Fiscal Year 2019: Year in Review
USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) responded to 49 humanitarian emergencies in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, assisting tens of millions of people affected by natural disasters and conflict around the world.
During the fiscal year, USAID/OFDA expanded efforts to respond to an ongoing Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in coordination with Centers for Disease Control, providing nearly $143 million to support emergency response activities. USAID/OFDA also assisted populations affected by insecurity and displacement in the DRC and six other countries in the East and Central Africa region, in addition to supporting drought-affected communities in Kenya. In early 2019, Tropical Cyclone Idai and Tropical Cyclone Kenneth brought heavy rain and flooding to areas of southern Africa, prompting a rapid response from USAID/OFDA to address urgent humanitarian needs in Comoros, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Elsewhere in southern Africa, USAID/OFDA responded to drought and food insecurity. In West Africa, USAID/OFDA-supported interventions addressed the impact of conflict and displacement in six countries, including in the Lake Chad Basin region, where ongoing insecurity continued to generate humanitarian needs. USAID/OFDA also scaled up response efforts to support communities affected by growing insecurity in the tri‑border region of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
In Asia, USAID/OFDA continued to assist populations affected by conflict in Afghanistan, Burma, Pakistan, and the Philippines, as well as communities impacted by natural disasters, including earthquakes and a tsunami, floods, storms, and drought. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), USAID/OFDA responded swiftly to deliver life-saving assistance in The Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian and supported efforts to contain wildfires in South America. In addition, USAID/OFDA continued to address humanitarian needs arising from the economic and political crisis in Venezuela, providing nearly $87.6 million to support vulnerable populations inside Venezuela and those affected by the crisis in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. Across Asia and LAC, USAID/OFDA also continued to foster communities’ self-reliance, prioritizing investments in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and building local capacity to better prepare for and mitigate the impacts of future disasters.
Iraq and Syria remained USAID/OFDA’s largest responses in FY 2019, with a total of nearly $472 million provided to support vulnerable populations affected by protracted insecurity and displacement. In addition, USAID/OFDA contributed more than $102 million to respond to the complex emergency in Yemen, where ongoing conflict, economic crisis, and access impediments have exacerbated humanitarian conditions and left more than 24 million people in need of life-saving assistance. USAID/OFDA also continued to address humanitarian needs generated by enduring conflicts in Libya and Ukraine.
During FY 2019, USAID/OFDA maintained Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs) and Washington, D.C.-based Response Management Teams (RMTs) for the DRC EVD outbreak, the Venezuela regional crisis, and complex emergencies in South Sudan and Syria. USAID/OFDA also deployed DARTs to Mozambique following Tropical Cyclone Idai and to The Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian and activated corresponding RMTs to facilitate response efforts. The DARTs and RMTs for the complex emergencies in Iraq and Nigeria—activated in FY 2014 and FY 2017, respectively—demobilized during the fiscal year. Overall, USAID/OFDA provided more than $2.1 billion, including approximately $1.7 billion for disaster response activities, in FY 2019. USAID/OFDA also contributed more than $169 million in DRR funding in FY 2019 to help communities across the world prepare for and mitigate the effects of disasters, as well as approximately $31.5 million for disaster response programs that incorporated DRR activities.