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Saharah Moon ChapotinDeputy Assistant AdministratorBureau for Food Security
Goal Overview
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.
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 10 federal agencies (USAID; the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, State, and Treasury; 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 we work to strengthen the impact of our investments. We currently target 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). We 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. We focused our efforts even further by zeroing in on specific geographic zones (called “zones of influence”) that aligned with each country’s agricultural investment plan.
Within Feed the Future funding, the principal challenge to achieving a reduction in stunting and poverty are external risk factors that may inhibit reduction 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
With a clear focus on fighting poverty, hunger, and undernutrition, President Obama launched the global hunger and food security initiative called Feed the Future as one of the first foreign policy acts of his presidency. The United States pledged $3.5 billion to this effort over three years, which helped leverage an additional $18.5 billion in support from G-8 members and other donors. Led by USAID and drawing on the resources and expertise of 10 additional federal departments and agencies, Feed the Future is now delivering results that are changing the face of poverty and hunger for some of the world’s poorest families.
Feed the Future is demonstrating country-level results that positively impact millions of households. In FY 2015, Feed the Future exceeded its APG target of reaching eight million farmers and food producers with new technologies and management practices by over a million. Further details on Feed the Future’s whole-of-government results are available on the Feed the Future website.
For the performance indicator on Feed the Future funds disbursed, USAID exceeded the FY 2014 quarterly target and was within a few percentage points of the target for all other quarterly targets. For example, USAID finished FY 2015 by disbursing $2.51 billion, narrowly missing the target of $2.53 billion.
USAID met all its APG quarterly milestones for the FY 2014 – 2015 reporting period. Milestones included: 1) Making data sets related to food security available to the public; 2) promoting and coordinating knowledge-sharing events to ensure case studies, best practices, and lessons learned are widely shared across the Feed the Future partners and throughout the wider development community; 3) holding portfolio reviews of activities to review mission programming and performance; and 4) tracking senior level speaking engagements to ensure USAID remains engaged with partners on critical food security issues.
Explanation of Results
Feed the Future was slightly below its annual target of reaching seven million farmers and others in FY 2014, but exceeded its target of eight million in FY 2015, reaching over nine million farmers and producers. The data for this indicator come from the Feed the Future Monitoring System and reflects the total number of direct beneficiary producers who have applied improved technologies or management practices (such as use of improved/certified seed varieties, drip irrigation, low- or no-till practices, and integrated soil fertility management) as a result of U.S. Government assistance. A large portion of this increase is due to on-going efforts to scale best practices and proven improved technologies.
USAID was consistently shy of reaching its quarterly targets for the amount of Feed the Future funds disbursed. However, in quarter four of FY 2015, the Agency achieved 99.3 percent of its target. Feed the Future continues to make concerted efforts to close programmatic gaps, including supporting the use of improved practices and technological innovations to improve productivity and nutrition; empowering women to realize their potential as farmers and entrepreneurs; assisting communities become more resilient to natural and man-made stresses and shocks; supporting key infrastructure, such as roads and irrigation projects; connecting smallholders to financial services and markets; and helping governments and regional institutions develop policies that promote good nutrition and inclusive economic growth. These efforts to expand the reach of our programming help to ensure funds are disbursed in a timely manner.
Challenges and Opportunities
While Feed the Future’s collective progress has been impressive, the world must remain focused on meeting the challenge of improving global food security and nutrition among the world’s poorest. In July 2016, President Obama signed into law the Global Food Security Act of 2016, a bipartisan piece of legislation. This law sends a clear message that the United States is committed to empowering small farmers, and strengthening communities and economies through agricultural development. The legislation reinforces the U.S. Government’s successful approach to increasing food security and nutrition through the Feed the Future initiative. It also codifies the U.S. Government’s commitment to the productivity, incomes, and livelihoods, of small-scale producers, particularly women. It does so by working across agricultural value chains and expanding farmers’ access to local and international markets. Moving forward, USAID will continue to work with partners to improve lasting food security, nutrition, economic growth, and resilience. This will help build a more secure future and make progress toward ending poverty, hunger, and malnutrition.
With respect to the APG, the indicator “Amount of Feed the Future funds disbursed since 2010,” which specifically tracks USAID disbursements against the President's government-wide pledge of $3.5 billion over three years for the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative. USAID’s contribution to the L’Aquila pledge comprises obligations from FY 2010 – FY 2012 resources. This indicator is not representative of all Food Security disbursement efforts as it does not track additional annual funding supporting agriculture and food security efforts appropriated and obligated in subsequent years.
Although the Agency was consistently within a few percentage points of the target, in a few cases, humanitarian crises hindered program implementation and affected USAID’s ability to achieve disbursement targets (e.g., coup in Mali, Ebola crisis). This indicator helps to track Feed the Future’s ability to program, implement, and scale food security activities. Feed the Future missions have continued to make concerted efforts to close programmatic gaps, scale promising technologies, and expand the reach of interventions to more smallholders, helping to ensure funds are disbursed in a timely manner.
Although USAID achieved its target for the number of farmers and producers reached in FY 2015, this indicator only counts Feed the Future beneficiaries actively engaged in programs. Farmers still applying improved technologies or practices after they are no longer a beneficiary are not counted. While overall reporting figures may shift in future years, it does not necessarily reflect the full reach and impact of Feed the Future activities to assist farmers to utilize new and improved technologies.
The Food Security APG is one of USAID's FY 2016-2017 APGs.
Milestones:
- Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 quarter one: Make two datasets related to food security available for public use. Open data is a priority for the U.S. Government. Sharing our datasets will allow outside organizations and individuals to build on our knowledge and learning and promote transparancy. Nine new data sets are online (Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and the Feed the Future Monitoring System (FTFMS) Aggregate Dataset, which is three data sets in one). This is in addition to Bangladesh, Ghana, and the WEAI from before but which could not be counted because they were before the reporting period. We are now ahead of schedule for our FY 2015 quarter one milestone.
- FY 2014 quarter two: Participate in or coordinate 10 formal knowledge-sharing events addressing Feed the Future and cross-sector initiatives. Feed the Future seeks to advance comprehensive strategies that focus on improving the productivity and market access of small-scale producers, particularly women, and to increase the adoption of transformative technologies. Knowledge-sharing helps achieve these goals both within Feed the Future investments and throughout the wider development community. To date, we have held 25 formal knowledge-sharing events addressing Feed the Future and cross-sector initiatives.
- FY 2014 quarter three: Conduct 15 Bureau for Food Security (BFS) and Feed the Future portfolio reviews. Portfolio reviews promote accountability and performance by allowing USAID to review new priorities, mission programming, financial data, and results. From March to May 2014, USAID conducted portfolio reviews for 24 Missions: Ethiopia, Senegal, Malawi, Mali, South Africa, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Zambia, Nepal, Ghana, West Africa Regional, Cambodia, Guatemala, Rwanda, Mozambique, Uganda, India, Kenya, Haiti, Tajikistan, Nigeria, Liberia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and East Africa Regional.
- FY 2014 quarter four: Participate in 10 BFS senior-level speaking engagements with stakeholders. We exceeded this milestone by participating in 18 speaking engagements during FY 2014 quarter four. In total, we participated in 79 senior-level speaking engagements in FY 2014. The breakdown is as follows: quarter one: 14; quarter two: 17; quarter three: 30; quarter four: 18
- FY 2015 quarter one: Make seven datasets (since FY 2014) related to food security available for public use. USAID met this milestone in FY 2014 quarter one. Nine datasets are online as of September 2014 (Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and the Feed the Future Monitoring System (FTFMS) aggregate dataset, which is three combined datasets). This is in addition to Bangladesh, Ghana, and the WEAI, which were published before the reporting period.
- FY 2015 quarter two: Participate in or coordinate 10 formal knowledge-sharing events addressing Feed the Future and cross-sector initiatives. Due to dedicated efforts by the Bureau for Food Security (BFS) team, USAID met its knowledge‐sharing event target for FY 2015 quarter two. In addition to the regular monthly meetings of BFS’ flagship Ag Sector Council Seminar Series, BFS held two special seminars that drew strong audiences from cross‐cutting sectors. Feed the Future values interactive events that allow agricultural development practitioners to network, access new technical information, and build on others' ideas.
- FY 2015 quarter three: Conduct 15 BFS and Feed the Future portfolio reviews. BFS conducted 24 portfolio reviews of Feed the Future country programs with USAID missions from March to May 201, exceeding the milestone target of 15 reviews. Portfolio reviews promote accountability and performance by allowing BFS to review mission programming accomplishments and challenges, financial data, and results. The process of preparing reviews also helps ensure accurate activity data and consistent reporting across FTF, maintaining data quality. This is an effective exercise that BFS continues to streamline with other Agency reporting requirements.
- FY 2015 quarter four: Participate in 10 BFS senior-level speaking engagements with stakeholders. BFS exceeded this milestone by participating in 20 speaking engagements during FY 2015 Q4. In total, BFS participated in 87 senior-level speaking engagements in FY 2015. The breakdown is as follows: Q1: 36; Q2: 15; Q3: 16; Q4: 20. This milestone helps ensure that a broad movement of stakeholders recognizes that food insecurity can be eliminated.
Next Steps
No Data Available
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
Contributing programs within the agency:
Feed the Future is integral to achieving the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014-2015 Agency Priority Goal (APG) for Food Security. USAID’s Bureau for Food Security (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 Administrator will report on behalf of the Agency and Feed the Future, and the BFS Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator will have lead responsibility for accomplishment of this APG. The USAID Office of Strategic Planning and Performance Management and of 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 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. Our 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 our tracking of the 2014-2015 APG through the Feed the Future Monitoring System.
Expand All
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.
