July 31, 2019 

The Honorable Richard Shelby 

Chairman 

Committee on Appropriations 

U.S. Senate 

Washington, D.C. 20510 

Dear Mr. Chairman: 

On October 5, 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Better 

Utilization of Investments Leading to Development (BUILD) Act of 2018. The 

BUILD Act consolidates, modernizes, and reforms the development-finance 

capabilities of the U.S. Government (USG)-primarily the Overseas Private 

Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Development Credit Authority (DCA) of 

the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-into a new independent 

agency: the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). 

The use of development finance around the world has expanded rapidly as 

more governments look to unlock the private-capital resources needed to meet 

development challenges that public funds alone cannot meet. As the DFC 

increases its ability to mobilize private capital, and USAID places more emphasis 

on its engagement with the private sector, coordination between USAID and the 

DFC to pursue U.S. development objectives is essential. The DFC and USAID 

must forge and maintain strong linkages for the United States to maintain its 

leadership in international development. 
Section 1462( c) of the BUILD Act requires a report to detail the 

coordination between the DFC and USAID. Please find such a report enclosed. 

The DFC will interact with other USG Departments and Agencies in pursuit of our 

foreign-policy and development goals. While the enclosed report mentions some 

of that work, it is not an exhaustive outline of how the DFC will interact with the 

many interagency partners that have a stake in its success. 

Sincerely, 

Mark A. Green David Bohigian 

Administrator Acting President & CEO 

U.S. Agency for International Development Overseas Private Investment Corporation 

Enclosure: Report on Cooperation 

2 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coordination Report 

Introduction - Linkages between USAID and DFC Programs 

On October 5, 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed into law the Better 

Utilization of Investments Leading to Development (BUILD) Act of 2018. The 

BUILD Act consolidates, modernizes, and reforms the development-finance 

capabilities of the U.S. Government (USG) —primarily the Overseas Private 

Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Development Credit Authority (DCA) of 

the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—into a new independent 

agency: the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). 

The Administration is pleased to have worked with Congress to move this 

bill for the President’s approval and looks forward to continuing this collaborative 

relationship as it implements the legislation. OPIC and USAID/DCA staff have 

worked closely together since the bill’s passage to integrate their programs 

On March 8, 2019, in accordance with Section 1462 of the BUILD Act, 

President Trump submitted a Reorganization Plan for the DFC to the appropriate 

Congressional Committees. Additionally, the Act requires a “Report on

Coordination” to detail how the DFC and USAID will coordinate after the DFC

becomes operational. 

Development-finance tools, such as loans, guarantees, investment funds, and 

political-risk insurance, facilitate private-sector investment in developing countries 

to have positive developmental impact. These are investments the private sector 

would not make on its own because of the risks associated with the developing 

world. Well-focused backing from the USG can catalyze significant investments 

of private capital into developing countries. This support is essential to key 

sectors, such as infrastructure, agriculture, and health, that improve the quality of 

life for millions and lay the groundwork for modern economies and provide 

financing for women, small- and medium-sized enterprises, or other borrowers that 

have not had sufficient—or sometimes any—access to commercial financing. The 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bipartisan support for the BUILD Act arose from a recognition that the model of 

mobilizing private investment must become a more prominent development tool of 

U.S. foreign policy because the needs in the developing world are too great for 

government resources to meet alone. 

The Administration and Congress sought to bolster the development impact 

of the DFC through mechanisms such as the creation of the Chief Development 

Officer and the prioritization of low- and lower-middle-income countries. The 

BUILD Act includes new tools and operational flexibilities that empower the DFC 

to reach a broader set of projects than OPIC and USAID alone. With greater 

ability to support additional projects, and the DFC’s mandate to ensure it invests in 

projects that advance U.S. foreign-policy and developmental goals, coordination 

across the USG’s foreign-policy and development agencies is essential. 

As the DFC increases the United States’ ability to mobilize private capital and

USAID officers do more across the globe to engage with the private sector, close 

institutional, programmatic and budget linkages between USAID and the DFC are 

critical to the success of both institutions. Indeed, given the trend lines, if the United 

States is to maintain its leadership in international development the DFC, USAID 

and the broader interagency must be strongly linked. 

A DFC with strong ties to the interagency promises more foreign policy alignment 

and development impact than either OPIC or DCA could achieve on their own. 

Through the DFC, the U.S. government – and USAID in particular – will be able to 

access a much deeper toolkit of development finance tools and expertise than has 

been available in the past. This access to the DFC’s financing tools is especially

critical to USAID’s core objective of promoting a path to a recipient country’s selfreliance and resilience. At the same time, the DFC will leverage the global footprint 

from U.S. embassies and missions around the world to realize its growth ambitions, 

while driving deeper impact in its portfolio and more closely monitoring its projects 

throughout the world. 

Mandated by the legislative requirement in Section 1462(c) of the BUILD Act 

(Appendix A), the following Coordination Report details planned institutional, 

programmatic, and budget linkages between USAID and the DFC, and highlights 

several examples of current collaboration between USAID and OPIC. The DFC’s

success depends on close linkages and collaboration well beyond USAID, across 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

many USG Departments and Agencies. While this report acknowledges the 

importance of those relationships and linkages, it focuses on coordination between 

USAID and the DFC. 

INSTITUTIONAL LINKAGES 

Board of Directors— Improving policy alignment through a new structure. 

Strong coordination with U.S. policy-makers who can offer guidance on U.S. 

foreign-policy, development, and national-security objectives will be essential to 

the DFC. The Secretary of State will serve as Chair of the DFC Board of Directors 

(the Board), and the USAID Administrator will serve as Vice-Chair to ensure 

guidance to the DFC comes from the highest levels. The rest of the membership of 

the Board will include the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce, four 

individuals from the private sector, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the 

DFC. The USAID Administrator will help ensure that development impact 

remains a paramount focus of all DFC transactions and programs. On June 12, 

2019, the Board met and approved the DFC’s corporate-governance documents, 

including its bylaws, the charters of the Audit and Risk Committees, and the 

delegation of certain authorities to the CEO. 

Development Finance Coordination Group (DFCG)—Enhancing interagency 

coordination while maintaining the nimbleness required to work with the private 

sector. 

The DFCG will provide greater interagency coordination and input. Loosely based 

on the Power Africa Working Group, the DFCG will comprise representatives of 

both USG Departments and Agencies on the DFC Board and other relevant Federal 

entities not represented on the Board1

. . DFCG meetings will serve as a venue to 

1 These may include the Millennium Challenge Corporation, U.S. Export-Import Bank, Department of 

Labor, and U.S. Trade Representative as well as U.S Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) while 

appropriated. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

share information on the DFC’s transactions and policies; identify priority 

countries, sectors, and initiatives for engagement; and identify specific ways 

interagency partners can support the DFC. The DFCG will be the primary forum 

to capture expertise and equities on matters related to the DFC to ensure policy 

coherence across the entire USG on environment, labor standards, trade, 

development policy, and national security, to support and inform investment policy 

and decision-making. In addition, the DFC’s experience in certain countries and

sectors could help identify “enabling environment” issues for DFCG members to 

focus the attention of their Departments and Agencies. For technical assistance 

and feasibility studies, the group can leverage the expertise and programs of other 

Departments and Agencies to avoid duplication of effort. 

The DFCG will convene regularly, at various levels, to share information and 

discuss policy issues and specific transactions, before those transactions are 

presented for the Board’s approval. The DFC’s management will convene DFCG 

meetings and coordinate agenda items in advance with the group. In doing so, it 

will work closely with the DFCG to balance the group’s need to ensure the 

alignment and integration of specific DFC transactions into U.S. foreign policy–

making, while safeguarding the DFC’s nimbleness and direct relationship with its 

private sector partners and its responsibility to strictly maintain their business 

confidentiality. U.S. Embassies and Consulates and USAID Missions will manage 

country-specific DFC coordination in the field. 

Chief Development Officer (CDO)—Ensuring the DFC meets its mandate to 

generate development impact. 

The CDO, who will report directly to the Board, will be responsible to focus the 

entire organization on driving measurable development impact and ensuring the 

DFC’s portfolio meets its development mandate at the strategic level. The CDO 

will work with the experts in the Office of Development Policy to shape the way 

the institution coordinates across the USG interagency; measures and assesses 

development impact within its transactions; and coordinates technical assistance to 

support deeper development outcomes. The CDO will ensure the DFC prioritizes 

support for low-income or lower-middle-income economies, and will verify the 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DFC’s system to measure development impact. The CDO will also coordinate the 

work by the DFC and USAID, by providing USG Departments and Agencies 

access to the DFC’s tools and ensuring efficient transfers of resources by them to 

the DFC. Importantly, the CDO sits as an ex officio member of the Development 

Advisory Council, a new advisory body established by the BUILD Act with 

experts from the development and business communities to provide counsel to the 

DFC’s Board. The President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 includes 

staffing for the CDO to support this work. 

Office of Development Policy (ODP)—Focusing on increasing measurable 

development impact. 

The DFC is creating a new ODP to deepen the ability of individual transactions to 

produce quantifiable development impact. The CDO will ensure development 

impact at the strategic level, and the ODP will focus on the development impact of 

each transaction. The office will maintain the DFC’s development coordination 

across all relevant USG Departments and Agencies by assessing transactions for 

development impact and policy-alignment and developing technical-assistance 

programming. The ODP will leverage the expertise of all relevant USG 

Departments and Agencies, for example, by serving as a critical interface with 

several parts of USAID, including the current Bureau for Policy, Planning, and 

Learning and the planned Private-Sector Engagement Hub in the new Bureau for 

Development, Democracy, and Innovation. To support these connections, the 

office will likely include dedicated position(s) into which interagency officers, 

particularly from USAID and the Department of State (State), can be detailed on a 

long-term, rotating basis. DFC officers will also have the opportunity to 

participate in details to State and USAID, at headquarters and in the field. 

The ODP will comprise several functional units: 

● Development-Coordination Unit (DCU): This unit will interface directly 

with USAID, State, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) at 

the operational level on a regular basis and will gather information on 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

specific USAID programs and MCC’s Compacts to explore how DFC 

transactions can support them. The DCU will use existing data and data 

systems, such as MCC’s constraints analysis, to promote data-informed 

decision-making and policy-alignment across Federal Departments and 

Agencies. Additionally, the DCU will identify and coordinate training 

opportunities to inform other USG personnel about the DFC’s tools and

programs. While the work of the DCU will complement and support the 

work of the DFCG, the DCU will be more operational and focused on 

specific cross-USG programs, projects, and transactions. 

● Development-Assessment Unit: This unit will evaluate the development 

impact of all DFC transactions and score them accordingly. Currently, 

OPIC, with the support of USAID evaluation experts and other technical 

experts, is designing a new state-of-the-art development-impact scoring 

methodology for the DFC for the Development Assessment Unit to 

implement. The increased investment tools and flexibility will provide the 

DFC with a broader set of projects from which to choose, and will make this 

new model a critical tool in prioritizing transactions based on their 

development impact. 

● Policy-Assessment Unit: This unit will continue OPIC’s current practice of 

analyzing and monitoring projects for their potential environmental and 

social impact, as well as for key labor and human-rights issues. Its work 

will provide up-front opportunities to resolve potential issues while ensuring 

adherence to high standards. The Policy-Assessment Unit also will monitor 

projects that have contractual obligations to implement specific 

environmental, labor, and other processes or procedures, to ensure all 

projects comply with the DFC’s requirements. 

● Technical-Assistance and Feasibility-Studies Unit: This unit will 

develop, manage, and provide oversight for technical-assistance 

programming, a new development tool for the DFC. With its ability to 

deploy project-specific technical assistance, the DFC will prepare projects to 

be “investment ready,” while increasing their sustainability and development 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

impact. The projects considered for this assistance will be limited to those 

the DFC believes it can fund in the future. This focus, along with regular 

interagency interactions, will ensure that these activities will complement, 

but not duplicate, programming done by USAID, MCC, the Department of 

the Treasury’s Office of Technical Assistance (OTA), the Department of 

Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP), and other 

relevant USG Departments and Agencies. Because of OPIC’s lack of 

experience with direct technical-assistance programming, the DFC will draw 

on the expertise and experience of USAID and others in establishing this 

group and designing its programs. 

Department of Development Credit—Leveraging new capabilities and focusing 

new resources on the Administration’s priorities. 

The DFC will have three transaction-focused Departments: Structured Finance 

and Insurance; Investment Funds; and Development Credit. The Department of 

Development Credit will combine USAID’s DCA staff with OPIC’s current Small 

and Medium Enterprise Finance division because of the close alignment of the 

current transactions funded by both groups. Much of the Department will use the 

DCA model of tailored transactional support and portfolio-monitoring services to 

USAID Missions. While these services to USAID will expand under the 

Department to include access to new transactional tools, such as equity and direct 

lending, the DCA approach to delivering those services to field Missions will 

remain. Co-locating the traditional DCA staff with OPIC staff will enhance 

learning and professional development for both. Combining these already 

successful units will allow for programmatic integration and an expansion of 

DCA’s current capabilities. 

The DFC must make this process easy and accessible to USAID Missions. For 

instance, USAID is working to reduce significantly the many internal steps 

required to make Mission-level funding available for a DCA transaction, and will 

incentivize USAID Mission Directors to access the DFC, as appropriate, through 

their performance plans. The DFC will also leverage U.S. Embassy staff, 

including from USAID, to increase its monitoring capacity. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) 

OSI will ensure the DFC is effectively tied into the interagency policy-making 

process and can help ensure foreign-policy alignment with the Administration’s

priorities. For example, individuals from this office will represent the DFC in the 

development of new Administration initiatives—such as Prosper Africa or the 

Indo-Pacific Strategy—and ensure the DFC executes upon them. OSI will be 

structured along regional and thematic lines, and will interact regularly with the 

transaction-focused Departments as well as the ODP, based on region or sector. 

OSI will also link other Federal Departments and Agencies that support U.S. 

businesses overseas, such as the Department of Commerce and the U.S. ExportImport (EXIM) Bank. OSI will tap into other USG Departments and Agencies for 

detailees, as appropriate, for interagency experience, and also serve as a key link 

into the DFCG. 

PROGRAMMATIC LINKAGES 

Transaction Support 

Strong, coordinated support from the interagency, including Country Teams at 

U.S. Embassies around the world, will contribute to the DFC’s success. The 

establishment of the DFC is an opportunity to leverage core capabilities and 

strengths across the USG. While institutional linkages between the DFC and 

USAID (and other Departments and Agencies) will take different forms depending 

on specific development objectives, they will largely fall into the following 

illustrative categories: 

● Origination and Structuring of Transactions: The DFC will develop 

tailor-made debt and equity transactions that directly support U.S. nationalsecurity, commercial, and development objectives. The DFC will leverage 

and benefit from the global reach of State, USAID, and the Department of 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commerce to source new development opportunities. As under the DCA 

model, USAID will contribute to efforts to manage, monitor, and evaluate 

these transactions to ensure they support U.S. foreign-policy goals and 

produce measurable development results. 

● Relationship-Management: Country Teams at U.S. Embassies and 

missions will assist the DFC in building and maintaining relationships with 

new partners with which OPIC has not engaged in the past, particularly 

those in developing countries. In addition, the DFC will provide targeted 

relationship-management support to USAID Missions as they seek to engage 

new financing partners and develop long-term relationships with them in 

support of the Journey to Self-Reliance. 

● Project-Specific Technical Assistance: The USG interagency, including 

State, USAID, the Department of the Treasury’s OTA, the Department of 

Commerce’s CLDP and the DFC, as well as other relevant USG 

Departments and Agencies, will work closely to design, and, when 

necessary, de-conflict, technical-assistance programming. USAID will also 

work with the DFC to direct its ongoing technical-assistance programs to 

improve the enabling environment for business to support DFC-backed 

transactions where needed. 

● Support for Monitoring and Evaluation: State, through U.S. Embassies 

and Consulates, will continue to assist the DFC with project-vetting, 

diplomatic engagement, and ad-hoc reporting on project outcomes. USAID 

will use its global presence and depth of technical expertise to assist in 

monitoring DFC-funded transactions, which will enable the DFC to provide 

a deeper level of monitoring of development impact on its projects than 

previously possible. 

● Oversight of and Support for Compliance: The DFC will provide 

ongoing financial support services to USAID Missions on their existing 

pipeline of more than 275 active DCA guarantees after the transfer of those 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

transactions to the DFC, at the same quality standard currently provided by 

DCA. These services include legal, risk, and compliance support. In 

addition to the USAID transactions that transfer to the DFC, these services 

will also cover all new projects designed and managed by Missions once the 

DFC opens its doors. 

● Feasibility Studies and Benchmarking: State, USAID, and the MCC will 

make their wealth of market, macroeconomic, and sector-specific data and 

information available to the DFC to aid in designing transactions and 

benchmarking development-impact indicators for proper scoring, evaluation, 

and reporting. 

● DFC Liaisons at U.S. Embassies and USAID Missions: USAID Mission 

Directors will formally designate a DFC liaison in their Missions to codify 

and extend the current DCA liaison model by coordinating all DFC 

engagement across their Missions. Liaison officers will receive training on 

the DFC’s products, processes, and procedures, and will be the Missions’

primary operational and programmatic linkages back to the DFC, and to 

regionally based DFC staff. Economic Sections at U.S. Embassies (and 

perhaps certain Consulates) will also designate Foreign Service Officers as 

DFC liaisons to coordinate vetting and other transactional support at post. 

Other USG Departments and Agencies will leverage these liaison roles, or 

create similar ones within their respective contingents at U.S. Embassies 

and/or their field offices. 

● Networking and Convening Authority: Teams at U.S. Embassies and 

USAID Missions will leverage their considerable resources and strategic 

relationships, particularly with governmental, private-sector, and civilsociety stakeholders, to source and develop DFC transactions. By accessing 

a larger and more dynamic pool of potential partners through Embassy and 

Mission teams than OPIC could previously, the DFC will be betterpositioned to select transactions that deliver the deepest and mostsustainable development impact. USAID, through its unique ability to 

convene local development partners and tailor existing programs to support 

the DFC’s transactions, will play a key role 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

● Leveraging Department of State/USAID Platforms Overseas: A critical 

part of the DFC’s work will take place overseas, including through 

interactions with key project-related stakeholders and U.S. Embassy and 

USAID Mission personnel; analyses of market trends; and the origination, 

diligence, and monitoring of transactions. OPIC historically has maintained 

a limited overseas presence, typically funded by transfers from State’s

Economic Support Funds. A handful of new field positions are under 

consideration for funding, and likely governed by an Interagency Agreement 

to ensure alignment and coordination with broader USG efforts. The DFC 

will continue this limited overseas presence with regular contact with DFC 

Mission liaisons and ongoing training on the DFC’s tools for Embassy 

personnel. Any regionally based DFC officers will provide important access 

and direct lines of communication for Embassy and Mission personnel. 

These individuals will have regular contact with DCU and OSI. 

Close coordination among overseas DFC staff, Ambassadors, and the 

economic teams in the field from State and USAID, including various 

interagency representatives, is essential to advance the Administration’s

foreign- and commercial-policy goals. This will allow DFC representatives 

to gain a deeper understanding of conditions and challenges in regional 

markets, while allowing for input to each relevant Integrated Country 

Strategy to ensure the inclusion of development-finance goals in the 

objectives of each USAID Mission, and ensure an action-oriented whole-ofGovernment approach to advance measurable development impact. 

Education on Development Finance—Training for a new era of development. 

Ensuring interagency USG staff understand how the DFC originates, analyzes, 

structures, monitors, and evaluates its transactions is critical for close collaboration 

across Federal institutions. This is particularly true for USAID staff, who will 

source DFC transactions directly to support existing USAID programs in-country. 

The DFC will develop a comprehensive training program, in coordination with 

USAID, State, and other USG Departments and Agencies. This program will 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

complement USAID’s existing training on Private-Sector Engagement, and will be 

available to all interagency staff. 

Staff-Exchanges and Professional Development 

The movement of DCA staff to the DFC will create the strongest initial 

institutional linkage between the DFC and USAID. This staffing link needs to 

expand over time to ensure the DFC’s tools continue to be easily accessible to 

USAID Missions, and that USAID Mission programs continue to support the 

DFC’s transactions. Exchanges of staff into critical positions in the DFC and 

USAID will allow continuous learning and adaptation. Staff exchanges will also 

take many forms, from initiative-specific placements to standing Civil Service and 

Foreign Service positions in Washington, D.C., and U.S. Embassies/Consulates 

and USAID Missions. 

BUDGET LINKAGES 

Strong linkages to U.S. foreign-policy, development, and national-security 

objectives are critical to the DFC’s success. In the past, OPIC has primarily 

operated on a “demand-driven,” private sector-initiated approach to respond to the 

needs of U.S. businesses. While that “demand-driven” model will continue, the 

Administration will also make greater use of the DFC to advance U.S. foreignpolicy objectives in the developing world through a policy-driven approach, in 

addition to the USAID Mission-led, deal-development approach currently used by 

DCA, that will allow USAID Missions—now with more financial tools—to 

support priority areas and increase measurable development impact. Through its 

network of Embassies around the world, the State Department will ensure that 

DFC tools and resources are deployed in the context of a policy-driven approach to 

advance specific U.S. foreign policy and development priorities. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The President’s Budget Request for FY 2020 requests an appropriation of $50 

million to the DFC for credit subsidies, feasibility studies, and project-specific 

technical assistance. In addition, the DFC will facilitate, through the CDO and the 

Office of Development Credit, the transfer of an additional $50 million in 

additional funds from State and/or USAID to support transactions generated and 

implemented by either institution. This transfer will ensure access by State and 

USAID to the DFC’s financing tools to advance the Administration’s priorities

through the DCA mission-led model. 

STRONG LINKAGES UNDER WAY 

Below are some of the ways in which the DFC is expected to advance the 

Administration’s priorities and coordinate with other USG Departments and 

Agencies in the near future: 

Power Africa and Prosper Africa—The DFC will be a key contributor to Power 

Africa and the new Prosper Africa Presidential Initiative, which seeks to advance 

the United States’ competitive advantage on the continent by significantly 

increasing two-way investment and trade with Africa. With African economies 

growing and households increasingly enjoying more discretionary income, the 

African continent represents a critical market for the U.S. private sector, which has 

lost ground in recent years to increasingly sophisticated competition. Recognizing 

the economic potential of the African continent, and in view of increased 

geopolitical competition, the USG seeks to deepen commercial ties between the 

United States and Africa significantly, and to increase mutual economic prosperity. 

The DFC will play a particularly important role in Prosper Africa’s first line of 

effort (Facilitating Transactions), while also contributing to its second line of effort 

(Fostering Fair and Accessible Business Climates and Robust Financial Sectors). 

A focus on infrastructure, information and communications technology, valuechains, and logistics can help advance African countries on their Journeys to SelfReliance. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feed the Future—Increased flexibilities under the BUILD Act make food security 

an attractive area for growth for the DFC compared to OPIC. As a demonstration 

of better linkages between USAID and the DFC, USAID and the DFC will partner 

to hire transaction advisors with expertise in underwriting highly developmental 

deals in food and water security. These advisors will lead a Feed the Future 

Agricultural Finance Unit within the DFC that will elevate the agriculture-finance 

work of both institutions, support interagency USG opportunities to engage the 

private sector, strengthen markets and trade policy in Feed the Future’s Target and

Aligned Countries, and advance the overall goals of the U.S. Global Food-Security 

Strategy. 

Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP)—The 2X 

Initiative has helped set the standard for what it means to invest in women by 

addressing an incredible gap in access to financing in a way that advances U.S. 

interests to create stable and prosperous societies. The BUILD Act’s prioritization 

of women’s economic empowerment means the DFC will continue the 2X 

initiative and play a critical role in the W-GDP’s support to allow women to 

prosper in the workforce and succeed as entrepreneurs. 

W-GDP will help ensure collaboration between the DFC and USAID’s W-GDP 

fund, which invites interagency transfers, including so DFC financial support can 

help scale up an enterprise originally backed by USAID’s grant funding. For 

example, on a recent trip to Ethiopia, OPIC’s Acting President and Chief 

Executive Officer signed a letter of interest with a woman-owned business, which 

originally began to grow with the help of USAID funding. Separately, USAID is 

backing loans made pursuant to the issuance of a $100 million women’s livelihood 

bond in Asia through a DCA guarantee to support W-GDP. 

America Crece—The Administration is working through the “Americas Crece” 

initiative to expand exports, enhance energy and infrastructure security, and 

increase investment throughout the region. It is an innovative, whole-ofgovernment approach to designing achievable energy and infrastructure growth 

programs that address the most pressing investment barriers in each market and 

supports the development of financing structures aimed at optimizing the role of 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

private capital. With its full range of financing instruments and expanded capacity, 

the DFC is well place to support these efforts. 

Indo-Pacific Strategy—The Administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy envisions a 

peaceful and secure region of sovereign nations; supports a framework for privatesector-led economic growth; and encourages a governance model that promotes 

growth through open, transparent, and rules-based economies. The DFC will align 

closely with the broader USG interagency—including through State initiatives, 

such as the Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership (DCCP), the Asia 

Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy (EDGE) Initiative, and the 

Infrastructure Transaction and Assistance Network (ITAN)—to invest in digital 

connectivity; energy; and sustainable, high-quality infrastructure. 

No government is prepared to provide enough funding unilaterally to address the 

Indo-Pacific’s economic and development needs, which could require as much as 

$1.7 trillion annually in infrastructure financing. This challenge requires strategic 

partnerships, which is why OPIC has signed a trilateral Memorandum of 

Understanding with Japan and Australia and agreements with others in the region 

to combine resources, technical expertise, and private-sector funding. While 

signed under OPIC, these initiatives will begin showing results in FY 2020 after 

OPIC has merged into the DFC. 

U.S.-India Development Foundation—The DFC will collaborate closely as 

USAID establishes the proposed U.S.-India Development Foundation (US-IDF). 

The US-IDF will be a locally registered Indian organization closely aligned with 

USAID to address three of India’s most-pressing development challenges: 

tuberculosis; water, sanitation, and hygiene; and pollution and its impact on health. 

The US-IDF will support the Union and local governments. civil society, and the 

private sector in India to mobilize domestic resources, particularly from impact 

investors and corporate social-responsibility funds, to deploy a wide range of 

development programming and financing to resolve its development challenges. 

To maximize the development impact of this unique structure, while minimizing 

duplication, the US-IDF will leverage the DFC’s tools to provide developmentfinance and equity investments. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion 

A DFC with strong ties to the USG interagency promises more foreign-policy 

alignment and development impact than either OPIC or DCA could achieve on its 

own. Through the DFC, the USG—and USAID in particular—will have access to 

a much-deeper toolkit of development-finance tools and expertise than has been 

available in the past. This access to the DFC’s financing tools is critical to

USAID’s core objective of promoting each partner country’s Journey to SelfReliance. The DFC will also leverage the global footprint from U.S. Embassies 

and Consulates and USAID Missions around the world to increase substantially the 

use of development finance in the world’s least-developed countries. 

As the DFC increases its ability to mobilize private capital, and USAID places 

more emphasis on its engagement with the private sector, close coordination 

between USAID and the DFC to pursue the USG’s development objectives is 

essential. The DFC and USAID must create and maintain strong institutional 

linkages if the United States seeks to maintain its leadership in international 

development. 
 

 

 

Appendix A 

SEC. 1462. REORGANIZATION PLAN. 

.....

(c) REPORT ON COORDINATION.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—The transfer of functions authorized by this section may 

occur only after the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Overseas Private 

Investment Corporation and the Administrator of the United States Agency for 

International Development jointly submit to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 

Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and Committee on 

Foreign Relations and Committee on Appropriations of the Senate a report in 

writing that contains the information required by paragraph (2). 

(2) INFORMATION REQUIRED.—The information required by this paragraph 

includes a description in detail of the procedures to be followed after the transfer of 

functions authorized by this section have occurred to coordinate between the 

Corporation and the United States Agency for International Development in 

carrying out the functions so transferred.