ARTICLE - USAID CHANGES POLICY

USAID POLICY CHANGE ALLOWS MORE DOLLARS TO STAY IN POOR COUNTRIES
(Defend Haiti) -

WASHINGTON, D.C. (defend.ht) – The U.S. is known for its policy of returning development assistance money back to itself but a new change in policy, coming into effect on Monday, will free USAID from having to “buy American”, allowing it to buy from the poor countries it operates in.

The new reforms of an initiative called USAID Forward, come into effect will allow USAID to purchase most goods and services from developing countries with exceptions in US-funded food aid, motor vehicles and US patented pharmaceuticals.

In an interview with the Guardian, Lisa Gomer, who led the procurement reform said, “we want to work with a broader range of partners and increase competition.”

Historically, USAID was required to use funds approved by the U.S. congress on U.S. enterprises. The report of the new rule, recorded in the Federal Register, said there was “concern that U.S. taxpayer funded foreign assistance not provide any direct benefits to the governments of communist countries during the Cold War. The practical result of these decisions was that all program funded procurement transactions financed by USAID were restricted to the source, origin and nationality geographic code specified for the implementing agreement.”

An example, in 2011, a small group of US-based companies and consultancies together made billions in USAID contracts. It was reported on Defend Haiti earlier last month that found that only 1% of $1.14 billion pledged by the U.S. Congress, actually went into the Haitian economy.

By U.S. law, USAID has been able, since 1993, to provide contracts to foreign countries but it had never updated its own policies.