Lewis and Clark Award Recognizes USAID

The Agency for International Development has been selected as the first winner of the Lewis and Clark Award.

As a result of using ground-breaking  public-private partnering, the Agency for International Development’s Global Development Alliance has been selected as the inaugural winner of the "Lewis & Clark Award for Innovation in Collaborative Governance."

The award is a joint effort of the Weil Program in Collaborative Governance and the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, both located at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The award celebrates real-world success in collaborative governance.

The Global Development Alliance (GDA) combines the resources and expertise of the public and private sectors to improve the lives of people in the developing world. It  links U.S. foreign assistance with resources from business, non-governmental organizations and philanthropies for international development and humanitarian activities.

One of USAID’s earliest and most mature Global Development Alliances is the Enterprise Development Alliance that came after the Angolan peace accord of 2002 (ending 27 years of civil war).

USAID and Chevron had the common goal of promoting the resettlement of ex-combatants through private sector development. The resulting alliance promotes small-scale enterprise and agricultural development in five Angolan provinces. Chevron and USAID each committed $10 million to the five-year -More- alliance and are currently exploring opportunities for a second-generation partnership.

The Global Development Alliance will be honored at a luncheon on Monday, November 21 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Speakers at the lunch (located in the Pavilion Room and beginning at noon) include USAID Administrator Andrew S. Natsios, Richard Zeckhauser of the Weil Program, and Stephen Goldsmith of the Ash Institute.