Organizations Receiving Public Funding

Listed here are example organizations which are currently funded by USAID and the US State Department. These organizations operate within our areas of focus — justice, opportunity, and leadership.

The Afghan Women’s Business Federation (AWBF) – (Afghanistan), serves women entrepreneurs by increasing the capacity of women’s associations as well as coordinating the delivery of programs and services. The AWBF network provides training and business development services, and its Afghan Women’s Design Center offers ongoing training in many skill areas including product line development, production techniques, marketing and corporate image, and a designer mentoring program. With USAID support, the AWBF has worked with over 50 women-run business associations with more than 20,000 members nationwide.

The Jibon-O-Jibika (Life and Livelihood) — (Bangladesh) program works with some 2,200 women who are heads of food-insecure households. With USAID support, the Jibon-O-Jibika program promotes household food production and access to quality health and nutrition services. Through this program, women receive training in methods of earning sustainable household income and improving family nutrition.

The Makana Project (Jordan), a partnership of CARE International and The Queen Zein Al Sharaf Institute for Development (ZENID) — works with women to empower them to advocate for their rights on the local level and interact directly with local leaders and organizations that have a statutory obligation to provide services — especially basic social services. With support from the State Department, the Makana Project has strengthened women’s advocacy initiatives by targeting political actors and women’s advocacy groups to increase rural women’s access to basic rights and entitlements. In the program, women participants have successfully advocated for needs in their community, including improved sidewalks and streetlamps and classrooms for deaf children. Women have gained confidence in their capacity to make a difference in the world and have reported that they are more able to influence household decision-making.

Rural Delight (Lebanon) is a program sponsored by the YMCA that has built a system of 37 cooperatives in Lebanon with a marketing branch that distributes and exports over 100 brand name products (foodstuffs). With USAID support, Rural Delight provided training in hygiene processing methods, manufacturing, and business and management skills to 1600 Lebanese women in rural areas. Several of the graduates from the program have formed a licensed produce cooperative and have sold items in local and regional markets.

Morocco: 9600 rural women who received grants are currently participating in literacy training using the New Family code as training content. Thanks to the literacy initiation programs in the local languages, the women are extremely committed to the program and the drop out is very low. With State Department support, grants have been awarded to 30 NGOs who implement literacy programs. The Moroccan Ministry of Education has adopted the literacy program and plans to scale up the program throughout the entire country.

The University of Peshawar (UP) and American University Washington College of Law (WCL) — (Pakistan) are currently partnering on a year-long project of capacity building and academic exchange. With assistance from USAID, the university partnership develops programs to help enrich both faculties in the creative implementation of human rights education and law. WCL works with key UP faculty on capacity building in legal education in human rights and gender.

West Bank/Gaza: A partnership of savings and credit cooperatives, four microfinance institutions and a bank are working together on the Small and Microfinance Assistance for Recovery and Transition (SMART) Program which maintains 26,063 active clients in the West Bank and Gaza, of which more than 70% of these clients are women. Through the assistance of USAID, the microfinance institutions expanded their outstanding credit portfolio by 2,743 loans over the past year at a value of $4.5 million.