Kinshasa, DRC– On November 21, Paul Sabatine, Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Pépin Guillaume Manjolo Buakila, Minister of International Cooperation, Regional Integration and Francophonie, signed an agreement providing up to $600 million in U.S. development assistance to the DRC between now and 2022. This funding will support development activities related to education, economic growth, health, anti-corruption and good governance, and environmental protection. The agreement, signed under the framework of the U.S.-DRC Privileged Partnership for Peace and Prosperity, brings U.S. assistance to these sectors to $1.25 billion since 2015.
“It is in the U.S. interest for Congolese citizens to be healthy, prosperous, and live in peace,” said U.S. Ambassador to the DRC Mike Hammer. “Through USAID and other development assistance, the U.S. government supports President Tshisekedi’s change agenda, including combating corruption, improving human rights, advancing stability, attracting investment, and delivering results for the Congolese people.”
“Our extended development assistance agreement will allow USAID to help millions of Congolese by providing school supplies to children, delivering vital medicines to the sick, protecting the DRC’s forests and wildlife, and more,” said Sabatine. “Most importantly, our programs will help the DRC advance in its journey to self-reliance.
USAID has provided development assistance to the DRC on behalf of the U.S. government since the first years of its independence. Recently, USAID released an updated DRC Journey to Self-Reliance Country Roadmap, a standardized analytical tool for measuring country progress across the dimensions of commitment and capacity based on 17 publicly available metrics. Learn more about USAID and the Self-Reliance Country Roadmap here: https://www.usaid.gov/selfreliance
