Bilateral aid assistance from the United States supports developing nations in economic development, humanitarian aid, health, good governance and security, environment, and multi-sector initiatives. The major regional recipients of US aid are Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Middle East/North Africa. USAID is the United States’ main bilateral funding scheme; however bilateral funds are also channeled through many governmental departments and agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Department of Agriculture, the Center for Disease Control, and the Department of State through local offices of the US embassy. In this brief profile of US bilateral funding, we will only cover information and statistics on USAID and the Department of State.
- ODA Statistics on Aid Activities
Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the US bilateral agencies has stabilized since the financial crisis in 2008, averaging at about 30.5 billion USD per year to developing country recipients between 2010 and 2012 .
Official Development Assistance to developing countries by US bilateral agencies focuses on the country’s strategic goals of development, global health, humanitarian aid, and anti-terrorism. More specifically, US ODA primarily supports s health and population services, multi-sector initiatives, humanitarian aid, and government and civil society programs.
Aid assistance is concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, South /Central Asia, and the Middle East/North Africa, with the top ten country recipients of US bilateral funds accounting for 39% of the country’s total disbursements in 20113. Bilateral agencies also support a number of multilateral organizations such as the International Development Association, Global Fund to Fight Aids, and the Asian Development Fund.
- Bilateral Parts and Organizations
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the country’s leading agency for international development and humanitarian assistance to developing countries. With a presence in 87 countries, USAID works to advance broad-based economic growth, democracy and human rights in developing nations.
The agency has defined ten sectors of focus for their aid activities-
- Agriculture and food security
- Democracy, human rights, and governance
- Economic growth and trade
- Education
- Environment and global climate change
- Gender equality and women’s empowerment
- Global health
- Science, technology, and innovation
- Water and sanitation
- Working in crises and conflicts
Additionally USAID leads three Presidential Initiatives-
Department of State–
The United States Department of State leads the nation’s foreign and diplomatic affairs. The purpose of the agency is the achieve and implement American foreign policy by promoting and protecting the interests of Americans; ensuring peace and stability in regions of national interest,; helping developing nations to establish stable economies; and building partnerships with nations to address global issues. Operating through more than 270 embassies abroad, the Department of State—in collaboration with USAID—works to achieve their strategic goals. Jointly, the Department of State and USAID have requested a budget of about $48 billion for the fiscal year of 2014.
The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) within the Department of State provides aid and assistance to refugees, victims of conflict, and stateless population. While PRM allocates the majority of its bilateral funding to large international organizations, the Bureau also provide some funding opportunities to local NGOs on a small scale. PRM’s priority regions for overseas assistance include Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
How to Get Funding from USAID and the Department of State:
To identify funding opportunities from USAID and the Department of State, NGOs should regularly monitor the website grants.gov, which provides listings of requests for proposals for federal grants. NGOs can perform basic searches for grants through the grants.gov database by selecting specific funding activities and categories, federal agencies and sub-agencies, eligibility requirements, etc.
Local offices of the US Embassy occasionally offer small grants to local NGOs. To identify these opportunities, NGOs can regularly check the NGO grant section of the US Embassy websites for their country. For example, the US Embassy Lusaka has three funding program for local NGOs to support democracy and human rights, small-scale assistance, orphans and vulnerable children, and HIV/AIDs prevention.
Additionally, NGOs should visit the local offices of local missions and offices of USAID and the US Embassy to network with the officers responsible for aid assistance and grantmaking in the local country.
For further information on this resource please contact fundsforngos.org
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