Editor’s note (2026): Since this meeting in 2023, the global foreign aid landscape has changed significantly. World Renew continues to work with a range of partners to support locally led development and humanitarian response worldwide.
In early February 2023, World Renew joined ten other U.S. faith-based organizations in meeting with leaders from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. government’s development agency, including Administrator Samantha Power and Adam Phillips, Executive Director of USAID’s Local, Faith, and Transformative Partnerships Hub, for a roundtable discussion.
Key Discussions with USAID Leaders
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 Power “facilitated conversation around barriers to 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’s Approach to Local Partnerships
World Renew has worked with local partners in development and humanitarian assistance since the early days of its more than 60 years in 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 global development and localization efforts, and emphasized the importance of strengthening support for local actors.”
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.”
Long-Term Partnerships and Program Impact
World Renew has received more than $13 million USD through grants from institutional donors, including USAID, in a dozen developing countries over the last 35 years. In 2022, World Renew completed a USAID-funded health program in Bangladesh with the Christian Connections for International Health network. The work was facilitated through some of World Renew’s 57 long-term local partners and 16 partners in research and development at that time.
In 2023, World Renew received similar grants supporting conservation agriculture programs in Kenya, as well as strengthening partnerships in Bangladesh, Kenya, and Malawi.
“Our strategic goal is to use institutional funding, such as USAID grants, to strengthen the capacity of our implementing partners and World Renew staff through practical experience in program management, monitoring, and evaluation using results-based management systems and fiscally responsible and compliant budget monitoring and reporting,” Slate said.
Continuing Global Collaboration
World Renew works with partners across Africa, Asia, and the Americas, collaborating with a wide range of institutional and community-based supporters. Faith-based and community organizations remain essential partners in advancing shared development and humanitarian goals. World Renew seeks to leverage funding among partners and donors for cost-effective solutions that result in lasting, transformative change in communities worldwide.
