USAID looks to private partnerships

Last week, USAID announced a new corporate volunteerism program, the Center of Excellence for International Corporate Volunteerism. The center's goal is to increase the number of volunteers that corporations send overseas, turning them into "citizen-diplomats."

USAID will partner with IBM and CDC Development Solutions to establish the virtual center, which should be self-sustaining at the end of the two-year pilot period. The center will liaise between corporate members and local governments who are willing to work with corporate volunteers.

In an article in The Nonprofit Quarterly, InterAction's president & CEO, Sam Worthington, said,  "The new face of America overseas, often privately funded, can be very positive."

Another hope is that formalizing the process in one place, instead of each corporation undergoing the same trial-and-error in planning their programs, will help to replicate successes more easily.

For further information, see:

• USAID's press release on the new center;
• CDC Development Solutions's page on the new center;
• The Nonprofit Quarterly's article, Corporate Volunteerism Takes Center Stage in USAID Development Assistance.