Food for Peace Development Assistance Program (DAP)

The US Agency for International Development's Food for Peace Development Assistance Program (CFDA 98.007) funds resilience and food security activities in vulnerable overseas populations, with the most recent grant award made on October 1, 2024. The program has disbursed 507 grants totaling $7.34 billion in federal dollars since 1996, maintaining a steady cadence of six to seven awards annually over the past five years. Grant opportunities have been posted recently, including solicitations for resilience food security activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (due April 17, 2023), Mozambique (due October 27, 2021), and Haiti (due June 25, 2021), though no open solicitations remain active as of today.

The program funds development and emergency food security interventions addressing malnutrition, agricultural productivity, and household resilience. Recent awards support multi-year resilience food security activities using the graduation approach—intensive household support combining livelihood training, asset transfers, and financial management coaching to move vulnerable populations permanently out of aid dependency. Examples include Catholic Relief Services' $12.3 million Madagascar HAREA activity reaching 54,642 households (Cooperative Agreement 720BHA24CA00036), CNFA's $15.4 million Madagascar VIKINA activity reaching 34,000 households (720BHA24CA00037), and life-saving nutrition assistance to acutely malnourished populations in Yemen ($3.27 million, Project Grant 720BHA24IO00050). The program also funds in-kind therapeutic nutrition supplies and research on early acute malnutrition treatment across six West and Central African countries.

Cooperative Agreements dominate the portfolio at 46 percent (232 awards), followed by Project Grants at 41 percent (210 awards) and Block Grants at 13 percent (65 awards). Nearly all funding flows through USAID's central account ($5.88 billion across 468 awards), with smaller allocations from USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance ($995.5 million, 32 awards), Bureau for Management Office of the Assistant Administrator ($442 million, 6 awards), and Bureau for Management Office of the Chief Financial Officer ($16.2 million, 1 award). Individual awards range from under one million dollars to over $300 million for multi-year country programs in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eligible applicants include private voluntary organizations, cooperatives, public international organizations such as the World Food Program, and organizations registered with USAID as public international organizations.