The U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) is an independent U.S. government agency established by Congress in 1980 to invest directly in African grassroots enterprises and social entrepreneurs. USADF’s investments increase incomes, revenues, and jobs by promoting self-reliance and market-based solutions to poverty. USADF creates pathways to prosperity for marginalized populations and underserved communities in the Sahel, Great Lakes, and the Horn of Africa. It partners with African governments, other U.S. government agencies, private corporations, and foundations to achieve transformative results. The U.S. African Development Foundation measures grant success in terms of jobs created and sustained, household and enterprise incomes increased, and grantee organizations strengthened. For Fiscal Year 2021, Congress provided USADF $33 million to carry out activities. By the time of its 40th anniversary in December 2020, USADF had invested over $265 million via nearly 4,000 grants to African enterprises and impacted over 10 million lives. A study by Foreign Policy Analytics in 2020 determined that for every $10,000 in USADF grant funding in Africa, 25 workers are hired in the agriculture sector and 19 by youth-led enterprises, while 79 people are connected to electricity. History Created by an Act of Congress in 1980, the African Development Foundation began program operations in 1984. It has since provided financing to more than 1,700 small enterprises and community-based organizations. 1977 - Senators Edward Kennedy and George McGovern sponsored S. 1348, the African Development Foundation Act, in the 95th Congress. It proposed to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to establish USADF to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the people of Africa and the United States and to assist in the development of Africa. It required such Foundation to cooperate with indigenous organizations representative of Africa and other private, regional, and international organizations. It also authorized such a Foundation to make grants, loans, and loan guarantees to African entities for developmental purposes and required the Foundation to give priority to community self-help projects with the maximum feasible participation of the poor. It also provided for the appointment of a Board of Directors to manage such a Foundation. 1983 - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on the nominations of William Pickard, Patsy Blackshear, Charles Wells, Chester Crocker, and Frank Ruddy to the USADF Board of Directors. The Senate confirmed the nominations that same year, during which the USADF Board held its first meeting at the offices of the Inter-American Foundation