USAID Administrator, Samantha Power shares her Exit Memo
By Amos Oladele
Samantha Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, has made her exit memo public. This is preparatory to the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States of America on Monday, January 20, 2025.
Titled, Four Years of Progress at USAID, the statement reads which introduces the memo reads, “Serving as USAID Administrator has been the privilege of a lifetime. As the Biden-Harris Administration comes to a close, I am pleased to share an Exit Memo capturing some of USAID’s key accomplishments over the past four years.
“This Memo chronicles how, in an era of strategic competition and transnational challenges, we’ve worked together to transform USAID into a more responsive, efficient, and catalytic Agency. It describes how we’ve evolved to partner far more closely and often with the private sector, navigate rapidly changing digital technologies, counter the threats posed by the People’s Republic of China’s approach to development, and more – all while responding to a series of crises, from historic natural disasters to devastating conflicts.
“Despite continuing challenges around the world, I am leaving this role enormously hopeful about the future of USAID and the work – and the stories in these pages will show you why”.
On its part, the Exit Memo, titled, USAID under Administrator Samantha Power, gives an Executive Summary which runs thus: “In 2021, President Biden pledged that the United States would “help lead the world toward a more peaceful, prosperous future for all people.” Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USAID has played a central role in advancing that goal while strengthening America’s national security, expanding our economic prosperity, and upholding our nation’s values. With a presence in more than 100 countries and a deep global network of partnerships in communities, businesses, and governments around the globe, USAID is America’s foreign policy ground game.
“With bipartisan support from both houses of Congress, the Biden-Harris Administration has ushered in a new era in USAID’s history, transforming the Agency’s impact by making USAID more responsive to global challenges, more efficient in its operations, and more catalytic in its approach.
“Over the past four years, USAID has responded to a range of the world’s most pressing and complex challenges. We have bolstered democracies, fostered inclusive economic growth, supported women’s empowerment, fought climate change, played a central role in the U.S. government’s strategy to help the people of Ukraine fight back against Putin’s unjust war, and countered the influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and other authoritarian actors. We have also led the world in addressing natural disasters and humanitarian crises; expanded our presence in geostrategically important areas around the world, including in Angola, Ecuador, Fiji, Maldives, and Papua New Guinea; and responded to threats posed by conflicts and global health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic. With the Agency serving as a permanent member of the National Security Council for the first time in history, we brought development and humanitarian considerations—as well as essential perspectives from the communities where we work—to the center of government decision-making.
“We’ve also gone farther than ever in maximizing the efficiency of every dollar we spend. We have reformed how USAID works, increasing our use of evidence and data, as well as cutting red tape and bureaucratic burdens, in order to channel taxpayer resources more effectively. We have modernized the Agency’s structure, creating three new Independent Offices to bring together expertise on major cross-cutting issues and reorganizing core aspects of our work into four new Bureaus focused on core development challenges in the 21st century.
“We created a second Deputy Administrator position to better provide the full operational, programmatic, and budgetary leadership required for one of the United States’ premier foreign policy agencies. And, we strengthened our teams on the ground, including by taking unprecedented steps to empower our overseas local workforce, recruit the most diverse Foreign Service classes in USAID’s history, and rebuild our Foreign Service workforce to its highest staffing level in a decade.
“Finally, we’ve made our Agency much more catalytic, delivering progress far beyond our programs. Through USAID’s convening power, our global footprint, our influence in key multilateral institutions, our growing linkages to the private sector, and our strategic communications channels, we have the potential to drive collective action far beyond the scope of our programming. We’ve strengthened USAID’s role in the foreign policy space and urged our teams at home and abroad to see themselves as change agents rather than program implementers. We have boosted contributions from the private sector to USAID activities by 42 percent since 2021, and our public-private partnerships leveraged an average of $5 from partners for every $1 we provided in taxpayer money. And we made important progress on empowering local actors as we seek to make USAID’s work more effective and sustainable—including by doubling the amount of funding provided to local partners compared to 2021.
“This memo describes key USAID achievements over the four years of the Biden-Harris Administration and highlights how this Agency has driven progress on the range of challenges facing the world”.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.