U.S. Department of State

Message From the USAID Administrator

The Obama Administration has pledged to elevate development to play a critical role, alongside defense and diplomacy, in our nation’s national security and foreign policy. Secretary Clinton and I are committed to making USAID the world’s premier development agency. USAID is central to U.S. efforts to improve food security and human health, reduce poverty, mitigate the impact of global climate change, to empower women and girls, help countries like Haiti recover from natural disasters, and bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, Iraq and many other places throughout the world.

Development is a long-term process that must be embraced and led by the people of developing nations themselves. Our objective is to create conditions where countries no longer need our assistance; where people have access to healthcare, education and food, communities and private enterprise thrive, governments are accountable to their citizens, and democratic institutions deliver services and improved living standards.

On behalf of the American people, USAID’s results in 2009 include:

• In sub-Saharan Africa, sustained high level of childhood vaccination in target areas with 82% of children receiving a third dose of diphtheria-pertusis-tetanus vaccines for two consecutive years, and 75% of children receiving two doses of vitamin A. Reduced deaths of children under age five by 30% in three years in Senegal alone due to targeted malaria activities.
• Strengthened the capacity of financial institutions to lend to small businesses, as evidenced by an additional $316 million in private financing through 19 new Development Credit Authority guarantees, to help micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises gain access to commercial sources of capital.
• Encouraged transparent, participatory, and accountable governance in 61 countries, many of them emerging and consolidating democracies, in part by training over 117,000 justice sector personnel and domestic election observers.
• Increased the cultivation of alternative crops to coca and poppy, leading to more jobs and income in targeted areas. In Colombia alone, USAID exceeded the FY 2009 target of 93,777 hectares of alternative crops by 28,777 hectares.
• Responded to 57 life-threatening disasters in 46 countries providing more than $754 million to those in need. In all cases, USAID responded within 72 hours of declared disasters.
• Through the Development Leadership Initiative, increased USAID’s workforce by 207 Foreign Service Officers in FY 2009, significantly strengthening its ability to deliver more effective development programs.
• Launched a new worldwide integrated procurement system, Global Acquisition and Assistance System, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of a critical Agency business process.
• For the seventh consecutive year, earned unqualified opinions on its financial statements, a representation that these statements fairly present the financial condition of the Agency.

All these accomplishments are possible due to the commitment and talent of our workforce overseas and at home. Many Agency professionals endured hardship, spent time away from families, and even put their lives in danger to help partner nations. In fact, 40% of USAID’s Foreign Service Officers have served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or Sudan.

I am pleased to certify that the performance and financial data are complete and reliable. It is USAID’s policy that all performance data reported to the American public are assessed against standards of validity, integrity, precision, reliability, and timeliness to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the data and the extent to which they can be trusted for programmatic decisions. A fuller discussion of FY 2009 performance and data sources is available in the 2009 Foreign Assistance Performance Report published in the joint USAID and Department of State FY 2011 Foreign Operations Congressional Budget Justification.

Rajiv Shah Administrator, USAID April 30, 2010