The Framework

American foreign
assistance,rebuilt.

THE PAST

A long story of attempted reform

Every administration since Kennedy has tried to fix USAID.

Nixon tried to dismantle it and route aid through the World Bank. Clinton cut staff without cutting scope, fueling the rise of the “development industry.” Bush built PEPFAR and the Millennium Challenge Corporation outside USAID's walls because the agency couldn't deliver fast enough.


The first Trump administration brought the most serious reform in a generation. Under Administrator Mark Green, USAID launched the Journey to Self-Reliance and overhauled procurement through 170-plus reform recommendations. Green stated the thesis directly:

“I believe the purpose of foreign assistance should be ending its need to exist. Each of our programs should look forward to the day when it can end.”

— Mark Green, USAID Administrator, August 2017

Congress passed reform after reform — the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act, the Global Food Security Act, the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act, the Global Fragility Act. None of it quite stuck.


What happened in 2025 was not the sudden departure from a working system. It was the end of a long story of partial reforms. Yes, the disruption had painful human costs. So did the decades of programs that didn't meet their potential.


Now is the chance to build a system that can be the pride of America and a model for the world.

Winnie at work in a laboratory setting
Mia Collis 73: Winnie at work. Photo: Mia Collis / Essential

too many programs

What was wrong with the old system

USAID's central failure was the way it spent money: too many programs aimed at marginal rather than transformational improvements, in too many countries. Each country office spread its money too thin. Despite a veneer of strategic planning, country missions had too many programs in too many sectors. Each program had too many components. This meant that even successful programs (and USAID's own evaluations show many were not) could not play a significant role in moving countries along the path from poverty to prosperity. These programs failed in their ambition, their design, their costly method of implementation and therefore their impact. Any chance at transformational change was whittled away by this diffusion of focus in general, and on the number of programs chasing small impacts in particular.

What was lost was the opportunity to work on big things with the possibility of game changing impact. Despite good intentions, the reality was too few programs that partnered with nations on ambitious initiatives in our mutual interest.

The new foreign assistance should focus. It should focus geographically. It should focus on problems where there is a meaningful opportunity for major impact, on targeted interventions, on working with the private sector. It should focus on program impact, not paperwork process. It should treat governments as partners with the responsibility to solve their own development challenges with support from the United States. The new foreign assistance should not have the United States substitute for the local government and private sector.

The Framework

Signature “Moonshot” Initiatives

Legacy-building, focused, achievable with existing interventions, capable of crowding in bilateral and philanthropic capital.

Examples

  • Eliminate neural tube defects, which cause permanent decreases in human potential (multiple micronutrient supplements)
  • Reduce lead exposure, which kills 1.6 million per year and affects 800 million children
  • Multi-donor fund to eliminate extreme poverty (cash transfers)

Focus on Transformational Change Not Smallball Programs

Too many USAID programs focused on small-scale household and individual level interventions which, even if highly successful, would only help tens of thousands of people rather than millions. U.S. government funding should focus on assistance that has transformational potential. The new foreign assistance should move beyond investments with limited scale to those that drive systematic change and rapid economic growth.

A.

Fostering Private Sector Growth

Prioritize investments that promote jobs and economic growth while securing new markets for U.S. products and services.

Examples

  • Subsidizing first movers to promote economic discovery and diversification (>2% GDP or >2% exports)
  • Support American investment abroad by incentivizing countries to adopt U.S. economic rules, business standards, regulatory frameworks, regulations
  • Help implement African Continental Free Trade Agreement
  • Reconstitute Prosper Africa initiative from first Trump Administration
B.

Global Public Goods

Examples

  • Advanced market commitments (e.g. Operation Warp Speed) for treatments for neglected tropical diseases, repurposing generics, etc.
  • Evidence synthesis (“Smart Buys” and other systematic reviews)
C.

Work with Countries That Are Willing to Help Themselves

It is not the responsibility of the United States to substitute for good governance or cover for predatory governments. Rather, as in the MCC model, the State Dept. should prioritize assistance to governments committed to reform, markets and basic liberties. Reject approaches that make the U.S. the sole international assistance funder with no sustainability plans or transition strategies for local ownership.

Examples

  • Require host government skin in the game
  • Provide support for or require domestic resource mobilization so countries can fund own priorities

Move Money Differently: Results-Based and Innovation-Focused Procurement

A.

Pay for Results

Embed results- and milestones-based awards to replace compliance-oriented models, with up-front payment to get started coupled with subsequent payments tied to results delivery. Focus on paying for measurable results rather than activities.

Examples

  • Create pay-for-results mechanisms across sectors whenever feasible
  • Require financial sustainability through revenue diversification tests
B.

Prioritize Commercial Solutions and Innovation

Leverage technology, innovation, and evidence to bring down costs, deliver faster results, and scale what works. Stop developing aid projects in Washington, DC or behind embassy walls that lack buy-in or co-investment from host countries or the private sector, jeopardizing sustainability. End reliance on the contractor industry and instead fund those closest to the challenges, increasing sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and self-reliance.

Examples

  • Create a Global Innovation Unit with Commercial Solutions Opening authority to support innovators wanting to work with the State Department
  • Make Statements of Objectives the standard approach rather than detailed, top-down solicitations
  • Use Other Transaction Authority to work with non-traditional partners
C.

Proven Solutions Fast-Track

Examples

  • Create a “Smart Buys” list of evidence-backed interventions
  • Streamlined procurement for commercial technologies
  • Buy-in mechanisms for commonly procured interventions

Values-Based Aid

Demonstrating American generosity and goodness by funding programs that address:

Examples

  • Children in adversity
  • Promotion of freedom of religion and other political rights
  • Anti-human trafficking, anti-slavery
  • Disaster response (including use of cash transfers)

Aid Allocation and Sustainability

A.

Rational Allocation

Examples

  • Let the State Department set foreign policy priorities
  • Within the foreign policy framework, direct funding based on expected return; i.e. more money to countries with large populations of poor and vulnerable. More money to areas within those countries where programs can have high levels of impact per dollar.
B.

Transition and Exit Planning

Examples

  • All programs designed with fixed end dates
  • Co-funding requirements from host governments from day one (outside of acute emergencies)
  • Clear handover timelines to local actors or other funders

The Right Staffing

A.

Understanding of the Private Sector

Examples

  • Require staff involved in program design and/or vetting to have economics, finance or private sector training / experience
  • Establish pipeline of staff from business schools; pair with internship opportunities at State Department and with American businesses abroad

Contact

For press inquiries, partnership opportunities, or to learn more about our work.

contact@thenewforeignassistance.org