The U.S. Agency for International Development has released a new Digital Policy that promotes the secure adoption of digital and emerging technologies to accelerate development progress and humanitarian response.
New funding worth $14.6 million is expected to be awarded to support policy goals, including enhancing development and humanitarian outcomes through infrastructure investments; improving digital knowledge, skills, policies and technology; and promoting privacy, security, transparency, equity and human rights in USAID programming and across digital ecosystems, USAID said Thursday.
With the funding, the agency aims to achieve responsible AI adoption, build partner countries’ cybersecurity capacity and strengthen foundational digital connectivity infrastructure and financial services.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced the new Digital Policy during a keynote speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she highlighted the role of technology in improving people’s lives.
In support of a vision to harness technology’s potential to advance development and humanitarian efforts, Power also announced the establishment of the DigitalDevelopment.org knowledge hub, which gives external stakeholders access to digital development resources from various countries to simplify how they support digital transformation efforts worldwide.