Sustainable Development Through Local Partnership

USAID seeks to shift resources and decision making power to local organizations, communities, and private and public sector partners—responding to their needs, elevating their solutions, and recognizing and strengthening their capacity to tackle challenges—in pursuit of long-term, sustainable impact. 

To put this vision into practice, in November 2021, USAID announced Centroamérica Local, a five-year, $300 million initiative to support local organizations, communities, and leaders in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Through Centroamérica Local, USAID is expanding its outreach to local actors, including indigenous and women-led organizations. USAID is also removing barriers to make it easier to partner, increasing staffing levels to better support local partners, and elevating local leadership in our work.
 
Between FY 2020, the year before the start of Centroamérica Local,and FY 2023, USAID Missions in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras achieved a more than twentyfold increase in the dollar value of direct funding to local partners. Programs led by approximately 30 local partners are delivering locally-owned, and sustainable solutions in support of the Administration's U.S. Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central America. 

Centroamérica Local is a key component of USAID’s broader localization efforts, which are the set of internal reforms, actions, and behavior changes to ensure our work puts local actors in the lead, strengthens local systems, and is responsive to local communities.
 

How USAID is Putting Centroamérica Local to Work

  • Improved Outreach and Communication. Websites like workwithusaid.gov are helping prospective partners learn what USAID does and how to partner. USAID is publishing procurement information in Spanish on grants.gov, launching websites like the “Partner With Us” page in English and Spanish, and hosting outreach sessions. Local organizations are leading impactful communications campaigns, like De Aqui Soy, that provide information on opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship.
  • Expanded Opportunities to Engage with USAID. USAID is using co-creation, providing information and receiving concept papers in Spanish, and carrying out listening sessions to facilitate local organizations’ participation in the design of new activities, strategies, and funding opportunities.
  • Shared Commitment to Risk Management. USAID’s Risk Appetite Statement elevates inclusive, locally-led development outcomes and support for local partners to strengthen their capacity.  USAID’s Local Capacity Strengthening Policy provides resources, guidance, and assistance to build successful partnerships – like those highlighted below.

 

Featured Stories from Centroamérica Local 

  • In El Salvador, USAID is supporting a remarkable group of local organizations working to enact positive change and drive progress within their communities. USAID/El Salvador collaborated with the Agency’s Partnerships Incubator to co-create technical assistance service packages for 12 local organizations. These organizations represent a spectrum of focus areas, funding levels, and technical expertise. USAID also supported a group of 30 local organizations to mitigate the barriers to entry for collaboration. including by developing a comprehensive Spanish training curriculum that empowered participants to interact with the donor community.
  • Feed the Future Guatemala Innovative Solutions for Agricultural Value Chains Project implemented by Agropecuaria Popoyán - PROINNOVA provides technical assistance and training to small-scale producers on climate-smart technologies, to increase agricultural incomes, improve resilience and enhance nutritional outcomes for farmers and their families in five departments of the Western Highlands. In 2023, the project reached $39.5 million in sales and generated more than 30,500 jobs, benefiting nearly 34,000 farmers, of whom 70 percent are indigenous, 38 percent women and 17 percent youth.
  • USAID/Honduras’s GENESIS Alliance was co-created and is being implemented by local private sector foundation Fundación Nacional para el Desarrollo de Honduras (FUNADEH). This activity seeks to increase protective factors for vulnerable populations including youth and returned migrants in communities with high levels of crime and out-migration. GENESIS supports a network of 60 youth outreach centers, facilitates economic opportunities for vulnerable populations, and builds self-reliance and community cohesion in partnership with the private sector and national and local governments, resulting in an additional $14 million in co-financing. Through the 60 youth outreach centers GENESIS provides key services and safe spaces for over 145,000 children and youth annually.