How do USAID programs support U.S. foreign policy?
USAID and the Department of State prepared jointly and are implementing a 2004-2009 Strategic Plan that identifies five distinct rationales for providing assistance to foreign countries: To 1) promote social and economic development, 2) strengthen fragile states, 3) provide humanitarian relief, 4) promote U.S. geo-strategic interests, and 5) mitigate global and transnational ills. Assistance to Guatemala and most other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (with the exception of Haiti and Cuba, which are considered strategic states) falls in the first category but also advances some of the other objectives.
