A compendium of work performed by PSC’s Council of International Development Companies (CIDC) members in partnership with USAID, the Department of State, and other U.S. foreign policy-focused agencies.


Click here to download a pdf of this compendium.

Table of Contents

 

PSC Members Support a World in Need
David Berteau,
President & CEO, Professional Services Council


Each year, PSC seeks new opportunities to highlight the always critical, often transformative work of those American businesses that support federal missions. In 2023, we published a compendium of fourteen compelling vignettes, which demonstrated PSC members’ commitment to the safety, security, and well-being of the Ukrainian people specifically.

Here in 2024, we want to showcase the global aspect of work performed by PSC’s Council of International Development Companies (CIDC) members in partnership with USAID, the Department of State, and other U.S. foreign policy-focused agencies.

These American contractors provide much-needed services and solutions around the globe in various sectors. From agriculture and healthcare to energy and water… from social and legal services for refugees and internally displaced peoples to digital and IT infrastructure assistance… these U.S. businesses go wherever they are needed to help those most in need.

This compendium presents examples of projects and programs supported by PSC members– efficiently and effectively leveraging American taxpayer dollars while also expanding the reach of U.S. assistance through blended finance and public/private partnerships.

As you read through these examples, I hope you will recognize and appreciate – as I do – the commitment and dedication demonstrated by these American companies and their employees and business partners as they support U.S. government efforts worldwide.

For over 50 years, the Professional Service Council (PSC) has served to advocate, educate, and create public-private dialogues on behalf of American contractors and their U.S. government customers. In the last five decades, PSC’s membership has grown from 35 to more than 400 U.S. companies, which provide critical support to every federal agency and department in the United States and around the globe. 

 

With Special Thanks

   

Health Electrification and Telecommunications



HETA is Power Africa’s flagship initiative to expand energy access and internet connectivity for health facilities across sub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, we work with public and private sector partners to design and deploy market-based renewable energy and digital connectivity solutions. HETA’s work is designed to amplify investments in health priorities such as HIV and malaria, while contributing to broader health system resilience in peri-urban and rural areas.

Tanzania’s government has made substantial progress in improving the health of its people, with support from USAID, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and other development partners.

Most public health facilities are connected to the national electricity grid, but many smaller facilities, private facilities, and rural dispensaries are not. Grid reliability is another key challenge, with regular outages affecting health service delivery and leading to high operational costs as a result of using fossil fuel–powered back-up generators. Lack of power, poor quality, and unreliable supply also hinders the health system’s digital connectivity and access to data for patient registration, tracking, and treatment.

In Tanzania, HETA’s work is optimizing investments in health service delivery by securing sustainable partnerships that improve health facilities’ access to reliable electricity and enables improved digital connectivity. This will improve health care providers’ ability to meet clients’ needs for care and support new service delivery models that make health services more convenient and comprehensive. 


HETA’S SOLUTION IN TANZANIA

Since June 2023, HETA has been catalyzing partnerships to rapidly expand energy access and digital connectivity for 250 to 300 facilities across Tanzania. HETA is also engaging public and private sector actors to lay the groundwork for longer-term investments in energy access and connectivity for Tanzania’s health system.

• Activity 1: Enhance access to electricity and digital connectivity to improve business operations in accredited drug dispensing outlets (ADDOs) and pharmacies. By November 2023, 310 ADDOs have acquired solar energy systems and/or signed up to use a mobile application to manage sales, inventories, and accounts. Combined, these facilities’ catchment areas represent more than 1.9 million people.



• Activity 2: Support 40 high-priority health facilities through the Christian Social Services Commission (CSSC) to address electricity and digital connectivity needs and develop operations and maintenance fund. CSSC is collaborating with ENSOL (Tanzania) Limited as a technology provider and for capacity strengthening related to sustainable operations and maintenance.

• Activity 3: Conduct an in-depth market assessment of energy and digital connectivity needs in the private health sector and develop an interventions roadmap.

• Activity 4: Initiate efforts to coordinate ongoing and planned donor and government investments in health facility electrification.

• Through these efforts, HETA is developing customized, locally led business models with built-in operations and maintenance plans so the energy and connectivity systems will continue supporting high-quality health service delivery and access to data well into the future. HETA’s activities will be expanded in subsequent years as more needs are identified and implementation resources are mobilized.
Addressing the Needs of Ukraine and Beyond

Amentum serves U.S. foreign policy to help the people of Ukraine across 33 years of independence and prior critical missions that include diplomacy and international development, architecture and engineering, and construction. From designing the 30-ton cement cap for Chernobyl, to safely disarming weaponry according to the international disarmament treaties across 54 projects, Amentum addresses the needs of Ukraine and beyond with 25 current projects underway.



The totality of Amentum’s breadth and depth of engineering and international development leadership in Ukraine and Europe includes active networks of thousands of engineers, partners, and companies. We quickly build scale, applying the talent of our 44,000 team members to ensure local sustainability from our 4,000-plus Professional Engineers across programs. We establish local operations, employ world-class management systems, and build consortia that include bringing international donors together.

Currently serving the U.S. Army under NATO, Amentum helps Ukraine professionally manage the flow of materiel flowing to the national defense from nearby NATO countries with increased accountability that reduces threat, including since the 1990s, capacity-building for Ukraine forces.

Amentum bolsters Ukraine police services, including border police since the outset of the widened invasion in 2022 as part of the Department of State’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP).

Amentum enabled U.S.-national OSCE monitors along the contact line inside Ukraine according to the 2014 Minsk Agreement on behalf of the State Department. For over 20 years, Rapid Expert Assistance and Cooperation Teams (REACT), has recruited and deployed U.S. citizens for short- and long-term positions across the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) missions in support of USG foreign policy priorities. Sixty international observers along the line of contact in eastern Ukraine on behalf of the U.S. supported the OSCE Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. This unarmed, civilian mission observed border areas in Ukraine, provided reporting on the situation, and encouraged and facilitated dialogue.

Amentum helps to streamline the multiple flows of materiel from NATO and allied countries, simplifying what might otherwise become a somewhat confusing array of assistance via a unique MOU with the national government.

In humanitarian affairs, Amentum was able to use its on-ground presence on day one to assist Ukraine following Russia’s February 2022 re-invasion, delivering assistance to the northern border in record time.

In technology, Amentum has detected and mapped online disinformation threats that aim to upset Ukraine unity.

Amentum also administers the WSP project in multiple countries on behalf of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), including but not limited to Environmental Engineering Services
Enhancing Trade and Competitiveness in the Northern Triangle of Central America

The Central America Regional Trade Facilitation and Border Management Program (TFB), implemented by Nathan, a Cadmus Company (Cadmus), collaborates with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to boost economic growth in the Northern Triangle of Central America (Northern Triangle).

TFB supports trade efficiency and competitiveness across the region. Leveraging Cadmus’s expertise in conducting country-specific and regional trade and logistics assessments, and technical assistance in trade facilitation, compliance, digitalization, regional integration, and customs modernization, Cadmus is bringing forth solutions that revolutionize infrastructure and expedite clearance and enforcement processes.

In the Northern Triangle, TFB works closely with customs agencies, ministries, and regional integration bodies to foster an open dialogue between the public and private sectors. By nurturing this collaborative environment, TFB supports USAID’s overarching vision of reducing trade costs, strengthening infrastructure, and standardizing trade procedures for smoother cross-border transactions.

In El Salvador, TFB partnered with the private sector to improve trade practices. Through tailored assistance, TFB worked with 160 companies to improve processes required for Trusted Operator classification—a designation given to entities or individuals recognized for their reliability, integrity, and capability in managing sensitive information or critical infrastructure often involving stringent security protocols and vetting procedures—thus boosting their market competitiveness. This initiative strengthened market competitiveness, while digitization of processes led to a remarkable 99% acceleration in import license issuance for agricultural products and a 92% reduction in service payment time.

In Guatemala, TFB’s infrastructure upgrades at the Pedro de Alvarado border resulted in a 35% reduction in transit procedures, enhancing safety for customs officers. TFB also played a pivotal role in boosting stakeholders’ understanding of Authorized Economic Operator certification— a recognition granted to compliant businesses, aimed at streamlining trade processes and enhancing supply chain security— helping 27 companies in obtaining certification and improving their trade standing.

In Honduras, the Paperless Customs project at Puerto Cortés revolutionized customs clearance, reducing physical inspection times by 36% and facilitating digital presentation of nearly 1 million support documents at seven inspection points. This efficiency improvement— from 213 hours to 136 hours—marks a significant advancement. TFB’s introduction of IT modules for import licenses benefited nearly 1,900 importers, streamlining operations. To further enhance operational capacity, TFB developed interoperable services for Quarantine Resolution Management, enabling automatic sharing of agricultural clearances between customs and the National Plant, Animal Health and Food Safety Service (SENASA) officers, eliminating the need for physical documents.

These advancements led to a 39% increase in importation speed for companies, prompting approval for nationwide implementation.
At the regional level, TFB’s initiatives extended to establishing pilot courses for the Integrated Border Management Academy and organizing a capacity-building program focusing on “Women Empowerment and Gender Equity for Trade Facilitation,” which positively impacted 74 participants.

Throughout the project’s duration, TFB’s achievements translated into training sessions for 2,844 individuals, equipping them with the necessary tools to actively contribute to trade facilitation and catalyze regional economic growth.



These comprehensive initiatives fostered gender-equitable working environments and significantly elevated the overall trade facilitation landscape across the Northern Triangle of Central America.
Collaborating with the Mexican Government to Address the Root Causes of Regional Irregular Migration


Every day, people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras leave their homes to embark on a perilous journey through Mexico to the United States, driven by a lack of employment opportunities, increasing violence, and the impacts of climate change. To address the root causes of irregular migration stemming from the region, the United States and Mexican governments launched a collaboration framework called “Sembrando Oportunidades.” Under this framework, the Alliance for Root Causes and Opportunities (ARCO) Activity , implemented by Chemonics International, aims to deepen USAID’s strategic partnership with the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID) to address the root causes of irregular migration by providing sustainable economic opportunities to youth and farmers in Central America.

Every day, people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras leave their homes to embark on a perilous journey through Mexico to the United States, driven by a lack of employment opportunities, increasing violence, and the impacts of climate change.

In El Salvador, AMEXCID has been supporting subsistence farmers cultivating a diverse range of products including bell peppers, chives, aromatic herbs who were unfamiliar with selling their excess produce to markets by training them on how to increase their productivity and diversify their outputs. A USAID partner in El Salvador identified a potential buyer, yet further assistance was necessary for these farmers to reach the standards of the buyer before they could sell. ARCO came in and provided post-harvesting tools and training to enhance the quality of the farmers’ products for export. Thanks to this collaboration, this group of farmers was able to sell to Walmart and, between September and December 2023, brought in a total of $431,000 in sales, helping to provide a new source of income for 88 farmers in 11 communities in El Salvador.

Photo Caption: A female farmer from the El Coco producers' group in the municipality of Chalchuapa (Santa Ana, El Salvador) is preparing a delivery of legumes, vegetables, and greens for Walmart. These farmers signed a sales contract with the company in August 2023, thanks to USAID's support with post-harvest equipment. Credit: USAID ARCO Activity

Similarly, in Honduras, AMEXCID worked with subsistence farmers across 23 communities in Sula Valley to increase their productivity. In this instance, they had a surplus of products they were not able to sell in local markets. ARCO took an innovative approach by providing training to community sales representatives, selecting one from each of the communities to help sell these products in local markets. These representatives were trained in sales tactics, how to position the products, and how to describe the products to buyers. Within two months of deploying these 23 sales representatives, they were able to successfully attract 31 local buyers and sold over $58,000 of products in the first round by establishing connections with local markets, including municipal, wholesale, and specialized markets, enabling them to secure fair prices for their products without the need for intermediaries.


Photo Caption: Honduran farmers completed their training program to become Sales Representatives. During the training, these farmers established commercial connections with 20 buyers from businesses and informal markets to engage in direct business transactions. Credit: USAID ARCO Activity

ARCO’s unique partnership, which takes a people-centered approach, with coordination and mutually reinforcing collaboration happening between the United States and Mexico has also attracted other countries like Canada. All three countries – Canada, the United States, and Mexico – are already working on youth workforce development and agriculture. Through shared learning and exchange of best practices, each country can glean insights, adapt approaches, and sidestep duplication to maximize the development impact in the region. 
Using Evidence and Locally Driven Solutions to Address Irregular Migration from Honduras


Laury Díaz Mendoza saw too many empty homes in her Honduran neighborhood. More of her neighbors had packed up and moved on, frequently to the United States, to escape violence, a lack of opportunities and a lost connection to their communities.

Determined to get answers, the college student volunteered to join a corps of 100 other Hondurans to go door-to-door to survey youth perceptions of victimization, insecurity and intention to migrate.

Conducted in 2023 by USAID’s Sembrando Esperanza program in Honduras, Laury and the other volunteers surveyed more than 3,400 people ages 14 to 29 years old in 10 municipalities that revealed unique insights into the local challenges they face.

Among the findings:
• 27.6 percent mentioned that their perception of insecurity has increased.
• 44.6 percent said that their perception of insecurity remained the same as the previous year.
• 97 percent of the households interviewed had a monthly income below the minimum wage.

Migration pressures continue to be high, USAID’s Sembrando Esperanza survey said, with 40.6 percent expressing their intention to leave the country in the next three years—and 79 percent citing a lack of local employment as a motivation to leave. Family reunification, an increase in organized crime, insecurity, extortion, violence and lack of trust in public institutions were also drivers of irregular migration.

While the intention to migrate is high, interviewees expressed several reasons why they would stay in their communities, including:
• 52 percent did not want to abandon their home, 38 percent did not want to leave their friends and 34 percent did not want to leave their communities.
• 49 percent were satisfied with what they have in Honduras.
• 47 percent cited dangers associated with irregular migration and 46 percent worried about the cost of the trip.



From research to solutions
USAID’s Sembrando Esperanza is using this data to work with local authorities, NGOs and partners to develop interventions in each municipality to reduce violence and irregular migration.

Drawing on localized data, the program developed easily accessible documents for each of the 10 municipalities that allowed them to evaluate their next steps. Youth and local partners leveraged the study’s detailed findings to create robust dissemination plans among stakeholders in the 10 municipalities.

The door-to-door research and the awareness-raising efforts allowed city officials and communities to shift their priorities and strengthen local services geared toward violence prevention, irregular migration and more opportunities for youth and their families.


Making Blended Finance Work for Climate

Sharon D‘Onofrio, Director of Learning, USAID INVEST 

Blended finance, which deploys public resources to attract private capital for social gain, represents more than just a financial strategy; it’s an opportunity to influence the direction of capital flow in response to a shared global challenge — the climate crisis.



DAI has been managing the USAID INVEST program since 2017, during which time it has become one of the Agency’s largest blended finance initiatives, mobilizing more than $1.4 billion for global development.



Notably, 21 percent of these funds have been channeled into climate-related initiatives, amounting to $301.6 million. Climate investments have been gaining momentum, with more than 50 percent of the project’s climate capital raised just in the past year.

Attracting Diverse Sources of Capital
Addressing the climate crisis at scale requires a diverse ecosystem of investors, including commercial banks, pension funds, venture capital, and other key players. INVEST has had considerable success engaging this investor landscape. The figure below illustrates the capital flow facilitated by INVEST from 11 categories of investors. We have captured INVEST’s experience in a series of learning resources, but three of the key lessons are:
• Incentivize Risk-Taking: The greatest level of additionality tends to come from new markets, with new investors and new forms of financing. But if the incentive structure for partners requires them to unreasonably accelerate their efforts or is overly focused on the investment targets, opportunities with significant development potential may be overlooked.
• Leverage Private Sector Expertise: Tap into context-specific expertise and ideas during the design of programs and avoid being overly prescriptive when soliciting responses from potential partners.
• Build an Evidence Base Without Burdensome Reporting Requirements: Concerns associated with the burdens of donor reporting have been cited among the reasons private firms give for not responding to donor solicitations. Reporting requirements should align as far as possible with the partner’s own data collection processes.

What Next?
Annual climate finance needs will grow from $8.1 trillion to $9 trillion in the run-up to 2030 and then exceed $10 trillion each year from 2031 to 2050, meaning that climate finance must increase by at least five-fold annually. INVEST has proven the crucial role of blended finance in meeting this enormous challenge. Now is the time to take these efforts to an even larger scale.
Building Local Capacity to Respond to Climate Change

The scale of recent climate impacts is unprecedented with the last five years experiencing the hottest temperatures on record since 1850.1 The changing climate will disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).2 Rising global temperatures are linked to more frequent life-threatening natural disasters and exacerbate other development challenges such as lack of access to food and energy and worsening health outcomes. The economic damage of climate change also threatens the progress towards achieving development outcomes that has been attained so far in LMICs.

Deloitte’s modeling shows that unchecked climate change, where global average temperatures rise by 3°C, hinders growth in every region. Unless the world takes rapid and coordinated action, an increasingly climate-damaged economy could become the new normal, with estimates showing that unchecked climate change could cost $178 trillion globally by 2070.



Deloitte is taking action to help LMICs confront the climate crisis by leveraging our 30+ years of experience working with international development organizations. Our work across climate finance, climate adaptation, climate equity, resilient infrastructure, urban sustainability, circular economy, and solid waste management aims to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and help communities and countries adapt to new climate conditions. Our approach puts equity and social inclusion at the center of our climate change work, recognizing that the impacts of climate change are disproportionately borne by marginalized groups. Deloitte’s approach also incorporates new technologies, like artificial intelligence, that can model future climate scenarios, identify pathways to decarbonization, and build more resilient utilities and infrastructure.

Deloitte’s work helping development organizations drive global climate action includes:

• Advancing inclusive green city development by addressing the interconnected crises of climate change, pollution, biodiversity, and inequality in LMICs around the world. For example, working with the Government of Indonesia, Deloitte is supporting the urban planning of Indonesia’s new capital, IKN, in its goal of becoming a 75 percent green space city.

• Supporting an equitable and inclusive energy transition towards less carbon-intensive energy systems. Deloitte is supporting Just Energy Transition (JET) principles through its work on the USAID Southern Africa Energy Program. Deloitte is working with local universities to support women in municipal governments becoming JET change agents as well as training women engineers in renewable energy technical skills to better contribute to the energy transition.

• Developing tools to enable energy sector stakeholders in accessing climate finance more easily for adaptation and mitigation projects. Under the USAID Strengthening Utilities and Supporting Energy Program (SUPER), Deloitte has created an investment review tool and application assistance guide that provides information on options for electric utilities to access climate finance and develop financing applications. Countries like Nepal are now using these tools to better understand and unlock climate finance.

• Helping international donors and local counterparts understand the impacts of digitalization and cybersecurity on their operations. Deloitte hosted a workshop for utilities in Southern Africa to expand awareness of how remote sensing and machine learning can be combined to build more resilient electrical grids better able to withstand the impacts of climate change, and facilitated cybersecurity trainings in the Caribbean and Latin America to increase knowledge of how to defend critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.

1 IPCC Climate Change Widespread, Rapid, Intensifying
2 Climate Change and the Developing World: A Disproportionate Impact
Empowering Armenia’s Tomorrow: Supporting Youth-Led Anti-Corruption Initiatives


Armenia has struggled with systemic corruption for decades, with education, and higher education in particular, “hampered by a culture of bribery.”  Despite success in reducing bribery in recent years, local watchdog organizations report persistent corruption in the education sector. Each wave of graduates facing corrupt practices in schools and universities builds a tolerance for malpractice, causing long-term damage to society  by compromising their integrity and values.

Aida, an 18-year-old graduate of Azatan Secondary School in the Shirak region of Armenia, has seen lavish gifts sent to teachers that often lead to inflated grades and unregistered absences. But through the USAID Armenia Integrity Project, our Dexis team is helping young people like Aida push back against a deeply entrenched culture of corruption.

Youth Shake Up the Status Quo
Engaging youth is crucial for effectively combatting corruption. Young people make up a significant portion of the Armenian population. They also tend to be more open to social change, often lacking a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. To leverage this, our team supports integrity-related activities for Armenian youth from secondary school to university students.

Corruption: Shift+Delete
The All for Equal Rights Foundation , (ARF), a youth-focused civil society organization, led the “Corruption: Shift+Delete” project, supported by our team in Armenia. While “Corruption: Shift+Delete” initially educated students on integrity and anti-corruption issues, the project quickly evolved, as ARF developed creative solutions including debates, social media campaigns, and an integrity-themed board game.

ARF reached more than 400 youth in over 20 debates in the Ararat and Gyumri communities. Representatives from vulnerable communities, NGOs working with children facing challenges, organizations empowering teenage girls, and members of the national minorities joined the debates. Debate participants explored the country’s integrity systems—anticorruption laws and regulations defining and prohibiting corrupt practices; freedom of information laws promoting transparency and access to government information; anti-corruption agencies investigating and prosecuting corruption cases; independent oversight bodies monitoring government activities; as well as codes of conduct and ethical guidelines for public officials and employees.

Students from the Shirak region created videos for social media addressing integrity-related issues and ways for youth involvement.

The “Corruption: Shift+Delete” social media campaign garnered over 400,000 photo and video views, reaching more than 200,000 users.

ARF also developed and distributed 360 digital and physical Integrity board games to youth in Yerevan and various regions of Armenia. The campaign demonstrated the resonance of anti-corruption values among youth.

The Path Forward
While more work lies ahead, the innovation, drive, and dedication of Armenia’s youth to a future of integrity, transparency, and accountability is inspiring. Dexis is proud to support civil society organizations like ARF as they drive positive change in Armenia. 

Building Peace in Darfur Through Trauma Awareness and Healing

USAID Toward Enduring Peace in Sudan Staff

In a society where people are expected to be strong, admitting your emotional scars can be considered weak or cowardly. But across Darfur, Sudan, that is slowly changing as communities embrace their experiences and find healing, acceptance, and resilience.

“When my three brothers were killed in front of me, I lost all hope to live,” said Sherif Daldom from Geneina. “I would wake up in the middle of the night with a nightmare, but in the morning, I try to act strong and pretend I am ok because I have to take care of my family.”

Sherif is not alone. Most of his community members witnessed grave atrocities during the major armed conflicts in Darfur that began in February 2003 and have continued on and off for more than two decades, resurfacing most recently following the start of the civil war in April 2023. Learning to manage this trauma is a key building block of peacebuilding in Sudan.

The USAID Toward Enduring Peace in Sudan (USAID TEPS) program, implemented by DT Global since 2014, helps community members across Darfur deal with traumatic experiences through the Trauma Awareness and Peace-building Project: a series of activities and smallgroup discussions that are engaging survivors, focusing on promoting recovery and social inclusion, and creating trauma healing networks. USAID TEPS is currently working to link these networks with Emergency Room Response volunteers.

From 2021 until now, USAID TEPS has assisted over 4,700 healers and survivors to manage the symptoms of trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorders. Although managing PTSD usually requires clinical intervention, the opportunities provided by USAID TEPS trauma awareness interventions create a safe space for individuals and communities to deal with painful memories of violence, terror, and loss, hence building a foundation for healing and reconciliation that helps to stop violent conflict at its roots.

“Long-term conflicts not only divide societies but also cause multiple emotional wounds on individuals and groups. […] Achieving peace in Darfur ultimately requires interventions that pay attention to healing trauma and restoring relationships,” says Dr. Shiphrah Mutungi, DT Global Trauma Healing Consultant. As part of this work, USAID TEPS provides training of trainers in the Trauma Awareness and Peace-building Project to further help communities.

To encourage transitional justice, USAID TEPS also supported paralegal volunteers to assist 2,400 victims to file lawsuits against the aggressors.

“Meaningful conversations are important for both victims of violence and perpetrators if we are able to find peace,” said Fatma Musa, a widow and mother of five. “I look forward to attending these workshops and sharing my own struggle and realizing that I am not alone.”

By providing community members like the Sherif, Fatma, and others with the opportunity to help themselves and those around them, the USAID TEPS program is strengthening the foundation for democratic and peaceful Sudanese development and peace. 

Empowering Angola: Advancing Financial Inclusion Through Mobile Money and Female Empowerment


About half of Angolans are unbanked, and despite approximately 70 percent owning a mobile phone, the mobile money penetration rate is just six percent. Mobile money allows people without bank accounts to safely spend, transfer, and manage their money. Therefore, in Angola, where access to traditional banking services is limited, increasing the availability of financial services is a pressing issue.

It is also an issue intertwined with Great Powers competition, as some mobile money providers use technology coming from the People’s Republic of China and some do not—a context in which the United States seeks to promote financial inclusion particularly through growth of providers not using such technology.

The United States Agency for International Development funded Dinheiro Digital é Melhor (DDM, “Better than Cash”) Activity, operated under the IDG implemented five-year, $58 million Technical Assistance Project for Economic Growth, partnered with Africell Group — a mobile money technology company—to improve the financial inclusion of Angolans as well as promote cybersecurity and counter malign influence in the digital sphere.

Through two components, the Activity targets the underbanked and unbanked. First, DDM provides technical support to the Africell Group and its local partners to streamline digital payment implementation within a rapidly expanding user base. Second, DDM aims to create an ecosystem in Angola where mobile money is widely accepted and that fosters radically expanding financial inclusion. DDM also prioritizes gender inclusivity, exemplified by the recent launch of the first training for Female Empowerment for Inclusion and Financial Literacy, where 500 women were trained to become mobile money agents. Through the training initiative, 150 Africell Group brand ambassadors will be onboarded to support the mobile agents in spreading awareness and knowledge of digital payments in local markets in Luanda, Angola. The Activity empowers participants by providing them with phones and financial literacy knowledge—this two-pronged approach offers participants with the information needed to develop their businesses and successfully market to new users.



Recently, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Angola and met with some women agents and brand ambassadors who attended the training. Sandro Luis de Sousa Mangueira, a brand ambassador with the program said, “I made some demonstrations of how the agent service works, and Secretary Blinken seemed impressed.”

“I enjoyed taking part in the Financial Inclusion training by Dinheiro Digital é Melhor. I learned the importance of saving and using digital money. I have shared the experience with my colleagues in the market and have been working with Afrimoney to expand the use of digital money in the market. I encourage the cause of continuing to emancipate women to become agents, supporting them to also be agents, inside and outside Luanda,” said Conceição da Costa André, one of the participants in the training.

DDM is a two-year, nearly five million project supporting the Government of Angola’s objective to increase financial inclusion and the U.S. Government’s contribution to the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. DDM builds on President Biden’s commitment at the 2023 G7 Summit to support the sustainable economic development in Africa by breaking down barriers and reaching those previously excluded from the formal financial system.



Financial Inclusion Specialist, Vania Gomes, pictured with the participants of the Female Empowerment for Inclusion and Financial Literacy training
USAID Funding Can be Catalytic; Here's How

Ricardo Michel, Palladium co-CEO

How can you use $35 million of USAID funding to mobilize $650 million of private sector investment? This is what the Kenya Investment Mechanism (KIM) achieved over five years, and the impact on Kenya’s economic landscape, entrepreneurship, innovation, and beyond will be felt long after the life of the project.



We must achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, but the funding gap to do so is enormous; far too big for the public sector alone to tackle, and nor should it. Instead, by providing seed funding through investment mechanisms like KIM, USAID and other development agencies can leverage the right finance and investment tools to foster systemic changes and ensure catalytic impact.

My belief is that the intentional use of the right tools will lead to good, sustainable development, and we’re seeing this firsthand in our work at Palladium.

So, how did we do this in Kenya? KIM started by incentivizing and strengthening the ecosystem of local financial institutions and business advisory service providers (BASPs) through training and technical assistance. These targeted interventions across the financial ecosystem helped facilitate private finance and investment for the working capital needs of smallholder farmers and micro, small, and medium enterprises, which were both vastly underfunded and largely ignored.

KIM helped financial institutions to develop new products, making it easier for them to engage in future transactions with little to no technical assistance. For example, using KIM’s technical training, Absa Bank adopted a venture capital approach as part of their agribusiness lending strategy.

The innovative ‘pay for results’ incentives introduced by KIM reduced the perceived risk associated with small business financing. As a result, 122 transactions were successfully closed between BASPs and financial institutions, demonstrating the strength of the partnerships established through KIM. At the same time, the team led policy reform efforts which were laser-focused on removing barriers to large scale investments into these sectors, helping to unlock even more finance in a sustainable way.

From the agricultural technology company that received an investment from John Deere to scale up its tractor financing product, to the small macadamia nut farmers matched with business advisors and entrepreneurial coaching so that they could receive financing, KIM’s work is forging lasting relationships and systemically improving small businesses’ access to finance across the country.

The capital raised across the Kenyan financial ecosystem, which was invested in more than 400 businesses, shows that through smart incentives and demand-driven technical assistance, you can facilitate private finance and leverage investment to bolster whole sectors of an economy.

And the impact hasn’t gone unnoticed.

At last year’s AmCham Business Summit, Kenya’s President Ruto heralded the work USAID and other organizations have done to create an operating environment for Kenyan businesses and acknowledged several KIM-supported companies helping to boost agro-industrial productivity and food security.

Now, it’s time to double down. While development agencies can’t achieve all this alone, they have the keys to unlock greater sustainable impact.  
Strengthening Global Health Security Through Localization


As we know all too well, diseases can spread quickly across the globe, resulting in pandemics that overwhelm health systems and upend lives and economies. We also know that local communities must be involved from the outset for global health security interventions to be successful in the long-term.

Through the USAID Localize Global Health Security (LGHS) project, Panagora Group, together with partners PATH and Itad, is supporting local organizations around the world to address prioritized health security gaps and strengthen their capacity to protect their communities from infectious disease threats.

Thinking globally, acting locally
Through LGHS, we localize global health security, working in each country to identify local organizations who can most influence better detection, response, and prevention of infectious disease outbreaks and support local communities to address outbreaks where they occur.



As a woman-owned small business with deep experience in global health and a long-term dedication to locally led approaches, Panagora is right-sized to take on this role; we easily work with smaller local health actors and can quickly pivot as needs evolve.

For this project, we are building on the work of other USAID global health programs by working with local actors to 1) address critical health security gaps identified in national health security capacity assessments through grants and technical assistance in prioritized technical areas, 2) strengthen organizational capacity of local entities to effectively manage implementation of health security interventions, and 3) expand the global knowledge base of approaches and best practices.

As of March 2024, LGHS countries include Cameroon, Jamaica, Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia, and we will expand to a total of 15 countries across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Expanding capacity and knowledge
LGHS complements the multisectoral, cross-technical approaches of other Global Health Security (GHS) programs to move countries closer to achieving Global Health Security Agenda targets. A $14.4 million flexible grants program aims to address subnational gaps in global health security, accompanied by technical assistance in GHS and capacity strengthening to support organizational growth.

Grantees will participate in local and global peer networks to share their experiences, lessons learned, and best practices—including in-person and virtual events and capacity-building workshops—and have access to resources to increase their GHS knowledge and skills.

Through this groundbreaking project, we are thrilled to be achieving our mission of “making our world a better place for good” by helping USAID meet its localization goals and increase health security at a local and global level.



Water For the World: The Critical Role of Water Security for Sustainable Development

By Jonathan Annis, Director of Water Security, Sanitation, and Hygiene, Tetra Tech

Water security underpins economic development, human health, food systems, ecosystem services, peace, and national security. Yet, across the world, freshwater resources and sustainable access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene services (WASH) have never been more threatened. Climate change, poor resource management, and decades of underinvestment have made freshwater resources a flashpoint for conflict, migration, and growing inequality.

The 2014 Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act  and the 2022 U.S. Global Water Strategy  elevated the United States Government’s (USG) commitment to improving water security and increasing access to WASH services in the world’s most fragile contexts. The results of these investments have been transformative. Over the past decade, the USG has increased sustainable access to safe water to over 21 million people, conserved vital ecosystems, mitigated water-driven conflict, increased food security, and reduced infant malnutrition in many of the world’s most impoverished countries.

Tetra Tech is proud to be a major USG partner in this area.

We’ve partnered with thousands of communities in over 20 countries to develop and deliver inclusive and innovative water security and WASH programming that has transformed lives, strengthened local capacity, and increased communities’ economic and social resilience. 

A leading implementer of the U.S. Global Water Strategy Action Research Initiative, Tetra Tech’s applied research through USAID WASHPaLS  and USAID URBAN WASH  has influenced governments, development partners, and the private sector to identify, adopt, co-finance, and scale global best practices. Our programs in East Africa, Central Asia and Central America have strengthened transboundary water governance and diplomacy by elevating the mutual benefits of water cooperation across borders and the application of state-of-the-art science to manage water sustainably and adaptively.

In all contexts, Tetra Tech uses water issues as an entry point to empower women, girls, and other marginalized groups. We partner with water utility leaders to increase workforce gender equality in male-dominated sectors , with 75% of our partners reporting business improvements. We expand access to WASH services  at schools and health care facilities to keep girls in school longer and promote safe maternal health. We systematically target women’s participation to empower them as WASH decision-makers in their household.

Recognizing the massive funding gap needed to achieve universal access to safe WASH services, Tetra Tech has developed partnerships to mobilize over $126 million in private sector, domestic and other non-USG investment in expanding and strengthening water and WASH service delivery systems.



Despite these notable gains, continued USG investment is critical to close the water management gap, invest in resilient water and sanitation systems and address climate change. Given water security’s intersection with foreign policy, national security and human development, the USG’s continued global leadership in this fundamental area is critical to shape a more prosperous and livable world.

About PSC
The Professional Service Council (PSC) is the premier trade association for federal contracting companies to advocate, educate, and create public-private dialogues on behalf of American contractors and their U.S. government customers. PSC’s membership of more than 400 U.S. companies provides critical support to every federal agency and department in the United States and around the globe.

About CIDC
 PSC’s Council of International Development Companies (CIDC) creates a dynamic and sustainable advocacy platform for U.S. development companies to pursue thought leadership and high-level dialogue with USAID, the Department of State, Millennium Challenge Corporation, PEPFAR, the Development Finance Corporation, and other foreign assistance organizations. CIDC aims to educate audiences on the vital role international development companies play in achieving accountable, transparent and sustainable development results in support of U.S. national security, economic, and humanitarian goals overseas.

Learn more at www.pscouncil.org.

Click here to download a pdf of the compendium.