It is up to developing countries themselves and their governments to take the lead on development. They need to decide, plan, and sequence their economic policies to fit with their own development strategies, for which they should be accountable to all their people. ... We need to support sound development strategies with better aid, to ensure it is used most effectively.
— G8 leaders, July 8, 2005,
Gleneagles, Scotland

Leaders of the world's eight major economies (G8), at their annual meeting in July 2005, called on all nations to recommit themselves to supporting economic progress and good governance in the developing world, particularly in Africa—the only continent not on track to meet by 2015 any of the goals agreed on at the international Millennium Summit in 2000 and put forth in the Millennium Declaration. The leaders of the G8—the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom—agreed that further progress on attaining the goals must be based on sustained and consistent progress toward peace and security, better governance, improved health care and education, enhanced growth, access to markets, and added resources through trade, investment, and increased official development assistance.

The United States is doing its part. It is the world's largest donor of official development assistance, the largest donor of emergency humanitarian relief, the largest donor of private charitable funding, and the chief source of private financial flows to the developing world. Through the Millennium Challenge Account, the United States will continue to make resources available to countries that provide incentives for economic growth through policies that promote good governance, trade, and investment. Growth also requires healthy, well-educated citizens who can enjoy economic opportunities and political freedoms. Here, also, the United States is doing its part by advancing the largest health initiative in the history of the world to combat communicable diseases.

Much of the U.S. development initiative is conducted through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its many partner nongovernmental organizations. This journal provides a glance at some of the individual U.S. development projects throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America that seek to address the key objectives of the Millennium Declaration: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality and improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development. The editors of the journal hope that you will take from these project descriptions information that might be useful in formulating development projects in your own countries.

The Editors