The U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) submits this report pursuant to House Report 117-401, incorporated by reference into the Joint Statement to the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2023. The report provides information regarding USAID’s support to legislative strengthening programs and its approach to expanding these efforts, including to countries where House Democracy Partnership (HDP) is engaged. Further, it presents USAID's current and ongoing programming, to underscore its commitment to this work, and then outlines plans to expand upon this going forward.
Current Work
USAID supports foreign national legislatures and their elected members through a variety of programs, both through dedicated projects and through integration in a broader program or effort such as advancing economic growth, women’s rights, improved health policy, or other development objectives. For the purposes of this report, we focus on projects or efforts with substantial focus upon the legislature, its members, and staff. However, given the centrality of national legislatures across the spectrum of governance, it is worth noting that support provided through agriculture, education, health, anti-corruption, public finance, or other projects may also support a legislature. While this report focuses exclusively on support to national legislatures, USAID also supports subnational legislative bodies, including at state and local/municipal levels. These projects are funded through a mix of USAID Mission budgets, as well as centrally managed programming, particularly the Elections and Political Processes (EPP) Fund.
USAID has legislative strengthening activities in 17 countries that seek to enhance the role of the legislature in government oversight, improve citizen representation, and facilitate the law-making process. There are dedicated legislative strengthening projects in Ukraine, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Georgia that work solely with these national institutions and focus upon their organizational capacity to strengthen the institution and its accountability of the executive. Activities in Ukraine following the invasion by Russia focused on enabling communications between legislators and their constituencies, even in temporarily occupied zones. These activities also focused on civic education and improving citizen engagement to counter Russian defamation of democratic institutions by highlighting their engagement with the citizenry to improve governance. This programming has been especially adaptive during a time of unprecedented national crisis, supporting the law-making process.