operational principles; explains how we will apply these principles across our entire portfolio; and lays out our agenda for institutional reform—USAID Forward—that is preparing the Agency to respond to the development challenges of the coming decades.

Promote Global Health and Strong Health Systems:
From Treating Diseases To Treating People
Reduce Climate Change Impacts and Promote Low Emissions Growth:
Building Resilience On Multiple Fronts

--Through Feed the Future (FtF), assist 18 million vulnerable women, children, and family members over the next five years to escape hunger and poverty by significantly increasing their purchasing power

--Lift 7.5 million people out of extreme poverty (defined as those living on less than $1.25 a day)

--In conjunction with the Global Health Initiative (GHI), help seven million children through nutrition interventions that prevent stunting and child mortality

--Generate $2.8 billion in agricultural GDP in our focus countries through investments in research and technology

--Leverage up to $70 million in private investment to create sustainable market opportunities

--Help developing countries increase their exports; for each dollar we spend on trade capacity-building, exports can increase by $43 over a two-year period

--Reduce the cost of doing business for the private sector in developing countries; for every dollar we spend on programs to improve the business-enabling environment, private sector firms’ costs of complying with regulation can be reduced by $29 per year, which helps stimulate entrepreneurship and private sector led growth

--Improve reading skills for 100 million children in primary grades by 2015 and improve the ability of tertiary and workforce development programs to generate workforce skills

--Through Partnerships for Growth (PFG), reduce the growth-inhibiting effect of key constraints to broad-based economic growth beginning in a small number of countries with high growth potential

--Extend credit guarantees to mobilize private sector financing through the Development Credit Authority
(DCA); for every dollar of loan guarantees made through the DCA, we can mobilize $28 of private capital

--Use our microenterprise programs to empower the poor; our programs have benefited close to one million very poor people per year, a majority of whom are women and over three-quarters of whom live in rural areas

--Reduce maternal mortality by 30 percent, reduce under-five child mortality by 35 percent across assisted countries, and prevent 54 million unintended pregnancies; reduce child mortality through investments in water, sanitation, and health (WASH)

--Halve the burden of malaria for 70 percent of the at-risk population in Africa through the President’s Malaria
Initiative (PMI)

--Support the prevention of more than 12 million new HIV infections, provide direct support to more than four million people on treatment, and support care for more than 12 million people, including five million orphans and children through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)

--Contribute to the treatment of a minimum of 2.6 million new sputum smear-positive turberculosis (TB) cases and 57,200 multidrug-resistant cases of TB; contribute to a 50 percent reduction in TB deaths and disease burden relative to the 1990 baseline

--Reduce the prevalence of seven neglected tropical diseases, contributing to the elimination of onchocerciasis in Latin America, and the elimination of lymphatic filariasis and leprosy, globally