U.S. Leadership in Global Development is Advancing a World that is More Free, Open, Prosperous, and Secure

Working in international development has never attracted the faint of heart. Calls to end extreme poverty, reduce child malnutrition and infant mortality, or cultivate peace and stability are—and always have been—goals of the highest order. But they are complex, challenging issues. And that complexity is part of what inspires us to continue striving, despite the difficulty.?

In recent decades, development practitioners were hopeful as we watched significant progress unfold. Under the Millennium Development Goals , more than one billion people were lifted out of poverty, millions more children attended school, tens of millions of lives were saved from preventable and treatable diseases like measles, malaria, and tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS deaths plummeted. In 2015, 193 United Nations member states came together to adopt an ambitious, universal 15-year successor framework for global development – the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Today, a year past the halfway point toward 2030, we are only on track to achieve 15% of the SDG targets.?

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in millions of deaths, economic turmoil, and rising global poverty and inequality. The worsening climate crisis continues to destabilize and disproportionately affect those least able to withstand its impacts. The world is experiencing a global food crisis, unprecedented levels of human displacement, as well as sustained threats to democracy and human rights.?

So what can we do when the future looks more bleak than most of us can remember?

First and foremost, we should remember: Humanity has continued to advance despite daunting challenges before. To keep countries and societies moving forward, the collective efforts of the development community, especially local stakeholders, are more critical than ever.?

At USAID, we are working to deepen our work with local partners, encourage fellow donors to increase their own commitments, and partner with the private sector like never before.

USAID’s Policy Framework and the White House’s recently released U.S. Strategy for Global Development reminds us that, while today’s complex crises are stacked high, our commitment must not waver. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is exactly the kind of ambition the world needs to help inspire the innovative and courageous action needed to solve these massive, interwoven challenges.?

The Strategy on Global Development provides a useful guide for how we accomplish that.?

1. Pursue more inclusive partnerships to expand locally-led solutions. We know that local leadership and local ownership are central to achieving meaningful, equitable, and sustainable change. It is hard not to be inspired by local changemakers in all their diversity – from digital-savvy youth, to action-oriented community groups, to the small and medium enterprises that often serve as the engines of economic growth. And It is critical that we remain committed to shifting and sharing power to ensure local actors are able to drive change in their countries and communities, including by channeling high quality funding as directly as possible to local actors.
2. Use evidence and advance international principles of effective development cooperation. While we need to increase creativity and risk taking, we also need to dig into what we already know does and does not work – such as country ownership and a focus on results. Continuing to ask where progress is still being made – and where it’s not – will help us determine what we need to continue and what we need to change.?
3. Stay true to our values. These principles are part and parcel of a broader value system that distinguishes our approach to global development from other models. As we engage with partner countries, the United States proudly leads with our values, including transparency and accountability, respect for human rights and dignity, democratic governance, and the rule of law. We promote equity, equality and inclusion to leave no one behind. We will seek and promote collective action, including through multilateral engagement. And we remain as committed as ever to needs-based humanitarian assistance guided by the foundational humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence.

As President Biden said during his address to the 79th UN General Assembly: “Our task, our test is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart, that the principles of partnership that we come here each year to uphold can withstand the challenges.”?

As we prepare to engage our partners at the G7 and G20 meetings in the next few months, the United States remains committed to reclaiming lost development gains and accelerating collective progress toward achieving the SDGs. And if we stand together, human history shows that we can do just about anything – including creating a more secure, more prosperous, and more equitable world for all.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Christophe Tocco, Acting Assistant to the Administrator, leads USAID’s Bureau for Planning, Learning and Resource Management