Offices & Departments

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency that provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States. The United States has a long history of extending a helping hand to those people overseas struggling to make a better life, recover from a disaster or live in a free and democratic country. It is this caring that stands as a hallmark of the United States around the world -- and shows the world our true character as a nation. 

USAID has a substantial program in Malawi providing about $35 million annually in development assistance.  The primary goal of USAID assistance is poverty reduction and increased access to food through market-led economic growth, focusing on four areas:

1) increased incomes for rural households,
2) increased civic involvement,
3) improved health behavior and services, and
4) improved quality of primary education.

The USAID program is implemented in partnership with the Government of Malawi, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), other US government agencies, U.S. private voluntary organizations, contractors, and other partners.
In addition to development programming, USAID also provides humanitarian assistance to Malawi.  The United States is the largest contributor to the World Food Program (WFP) in Malawi, providing over $100 million in food and other emergency assistance through WFP since early 2002.   USAID is currently partnering with WFP to meet emergency humanitarian needs in response to the failed 2005 harvest.  

Sustainable Economic Growth
USAID’s program to increase rural incomes includes training and technical assistance to increase farmers’ productivity; increase access to export markets; improve access to financial services for small and medium-sized businesses; increase rural households’ incomes from environmentally-friendly practices; and improve food availability for vulnerable families in Malawi’s rural areas.  USAID is also encouraging farmers to diversify into dairy production, a very lucrative business in Malawi and well-suited to Malawi’s limited land area.  USAID grantee Land O’ Lakes continues to promote the growth of the dairy industry in Malawi through 55 dairy associations.

Democracy and Governance
2005 was a year of transition for the Democracy and Governance program. The primary focus was on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold Country Program development process in Malawi, which resulted in a $20.9 million award to Malawi to fight corruption and increase fiscal responsibility.  USAID also supported a project building on the strength of a previous work through radio, to reduce the potential of inter-religious conflict in Malawi.
 
Health, Population, and Nutrition
The Health, Population, and Nutrition Program is a complex, integrated effort to change the behaviors of individual Malawians that negatively impact their health status, assure that the individual Malawian can access quality health care, and to encourage the development of strong health policies, planning, and management. USAID supported the Government of Malawi in completing a national Demographic and Health Survey. When completed, the first-ever nationally representative population-based HIV prevalence rate for Malawi will be available, which will make for better-informed policy and program decisions as the nation combats the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Education
USAID continues funds activities that target quality and efficiency at the primary education sub-sector level, which is having a positive effect at both the local and national levels. At the local level, USAID funded activities are helping communities and parents make more informed decisions to improve the quality and efficiency of primary schooling.  In 2005 USAID continued to improve the quality and efficiency of basic education through: (1) development of teachers’ professional skills through undergraduate and graduate training; (2) reinforcement of innovative classroom practices through pre-service and in-service teacher training; (3) participation of communities and teacher training colleges in HIV/AIDS outreach activities; and (4) support of Government of Malawi to adopt key policy reforms in teacher education and HIV/AIDS.

For more information visit the USAID website at:

http://www.usaid.gov/mw/