Want to really know what the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is doing? To learn more about USAID, go explore their official video channel. See videos about agriculture, development, health, war and famine relief, videos in the field, and on the ground showing their progress and impact.

The bigger overall question though: What is USAID, really?

USAID is the agency of the US government that handles all international affairs relating to diplomacy, development, and foreign policy. Started in 1961 by John F. Kennedy, USAID works in over 100 countries, creating markets and trade partners, protecting human rights, food security, and the environment, addressing health issues, prevention and recovery from conflicts, reduction of poverty, basic humanitarian response, and addressing US interests and security. While all of this is massively challenging and consuming work, USAID tries to do it all while working with less than 1% of the total federal budget.

One of their agendas is to make all governments more transparent, accessible, and accountable in order to build democracy worldwide and “make every voice count.”  In partnership with Sweden, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), and Omidyar Network (ON), they have launched an inclusive campaign for citizen involvement; a global fund to support innovation, scaling-up, and research that will harness new technologies to enable citizen engagement and government responsiveness.

Want to know more of the inside scoop about what they’re doing and what it all means? Click here.

– Mary Purcell

Source: You Tube, Makingallvoicescount.org, USAID