We are pleased to announce today that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) earned its fourth "A" rating on the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) 10.0 Scorecard issued by the Oversight and Reform Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, corrected from an initial "B" rating earlier this week. 

USAID is honored to be the only Federal Agency to receive four "A" ratings since the Committee published the first FITARA Scorecard in November 2015.   

USAID consistently has received "A" grades for incremental development, transparency and risk-management, the consolidation and optimization of our data centers, and software licensing.  The Agency has been at the forefront of many initiatives to modernize information technology (IT), such as the early adoption of cloud collaboration technology and full implementation of the Federal Government's Cloud First policy.

USAID uses agile development methodology for all our software development, which allows us to move effectively to new, modern solutions.

USAID is proud of our leadership and innovation in the IT field.  We are committed to increasing our mobility and efficiency so we can deliver on our global mission on behalf of the American people through improved management effectiveness.

More than 10 years ago, USAID began a significant IT modernization and innovation effort that provided staff with real-time access to data; applications that support different endpoints, such as laptop computers and a variety of computer accessories; multiple platforms/devices and network types; and accessibility to social collaboration tools and centralized portals to gather and share information that support informed programmatic and business decisions. 

These early modernization and innovation efforts enabled USAID to have nearly all U.S.-based staff, as well as a good portion of our overseas staff, up and running within the first few days of the mandatory telework orders in mid-March. USAID continues to work with overseas Missions where telework is not practical or a regular work modality, leveraging connectivity options such as our Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, a cloud productivity suite of mail and collaboration tools, and our mobile and cloud strategies to keep USAID's work moving forward.