By Grazie Pozo Christie
The U.S. Agency for International Development has just announced a policy to guide U.S. investments in the education of foreign children. Here’s the critical piece: The new policy stresses Americans’ commitment to the world’s most marginalized children, including girls, who are too often left behind when it comes to learning.
It was in 1961 that President John F. Kennedy transformed the many disjointed and disparate foreign assistance organizations into one overarching agency. USAID was the result. The goal was to not only take our economic obligation as “the wealthiest people in a world of largely poor people” seriously, but to do so in a way that consistently reflected the highest and noblest American values.
One of our core values is the importance of education, humanity’s great enabler, and the idea that all children deserve access to that surest path to success. Sadly, too many young people across the globe are growing up amid geopolitical crisis, violence, and displacement. For them, survival is a greater priority than learning. The result: lost generations of students , and lost opportunities.
