Smallholder Farmers Profit in Tanzania Market.

Photo Credit: Fintrac Inc.

USAID’s Local Sustainability Office (E3/LS) focuses on deepening the agency’s partnerships with local and U.S.-based development actors – which include civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions, private firms, philanthropies, and cooperatives – to facilitate sustainable, locally-led development.  While E3/LS provides grants, capacity, and material support to U.S., international, and local organizations, the focus is on using this support to help address the challenges local organizations face in their efforts to play leading roles in their own countries.

E3/LS manages and supports five programs and operates as a learning laboratory to address questions such as: (1) how to best achieve significant sector-level impacts through local partnerships; (2) how to identify and work with partners who can have a broad, growing, and enduring impact; and (3) how to support efforts to create and maintain a positive enabling environment for locally-driven development. Our goal is to support the development and testing of successful strategies for improving local sustainability and to disseminate them widely.

PROGRAMS:

COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (CDP)

Cooperatives (co-ops) are member-owned, democratically-governed enterprises. They allow members to direct and control their own development, while increasing their incomes and providing a means for individuals in developing countries to improve their lives in ways that might be impossible on their own. Through the CDP, USAID partners with U.S. cooperatives and cooperative development organizations to promote, support and expand cooperative enterprise.

LIMITED EXCESS PROPERTY PROGRAM (LEPP)

The Agency's Limited Excess Property Program works with U.S. PVOs to transfer millions of dollars of U.S. government surplus property to local non-profit organizations such as schools and hospitals.

SMALL GRANTS PROGRAM/LOCALWORKS

USAID’s localworks program promotes locally-owned and led development by connecting local resources to local actors. Through localworks, USAID Missions compete for grant funding to help them  design and run country-specific programs. Currently four Missions manage localworks programs: Malawi, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam.

SMALL PROJECT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

The Small Project Assistance Program (SPA) is a joint collaboration between USAID and the Peace Corps to support local community development. The Peace Corps and USAID support community-level development projects in sectors ranging from health to agriculture to small enterprise development.

VOLUNTEERS FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND PROSPERITY

The Volunteers for International Security and Prosperity Annual Program Statement (VISP APS) is designed to help USAID mobilize the creative capacity of volunteers in support of USAID’s development objectives.