In a press release distributed on Thursday, February 2, 2023, a statement attributed to USAID Spokesperson Jessica Jennings noted Administrator Power’s reaffirmation of “USAID’s strong commitment to partnering with and working alongside faith-based organizations to advance shared development and humanitarian objectives…” Jennings reported that Powers “facilitated conversation around barriers to [USAID’s] working with faith-based groups on shared priorities. The participants discussed opportunities for advancing USAID’s localization commitments and empowering local actors, including local religious actors and faith-based organizations.

Administrator Power also highlighted the Agency’s forthcoming strategy on strategic religious engagement and ongoing efforts to engage new partners, including
through efforts to lower barriers for working with USAID.”
World Renew has worked with local partners in development and humanitarian assistance since the early days of its 60 years in development ministry. World
Renew Program Excellence Director Kaitlyn Slate, who attended the meeting, said that “Administrator Power highlighted that faith-based actors like World Renew are
essential to USAID’s localization strategy in global development and emphasized the agency’s commitment to providing a share of funding to local actors by 2025.

Slate also noted that “World Renew has been at the forefront of localization, a core value of World Renew’s ministry, for decades. In one case, World Renew worked with USAID in the 1990s to develop Organizational Capacity Indicators (OCI) through a small church diocese in Kenya. The work expanded to funding through other international organizations as well as USAID. This kind of success is a key goal of World Renew’s work and long-term commitments are a strategic priority within it.”

“Our strategic goal is to use institutional funding like USAID grants to aims to strengthen the capacity of our implementing partners and WR Staff through
practical experience in program management, monitoring, and evaluation using results-based management systems and fiscally responsible and USG-compliant budget monitoring and reporting,” Slate said.
USAID has partnered with and alongside faith-based and community organizations to advance shared development and humanitarian objectives. Today, religious actors remain essential partners in the work we do around the world.

World Renew seeks to leverage funding amongst partners and donors for cost-effective solutions that result in transformative change within communities worldwide.