Sections & Agencies
U.S. Agency for International Development
What is USAID?
Reaffirming our commitment to advance common values, the United States and Russia will continue to work together to protect and advance human rights, tolerance, religious freedom, free speech and independent media, economic opportunity and the rule of law. — Joint Statement by Presidents Bush and Putin, Crawford, Texas, November 13, 2001.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the U.S. Government whose mission is to implement the U.S. Government's economic and humanitarian assistance programs in 60 countries around the world. As part of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, USAID/Russia works with the Russian people to create a participatory democratic society in which citizens have many opportunities to improve their well being and standard of living in a market economy.
USAID/Russia's programs encompass:
- Free-Market Mechanisms. Economic initiatives strengthen a nascent market economy to give all Russians the opportunity to improve their standard of living and boost economic growth through the environmentally sound use of natural resources.
- Democratic Institutions and Norms. Democratic initiatives build avenues for citizen participation in civil society, strengthen the rule of law and respect for human rights, and improve local governance to respond to citizens' needs.
- Health and Child Welfare. Health initiatives promote healthful behavior and improvement in the quality of health care and child welfare as the surest way to reduce the threat of communicable disease, care for children at risk and restore the population's health.
Most activities are implemented by local governments and non-governmental organizations, although USAID does finance crucial technical cooperation with the Russian Government in areas such as judicial reform, social and economic policy, health and intergovernmental relations.
See our website at http://russia.usaid.gov/.
