WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is pleased to announce that it earned an "A" grade on the Federal government's small business scorecard for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. The Agency has now earned an "A" grade or better for each of the past three fiscal years. USAID prioritizes early engagement with the small business community to increase innovation and provide new approaches to accomplishing development objectives.

USAID's "A" grade is the continuation of several years of focused efforts to implement our comprehensive procurement reform strategy. One of the ongoing objectives is to increase competition and expand the use of small business concerns as prime contractors on direct and Indefinite Delivery-Indefinite Quantity awards. In FY 2015, USAID exceeded the Federal goals for small business, service-disabled veteran-owned, and small disadvantaged businesses. As a result of significant awards to three USAID women-owned small business prime contractors, which caused them to outgrow their size status, USAID missed its goal for the first time in three years.

In FY 2016, the Agency will strengthen its efforts to increase overall awards to small businesses at its overseas missions. It will also seek to attract more firms into the HUBZone program that helps small businesses in urban and rural communities gain access to Federal procurement opportunities and increase the utilization of women-owned small businesses.

The individual agency scorecards released today by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), as well as a detailed explanation of the scorecard methodology, is available online: https://www.sba.gov/contracting/finding-government-customers/see-agency-....