What is U.S. global development assistance?

Simply put, development assistance is helping people help themselves.

Almost two-thirds of the world’s people have difficulty meeting their daily needs for food and shelter. Through global development assistance, the U.S. and other countries extend a “hand up” to these people, helping them gain access to basic health and education as well as jobs and economic opportunity, valued by people everywhere.

Development assistance takes many forms.

• Training rural women in Bangladesh to serve as volunteer community health workers.
• Helping a village in Ghana dig a well so local girls can spend the day in school instead of hauling water from a far-away river.
• Providing animals and training in sustainable farming techniques to grandmothers in Kenya who must now support a generation of children orphaned by AIDS.

These small steps have an astounding and lasting ripple effect, making it possible for people to use their own energy, innovation and determination to change their lives for the better.

As other nations gain prosperity, America gains partners for the future. Prosperity breeds stability and governments that are willing to work together toward common goals.

Development assistance is a shared responsibility. Each of us has a part to play, and each of us has a stake in the outcome.