The narrow streets and sky blue doors and windows of Morocco’s crumbling mellahs, or Jewish quarters, contain a treasure trove of history. But when this history was at risk of being lost, two new USAID partners—Rabat-based Association Mimouna and New York-based American Sephardi Federation (ASF)—co-created a project, supported under USAID’s New Partnerships Initiative (NPI), to train residents of the mellahs to share the history of their neighborhoods as tour guides and through the sale of Judaica-focused handicrafts and traditional food, giving residents an economic lifeline while preserving an important dimension of Morocco’s diverse past.

As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) proliferates, more instances of the inequitable design, use, and impact of AI-enabled tools in developing countries are coming to light. Many of these tools and approaches have the capacity for inequitable outcomes across genders due to humans unconsciously embedding bias in AI technology during data collection, model design, or end-use applications. As a result, these tools often pose the greatest risk of harm and missed opportunities to those already marginalized in low- and middle-income countries. To foster an equitable and inclusive digital ecosystem, more efforts are needed to identify innovative and creative approaches to help decision-makers address actual and potential gender biases and inequitable outcomes resulting from AI technology.

What would development look like if solutions to persistent and complex problems were sourced and delivered from the ground up? To see the potential of this approach, just look to USAID’s Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation, where the Exploratory Programs and Innovation Competitions (EPIC) team casts a wide net to incentivize, find, nurture, and fund development innovations through Agency competitions, tapping into out-of-the-box solutions from a host of new, nontraditional, and local partners.

On Thursday, December 16, at 8:30 a.m. ET, USAID will host our FY 2022 First Quarter Business Forecast and Partner Update webinar.

South Sudan, a nation founded in 2011 following a destructive civil war, is a challenging place for international development organizations and partners to work. Threats to the safety of foreign development workers are widespread, making implementation of projects extremely difficult. In this context, programming through local organizations, who are embedded in communities, and therefore can operate less conspicuously, is almost a necessity. So when the South Sudan Mission needed to acquire data about the quality of services being provided to people living with HIV/AIDS around South Sudan, these circumstances, combined with a Mission team that was open-minded about finding the right mechanism for achieving the Agency’s objectives, created the conditions for a first-of-its-kind direct contract award to a local organization in South Sudan.

The USAID Office of Acquisition and Assistance's Industry Liaison Team will be hosting a number of webinars to help guide you through all that the new WorkwithUSAID.org platform has to offer as well as to share information on how to partner with USAID.

Today, the world faces an enormous annual gap of $2.5 trillion to finance global development goals and this gap cannot be made up by foreign assistance alone. In fact, an estimated 90 percent of global financial flows to emerging economies come from private, not public, investment. To achieve a greater development impact, it will be essential to engage and collaborate with the private sector to drive sustainable growth, create jobs, and advance opportunities that improve lives and build resilience worldwide. 

The Rainforest Alliance, funded by USAID as part of the New Partnerships Initiative, leverages local partnerships to help women in Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico develop leadership skills and access economic opportunities. Learn how the project tapped into local partners’ expertise to find success in new ways despite recent challenges.