USAID seeks to accelerate inclusive economic growth by enabling Congolese businesses to grow from micro- and small enterprises to medium-sized enterprises, and by strengthening their market linkages to local and international markets. USAID invests in key aspects of the Congolese economy—agriculture, minerals, and energy—to reduce poverty and eliminate food insecurity by reducing dependence on food imports.
AGRICULTURE-LED DEVELOPMENT
The United States is expanding Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, to directly address and mitigate the impacts of recent shocks to global food security and nutrition. In 2022, DRC was selected as one of eight new countries to be a Feed the Future Focus country. Recognizing that job creation will not accelerate in the DRC until the national agriculture sector becomes more productive, USAID’s agriculture assistance focuses on accelerating agriculture-led growth. USAID seeks to incentivize market-sustained solutions that restore DRC’s food sovereignty - the ability to locally produce enough to meet the nation’s food consumption needs. USAID’s agriculture investments complement other USAID programming, including Resilience and Food Security Activities that promote sustainable livelihood development and aim to reduce poverty and food insecurity.
Gorilla Coffee Alliance
TECHNO SERVE, VIRGUNGA COFFEE, ASILI, WCS
Aug 2021 - 2026; $14 million ($7 million USAID)
Over five years, this initiative will partner with 8,500 farming households to improve their coffee production and sales and reduce poaching and deforestation around Kahuzi-Biega National Park in DRC’s South Kivu province. The Alliance will help local families to establish environmentally sustainable ways to earn income, improving access to essential health services, and working with community institutions to become advocates for conserving the national park.
Management of Fall Armyworm in Maize for Smallholder Farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
LANG O'LAKES VENTURE 37
Oct 18, 2019 - 2024; $12 million
Responds to an urgent need of smallholder maize farmers who are facing crop devastation due to the Fall Armyworm (FAW) pest. The goal is to support smallholder maize producers in the Katanga, Tanganyika, South Kivu and the two Kasai provinces with access to the information and skills to safely and effectively manage FAW and to increase maize yield through good agricultural practice (GAP) and integrated pest management (IPM). The activity will promote an integrated pest management approach that improves FAW control without using toxic pesticides and increases the resilience capacity of FAW-affected communities. The activity is conducted by Land O’Lakes Venture 37, in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Villa Crop Protection and, with the engagement of both INERA, DRC’s national agricultural research institute, and private sector actors.
Feed the Future Strengthening Value Chains Activity
Tetra Tech
May 2017 - September 2022; $24.7 million
Complements USAID investments in governance, agriculture, health, and education, to strengthen the foundation for durable peace in eastern DRC. It applies a nutrition sensitive value chain and market systems development approach that combines technical assistance and capacity building for value chain actors, credit facilitation, assistance with market linkages, public-private partnership development, social behavior change communication, and advocacy to support nutritional crop (dry beans and soybeans) and specialty coffee value chain development in the Idjwi, Walungu, Kabare and Kalehe territories of South Kivu.
Cassava Brown Streak Disease
International Institute for Tropical Agriculture
January 2017 - September 2022; $5.4 million
Responds to an urgent need of resource-poor farmers and consumers in the cassava sub sector of the DRC to counter the Cassava Brown Streak disease threat. It enhances sustainable productivity and competitiveness of cassava through improved cassava production, food system and commercialization, thereby contributing to food security, wealth creation, and livelihoods improvement. It is expected to develop and promote dissemination of appropriate cassava varieties and disease control technologies that will enhance production, diversification, marketing and utilization of cassava. It is implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and it covers the provinces of Kongo-Central, Kasai-Oriental, Lomami, Tshopo, Haut-Katanga and Sud-Kivu. Through this activity, USAID also builds the technical capacity of INERA, the national agriculture research institute of DRC, for dealing with similar issues in the future.
Strengthening Livelihoods and Resilience
DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES INCORPORATED (DAI)
September 2020 - September 2025; $18.1 million
Improves the resilience capacities of vulnerable households and communities and to assist and enable the people, households, and communities in Ituri Province, eastern DRC to surmount poverty and chronic vulnerability. It is expected to reduce the need for humanitarian assistance, development and economic costs of recurrent crises; crises caused by factors such as fighting over land and resources, natural disasters, climate stress, poverty, armed conflicts, and food insecurity.
East Africa Economic Recovery And Reform Activity
TRADE MARK EAST AFRICA (TMEA)
May 2022 - May 2027
Improves trade infrastructure, border management, and the efficiency of policy implementation to strengthen DRC’s integration into regional and international trade markets. This activity will coordinate with existing programs supporting cooperatives export to international markets, while working to decrease costs of non- tariff barriers that have negatively impacted the competitiveness of Congolese products in export markets.
Feed The Future Market Systems And Partnerships (MSP)
DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES INCORPORATED (DAI)
March 2022 - September 2025; $6 million
By co-financing agribusiness growth and creating market linkages that benefit smallholder farmers, this MSP Activity will accelerate the growth of national agriculture market systems including its supporting services. This engagement with MSP will enable USAID/DRC’s Feed the Future funding to increase focus on market linkages with a vision to leverage the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance’s (BHA’s) Resilience Food Security Activities (RFSAs) and other livelihoods investments more effectively, including USAID and other non-USAID initiatives in the agriculture sector.
RESPONSIBLE MINERALS TRADE
USAID’s work to support responsible minerals trade touches across the portfolio. The following activities are directly managed by the Office of Economic Growth:
USAID Constructing Competitive, Responsible Minerals Trade In The DRC
(Implemented through USAID's Africa Trade and Investment activity)
DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES INCOPORATED (DAI)
Match 2022 - TBD 2027; $7.5 million
Through a multi-year effort, USAID enables responsible investment, responsible minerals trade, and policy- advocacy to reverse the race to the bottom in order to increase the ability of the Congolese government, artisanal cooperatives, and businesses to responsibly source minerals to the global market.
USAID Sustainable Mine State Validation Project
PACT
December 2018 - December 2022; $3.7 million
Uses an innovative approach to refit and strengthen current methods for mine site Qualification and Validation (Q&V) to better address the long-term viability of clean gold and tin, tantalum and tungsten (3T) exports sourced from the DRC. Although functional, the current system for Q&V in DRC is overbuilt, expensive, and requires an unnecessarily complex group of stakeholders led by donors. The new Q&V approach will promote rigorous and transparent traceability of minerals which provides ongoing security analysis and monitoring of mine sites, increases the capacity of Ministry of Mines personnel, and strengthens artisanal or small-scale mining cooperatives to reduce issues like child labor. The project will also reduce the overall dependence on donors to manage the Q&V system, enabling new conflict free 3T and gold mine sites to be verified quickly, at less cost, and in better alignment with local needs.
ENERGY
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the 11th largest country in the world by population, and has one of the lowest electrification rates globally (approximately 19%). USAID’s Office of Economic Growth in DRC has successfully leveraged existing Power Africa mechanisms to accelerate the development of the sector.
USAID Sustainable Mine Site Validation Project
PACT
Dec 24, 2018 - Dec 23, 2022; $3,700,229
Uses an innovation approach to refit and strengthen current methods for mine site Qualification and Validation (Q&V) to better address the long-term viability of clean gold and tin, tantalum and tungsten (3T) exports sourced from the DRC. Although functional, the current system for Q&V in DRC is overbuilt, expensive, and requires an unnecessarily complex group of stakeholders led by donors. The new Q&V approach will promote rigorous and transparent traceability of minerals which provides ongoing security analysis and monitoring of mine sites, increases the capacity of Ministry of Mines personnel, and strengthens artisanal or small-scale mining cooperatives to reduce issues like child labor. The project will also reduce the overall dependence on donors to manage the Q&V system, enabling new conflict free 3T and gold mine sites to be verified quickly, at less cost, and in better alignment with local needs.
Virunga Electricity Distribution Grid
VIRUNGA FOUNDATION
July 21, 2019 - January 21, 2027; $16.6 million
This activity strengthens the core functions of Africa’s oldest national park, expands on ongoing development projects outside the park, and contributes to peace building efforts in the region. This partnership with the Virunga Foundation aims to retain ecosystem diversity and conserve critically endangered species such as the mountain gorilla by protecting habitat and developing tailored threat-reduction strategies. A community- based approach is at the center of Virunga interventions engaging with, and providing benefits for, local communities. Virunga plays a central role in the post-conflict economic reconstruction of eastern Congo, improving livelihoods in neighboring communities through support that helps small and medium enterprises access specialized training, credit, and affordable clean energy (including at a new industrial zone).
East Africa Energy Program (EAEP)
RTI
September 2018 - September 2022
In DRC, this activity focuses on optimizing power supply, increasing grid-based power connections, and increasing regional (cross-border) power trade. The activity identifies power projects for support to reach these targets. For example, USAID provides assistance to Globeleq on the 100 MW Greenshare solar power project to increase electricity in the mining region of southeastern DRC.
Power Africa Off-Grid Program (PAOP)
RTI
September 29, 2016 - May 12, 2023
PAOP provides technical assistance and targeted grant funding to support the development of DRC’s off-grid solar home system and mini-grid sector. The project accelerates private sector growth by offering investors broad-based market intelligence to inform financial products, advising governments to design and implement supportive policy frameworks, and providing hands-on support to companies.
Senior Advisors Group
TONY BLAIR INSTITUTE
2022
Implemented by the Tony Blair Institute, this activity has the overall objective to provide strategic support to the newly established rural electrification agency, ANSER, to deliver access to electricity to 15 million people by 2024 and mobilize $500 million. The activity will assist ANSER to recruit staff, to develop a roadmap to prioritize activities, and to create rural and peri-urban electrification plans. The activity will assist ANSER to operationalize and grow the Mwinda fund, a results-based platform established with $5 million from the President of DRC to provide end-user subsidies for solar home systems, mini-grid, and clean cooking.
Providing Access To Energy To Enable Access To Finance
BAOBAB+
2021-2024
To increase access to reliable and renewable energy sources for lighting, communication, and cooling, social enterprise Baobab+ provides pay-as-you-go solar home systems and other solar products that are accessible to all, including those at the base of the pyramid. With support from USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), Baobab+ is establishing operations in the DRC. Baobab+ plans to extend access to energy to 18,000 households over three years.
PRIVATE SECTOR ENGAGMENT
ASILI 2.0 - Scaling for Sustainability in the Kivus
ALIGHT (FORMERLY AMERICAN REFUGEE COMMITTEE)
March 2018 - March 23, 2023; $7 million
Establishes a sustainable social enterprise approach through private sector co-funding to create healthier, more resilient, economically empowered communities in South Kivu, eastern DRC. This social enterprise approach delivers an integrated business model that improves economic, health, and water, sanitation, and hygiene outcomes including improved access to clean water, income generating activities (i.e agriculture), and health care services for populations living in poverty. The activity will provide access to basic sanitation services to 7,500 people while enabling 75,000 beneficiaries to access safe drinking water.
Loan Portfolio Guarantee Agreement
USAID, U.S. DFC, SWEDISH INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION AGENCY (SIDA)
Congolese commercial bank
2022 - 2027; $20 million (lending portfolio)
Supports lending to Congolese individuals, associations, groups, micro-and small-enterprises, village savings and loans associations and non-governmental organizations that have their primary business activities located in North Kivu or South Kivu provinces. The intent is to facilitate economic growth and strengthen the foundation for durable peace in eastern DRC.