USAID Resilience Policy 2024

As an update to USAID’s inaugural resilience policy (2012), this policy reiterates the goal of reducing humanitarian need in areas of recurrent crisis while also reinforcing resilience as an Agency priority across all USAID programming. The 2012 policy was developed on the heels of the devastating 2011 famine in East Africa, and, in response, it centered on climate-related shocks and stresses and their impacts on food security in areas of recurrent crisis. More than a decade later, the risk context that USAID is confronting has changed, defined now by pandemics, accelerated democratic backsliding, and rising conflict and violence, as well as the intensifying impacts of climate change.

In light of the increasing and sustained pace of shocks that threaten global prosperity and opportunity, this policy begins with the premise that it is a development imperative to take risk seriously through investments that strengthen the capacity of communities and systems to manage shocks and stresses.3 USAID strengthens resilience by analyzing and understanding complex risks and investing in sources of resilience that can manage these risks while improving the well-being outcomes USAID cares about. Equally important is how USAID does this: our resilience efforts focus on flexible and adaptive approaches that work across sectors and types of programming to shore up the ability of communities and systems to manage risks. USAID cannot act alone in making these investments. Our partnerships with other donors, host governments, and global and local partners are critical for driving investment in evidence-based interventions, local systems, and new policy solutions.

Source: USAID
Year: 2024