USAID continues to show the world the best of America
Staff Writer
Islamabad: In 2022, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) continued to advance U.S. national security and economic prosperity and demonstrated American generosity while promoting a path to self-reliance and resilience in more than 100 countries around the world.
Through strong partnerships, we helped communities rebuild after disasters, empowered women and girls to share their voice, promoted economic growth that can pull families out of poverty, and ultimately led to transformative changes that improved everyday lives.
A few of the key areas where USAID’s work addressed some of the biggest challenges our world faced in 2022 and advanced a new vision for global development include:
This year, USAID responded to crises with life-saving humanitarian assistance in 64 countries, including the Horn of Africa, Haiti, and northern Ethiopia. In response to the devastating Pakistan flood alone, USAID delivered life-saving supplies and emergency assistance reaching nearly two million people.
In response to the Kremlin’s unprovoked and unjustified full-scale invasion of Ukraine, USAID quickly deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team to the region to support the Ukrainian people fleeing Putin’s aggression and to address critical humanitarian needs.
As the war against Ukraine continues and temperatures plummet this winter, USAID is helping restore electricity and heating by delivering 1,200 generators and other equipment, helping approximately 28 percent of the country’s farmers deliver this year’s harvest by providing agricultural inputs, storage, and other assistance, and providing life-saving necessities to Ukrainians, while supporting journalists and human rights lawyers documenting the Kremlin’s war crimes.
As part of the United States’ leading efforts to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, USAID has worked this year to strengthen healthcare systems, combat misinformation and vaccine hesitancy, and facilitate the donation of more than 673 million vaccines to more than 116 countries. Through the Global VAX initiative, USAID has helped countries get shots into arms – turning vaccines on tarmacs into vaccinations in arms by training local health care workers, building up cold storage chains, and partnering on valuable public information campaigns. And it has been highly effective: at the beginning of the year only 4 of the 11 Global VAX focus countries had full vaccination rates above 10 percent, and now 8 of the 11 have surpassed 25 percent coverage.
Additionally, USAID doubled the number of partner countries it supports in preventing, detecting, and responding to emerging infectious disease threats, expanding this work to 50 countries across the world. USAID has now also established a dedicated Outbreak Response Team that is expanding USAID’s capabilities to respond to multiple infectious disease outbreaks simultaneously, as well as improving outbreak response coordination with country governments, multilateral partners, and other U.S. government agencies.
USAID continued advancing global food security and addressing the global food crisis by investing in agricultural innovation to feed the world, partnering with the private sector to combat fertilizer shortages so smallholder farmers remain productive, and distributing lifesaving supplements to malnourished children. In Somalia, USAID supported more than 4.6 million people in the country with food assistance and provided more than two-thirds of all humanitarian funding to Somalia to date in 2022.
In 2022, USAID led efforts to address climate change by working with partner countries to protect critical ecosystems, transition to renewable energy, build resilience against the impacts of climate change, and promote the flow of capital toward climate-positive investments. This year, the Agency developed a new whole-of-agency Climate Strategy that sets specific targets for 2030 including: preventing 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions; conserving 100 million hectares of key ecosystems like tropical forests; supporting half a billion people to be better prepared and resilient to climate impacts; mobilizing $150 billion in public and private climate finance.
This year, USAID worked with reformers and local stakeholders to demonstrate the value of democracy and how it can deliver for everyone. Efforts included the new USAID Anti-Corruption Policy which establishes concrete agency commitments to transform the fight against corruption, recognizing the need to expand our anti-corruption work across sectors, forge new partnerships and coalitions, foster innovation, and bolster support for and protection of frontline journalists. In 2022, USAID also revamped its approach to helping reduce corruption from all levels and all sectors, especially addressing the pernicious impacts of transnational corruption and kleptocracy.
