The United States Agency of International Development, or USAID as it’s more commonly known, is as the name suggests is a United States government agency devoted to international development and foreign aid (https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are). They have branches in numerous countries around the world, including in Rwanda.
What is interesting about the work of USAID in Rwanda is that it is always working in conjunction with the Government of Rwanda and adhering to their goals. This gives a form of legitimacy to the Government of Rwanda. As I’ve shown before, a big part of the strategy of the Rwandan Government and Paul Kagame is to gain international legitimacy. The propaganda piece I showed in on of my previous blog posts had English subtitles in order to be spread to a more international audience (the vast majority of the Rwandan population does not speak any English). Not to mention the fact that it was on Twitter, which in Rwanda which has a mostly rural population suggests it was aimed at a more diverse audience. Paul Kagame has always portrayed himself as a benevolent and successful leader. He has the trappings of democracy and for years was even lauded as one of Africa’s success stories for how he helped to develop the economy. Yet, increasingly, governments have been calling him out for authoritarian actions and this is where organisations like USAID come in. They work in pretty much every region of the country, helping in a variety of areas that are important to Rwandans, including but not limited to agriculture and food security, economic growth and trade, global health and education (https://www.usaid.gov/rwanda). These policies have a double effect. One, as previously mentioned is that it enables legitimacy from the outside. USAID is a legitimate and generally trusted government agency from a major country, having htem work with the government on government policies affords the government a certain amount of legitimacy as compared to other authoritarian states. It also affords the government legitimacy within the country. These programs are dedicated to improving the lives of regular Rwandans and the more it is seen that the government is actively working to improve lives, the more support they will garner. The more legitimacy that the government earns the more likely they will be able to use authoritarian behaviour with less repercussions.
Rwanda Reconsidered 