About USADF

For over 25 years, the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) has worked on behalf of the American people to deliver direct financial support to African enterprises and community-based organizations.

What Does USADF Do?

The United States Congress established the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) in 1980 as an independent public corporation with a mandate to promote the participation of Africans in the economic and social development of their countries. For more than 25 years, ADF has helped grassroots groups and individuals in Africa help themselves by providing the resources they need to advance their own efforts to promote economic and social development.

USADF provides small grants of $250,000 or less to private and other nongovernmental entities in Africa to:

• Finance sustainable poverty alleviating initiatives that are conceived, designed, and implemented by Africans and aimed at enlarging opportunities for community development;
• Stimulate and expand the participation of Africa's poor in the development of their countries; and
• Build sustainable African institutions that foster grassroots development.
  
  

The principal aim of USADF's grants is to enable grassroots groups to generate increased incomes through productive enterprises that expand the overall economic production capacity and increase the economic security of their families and communities.

A Unique Approach
USADF believes that local communities are a vital source of ideas and energy for development. The Foundation makes grants directly to African enterprises and non-governmental organizations; none of its resources pass through government agencies or international organizations. USADF has been a pioneer in promoting participatory development. All USADF-funded projects are "made in Africa" - proposed, designed, and implemented by the beneficiaries themselves, with any needed technical assistance and training provided entirely by local experts. USADF's participatory development approach builds local capacity and promotes self-help by unleashing entrepreneurial spirit and mobilizing community resources. USADF's efforts complement larger, government-to-government assistance programs by tackling problems "from the ground up" and developing new models of participatory development that can be replicated on a larger scale by other grassroots groups and communities, local and international private sector entities, and other development assistance agencies.

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