SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 
The purpose of this Act is to encourage the United 
States Agency for International Development to pursue a 
model of locally led development and humanitarian re-
sponse and expand engagement and partnership with local 
entities. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) locally led development and humanitarian 
response is linked to more efficient and sustainable 
development and humanitarian outcomes, and is 
vital to building long-term self-reliance; 
(2) over multiple Administrations, USAID has 
sought to achieve greater development outcomes 
through 
stronger 
local 
partnerships, 
including 
through ‘‘Country Ownership’’, ‘‘The Journey to 
Self-Reliance’’, and ‘‘Locally Led Development’’; 
(3) USAID should increase direct funding to 
local entities, including by increasing the amount of 
development and humanitarian assistance to such 
entities; 
(4) USAID should ensure its programming en-
ables local communities to exercise leadership over 
priorities, project design, implementation, and meas-
uring and evaluating results of such programs; 
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(5) working with local partners often requires 
more time and resources than traditional partners, 
including extended availability of funds and addi-
tional staff resources; and 
(6) increased flexibility is critical to enable 
USAID to respond to local priorities and leverage 
local capacities, including with respect to staffing, 
availability of funds, program design, and acquisi-
tion and assistance processes, among other areas. 
SEC. 4. WORKING WITH LOCAL PARTNERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—To the extent feasible and appro-
priate, the Administrator of USAID should localize 
USAID’s partner base by considering— 
(1) simplifying and increasing access to USAID 
resources for local partners in humanitarian and de-
velopment sectors, including local partners who have 
relations, agency, or power structures in place that 
have produced, or can produce, strong trust, ac-
countability, and legitimacy in the communities or 
networks such partners work in; 
(2) diversifying award types to streamline per-
formance requirements and working with the Office 
of Management and Budget to address threshold 
constraints such as fixed amount subaward thresh-
olds, category management award targets, and other 
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thresholds, policies, and contracting incentives that 
pose a barrier to effectively supporting local part-
ners; 
(3) streamlining monitoring and evaluation, 
periodic reporting, and other USAID reporting re-
quirements; 
(4) ensuring USAID staff is able and encour-
aged to conduct regular consultation with local part-
ners in local languages of the host countries, making 
available solicitations for acquisitions and assistance 
and accepting submissions in local languages, video 
format, or verbal presentations, including by— 
(A) investing in translation services; 
(B) hosting workshop-based engagements; 
and 
(C) advertising solicitations in local trade 
publications, local media including newspapers 
and radio, local community centers, and local 
online forums; 
(5) allowing and promoting multi-year, flexible, 
tiered and milestone-based funding for new pro-
grams and to bring successful programs to scale; 
(6) strengthening USAID staff and local part-
ners’ capacity to undertake risk management and 
mitigation; 
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(7) supporting consistent and unimpeded access 
to full cost recovery for local partners implementing 
USAID-funded activities; 
(8) assessing current definitions of ‘‘local part-
ner’’, ‘‘local ownership’’, and ‘‘localization’’ used by 
USAID for programming and reporting metrics, and 
updating the definitions, as necessary; 
(9) undertaking outreach campaigns and engag-
ing with local partners, formally and informally, to 
raise awareness about opportunities, as well as how 
to apply for and manage awards in compliance with 
applicable Federal regulations and USAID policies, 
and ensuring such engagement is accessible to all 
entities, including unregistered and informal organi-
zations; 
(10) 
strengthening 
oversight 
of 
capacity 
strengthening components of awards to ensure 
United States and international awardees are mak-
ing good-faith efforts to strengthen local organiza-
tions’ capacities, including independent and external 
evaluations to evaluate the mentorship process and 
regular feedback loops; 
(11) expeditiously solving the shortage of con-
tracting officers within USAID, including granting 
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warrants to qualified staff and providing appropriate 
training; 
(12) addressing performance evaluation criteria 
to create greater workforce incentives for USAID 
personnel to champion locally led development; 
(13) addressing internal delays and recipient 
organization issues that result in the required exten-
sion of provisional Negotiated Indirect Cost Rates 
(NICRAs); 
(14) conducting NICRA seminars in local lan-
guages and providing NICRA documentation in local 
languages; and 
(15) ensuring that contracting officers and 
agreement officers communicate to awardees who do 
not submit for a NICRA that they are eligible for 
the de minimis indirect cost rate. 
SEC. 5. INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF ACTIONS DESCRIBED IN 
SECTION 4. 
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act, the Administrator of USAID shall ini-
tiate policy actions, including rulemaking if necessary, to 
institutionalize the actions described in section 4 to the 
extent appropriate and feasible within all relevant USAID 
internal rules and regulations, including the Automated 
Directive System (ADS), the Acquisition and Assistance 
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