USAID: Helping others for Better Opportunity and Life

“I have a job is not a job. It is passion”, said Shannon Stone in the session speaker at University of Indonesia, Salemba. Shanon is USAID Acting Program Office Director in Indonesia. The Program Office is responsible for administra tion of the annual USAID budget, and for Monitoring and Evaluating the effectiveness of the programs.

According to Shanon, USAID works at 72 countries around the world. Their purpose is to develop country capacity. Shanon said that USAID has 50 years serving Indonesia. It is important for USAID to have Indonesia grown and to change to stronger Indonesia advancing national and global development.

In Indonesia, USAID work in 4 area:

to strengthen democratic governance;
-to improve access to quality basic services;
-to address development challenges of global consequence;
to supports partnerships between American and Indonesian scientists, researchers and private companies to solve the world’s toughest problems.

Those has reflected in a five-year strategies of USAID as follow;

Democratic governance
Essential Human Services
Global Development Priorities
Collaborative Achievement Sciences, and Technology.

Mostly, USAID is works at fourteen provinces in Indonesia, as follow:

Aceh
North Sumatra
West Java
Central Java
East Java
West Nusa Tenggara
West Kalimantan
Central Kalimantan
South Sulawesi
Southeast Sulawesi
North Maluku
West Papua
Maluku
Papua

Recently, the biggest budget of USAID allocated in the global health initiatives.

The core areas of USAID works in every country came from the congress decision that have to match with the local government. Such us Indonesia, the support is based on Indonesian RPJN. Shanon is feel convenience to work for USAID. It can direct her to help others for better opportunity and life. For her, have a Job is not a job, but passion. It is important to share value and goals with Indonesia as a part of decisions in working with Indonesia.