Policy Updates

On June 28, 2024, based on a new report from the IPC, USAID Administrator Samantha Power raised concerns about growing acute food security reported in April and May 2024 in Sudan, along with dire projections for June 2024 through February 2025.

Power noted that the food insecurity crisis is historically severe, with more than half of Sudan's population facing severe levels of hunger, which are the highest levels ever measured.

Power pointed to the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces and the inability to get humanitarian assistance to the region. Although the US and other partners are continuing to support the people of Sudan with provisions of food, malnutrition treatment, health care, and other assistance, especially to vulnerable populations, more is needed to assist the cross border assistance relief effort.

Power also called upon the warring factions to negotiate an immediate ceasefire.

On June 27, 2024, USAID announced US$66 million to Zambia, which is designated by the US as a Feed the Future accelerator county, to mitigate worsening drought conditions, strengthen food security efforts, and build local resilience.

Zambia's crop loss has reached between 60-95% due to drought conditions, increasing food prices by 83%. USAID is providing emergency assistance to address the urgent nutritional crisis, as well as help farmers in Zambia strengthen longer-term resilience.

The US and Zambia are working together to help implement the Feed the Future program, including through implementation of the Feed the Future Accelerator effort.

On June 20, 2024, USAID issued its second progress report, finding that its direct funding percentage dropped from 10.2% in FY2022 to 9.6 % for FY2023, showing little progress towards its goal of 25% direct funding by 2025.

An independent report also found that the percentage had dropped, although it put direct funding lower at 5.2%.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power set an ambitious goal on localization in November 2021, pledging that by 2025, 25% of USAID's funding would go directly to local organizations and by 2030, 50% of program design, implementation, priorities, and metrics would be led through local partners.

Power stressed that the agency was committed to the localization agenda, but noted that shifting systems in an agency as large as USAID would take time. USAID has instituted changes to help reach its localization goal, including changes to the acquisition and assistance procedures, translating documents into other languages, and helping to reduce the barriers to local organizations' ability to participate.

The independent report, while praising Power's ambitious goal, outlined two major flaws in the way that USAID is measuring and implementing its 25% goal:

• The definition of "local" is too broad, creating opportunities for affiliates of international groups to be counted as local; and
• The envelope of funding, or the total amount considered when calculating the percentage of local funding, is much smaller than it should be. The report called for USAID to open up all financial flows to countries so that local organizations have more opportunities to compete. Currently, USAID only includes funding to NGOs, academia, and private companies.

On June 20, 2024, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron attended the Gavi Investment Opportunity and AVMA launch in Paris, France, and pledged to reallocate GBP49 million (US$58 million) to Gavi’s newly launched AVMA through reallocated COVID-19 funding already committed to Gavi.

Co-hosted by Gavi, the African Union, and France, the event saw Gavi lay out its investment case for 2026 and 2030 and call for US$9 billion in new donor funding.

The UK did not make an early pledge to Gavi’s new replenishment, unlike the US, France, Spain, and some philanthropic providers, which committed a total of US$2.4 billion. Gavi is set to engage in an intense period of fundraising with a view to hosting a final pledging event in 7 to 12 months.

Since the creation of Gavi, the UK has invested GBP5.5 billion (US$7 billion) in the organization, helping to vaccinate over a billion children and save millions of lives.

The UK did not provide an early pledge to Gavi's 2026-2030 replenishment.

On June 15, 2024, during a peace summit in Ukraine with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US Vice President Kamala Harris announced a new US$1.5 billion package of support to the people of Ukraine through energy, humanitarian assistance, and civil society.

The assistance will come through both USAID and the State Department and includes US$500 million in new assistance for the energy sector. US$324 million in previously announced energy funding will be used to address emergency assistance aimed to repair damaged infrastructure, as well as to expand and protect other infrastructure.

US$379 million in humanitarian assistance will provide food, health, shelter, and WASH services to the people of Ukraine. The final part of the package will assist with civilian security assistance to help law enforcement and border guards operate on the front lines.

On June 14, 2024, USAID and the US State Department announced an additional US$315 million for emergency assistance to the people of Sudan in response to the ongoing regional crisis.

The war, having lasted for over a year, has caused extreme hunger for nearly 5 million people. Overall, about 25 million people in Sudan are in need of immediate assistance, which has internally displaced about 10 million people and has cause food insecurity in Sudan's border countries. The new funding is slated to help address acute malnutrition and hunger-related deaths.

The assistance will provide food, nutrition services, WASH services, and health care, especially focused on children. Other lifesaving assistance will be provided to refugees both in Sudan and in neighboring countries.

On May 28, 2024, USAID announced an additional US$176 million to communities in the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin areas of West Africa in response to increased humanitarian needs brought about by declining security conditions.

The emergency relief will include food, nutrition, safe water, health care, and assistance to the most vulnerable populations. The assistance will be implemented through the UNFP, UNICEF, and OCHA, and will go to people in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Nigeria.

The US is the largest donor to the region. Representatives noted the serious humanitarian crises and called on other donors to help meet the funding shortfall.

On May 27, 2024, as part of the European conference on Syria, the US pledged US$593 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the people of Syria, amounting to almost 15% of the total appeal for funding for this year.

According to USAID, 90% of the Syrian population live below the poverty line, and 70%, of half of which are children, will need humanitarian assistance. The conditions were brought about by the ongoing conflict and a 2023 earthquake. The assistance is slated to include food, water, shelter, health care, and protection for vulnerable people.

This US has provided a total of US$17.8 billion for the Syrian response since the beginning of the conflict.

On May 23-25, 2024, the G7 Ministers of Finance met at a summit in Stresa, Italy, where the ministers voiced support for contributions to the IDA, WHO, Gavi, and the Global Fund in the resulting communiqué.

The G7 ministers supported efforts towards a successful 21^st replenishment of the IDA by the end of 2024 through an ambitious policy and financing package. Notably, they did not give a concrete signal that the critical US$100 billion threshold requested by the World Bank will be crossed, nor any indication of the US$120 billion expected by African leaders.

The ministers reaffirmed their dedication to strengthening the governance and finance of the global health architecture and voiced support for refinancing processes of several GHIs, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the WHO, and the Global Fund, and expressed support for the Pandemic Fund. The communiqué called on the donor community to coordinate efforts and increase investments in global health in line with their capacities to ensure sustainable funding and maximize the impact of available resources.

Following the summit, the C7 pointed out the G7's lack of ambition and financial commitment to international development, including climate adaptation. International civil society organizations criticized the lack of any reference to allocating SDRs to global solidarity.

On May 23, 2024, as part of the state visit of Kenyan President William Ruto's visit to the US, the US and Kenya announced a number of new programs, commitments, and partnerships covering a wide range of topics including governance, democracy, criminal justice reform, free elections, civil society protections, corruption, and human rights.

DFC announced a new US$250 million financing agreement with Kenya to support the private sector in building renewable energy, digital connectivity, and affordable student housing. In addition, DFC will be opening a DFC regional office in Nairobi, which will serve as a base for increasing private sector development in Kenya and across Africa.

USAID and Kenya announced new partnerships in education and STEM-related fields between US and Kenyan universities to promote high education and post-high school education. Microsoft and Mastercard are also part of the effort to increase science, technology, and math education in Kenya as a way to improve economic growth.