Audit Report
Report Number
9-000-21-005-P
Political and economic turmoil in Venezuela has triggered one of the largest humanitarian crises in the history of the Western Hemisphere, leading to 5.1 million Venezuelans leaving the country to escape severe shortages of food, medicine, and healthcare services; skyrocketing hyperinflation and unemployment; outbreaks of infectious diseases; and one of the highest homicide rates in the world. The outpouring of migrants from Venezuela and the resulting impact on the Latin America and the Caribbean region has emerged as a critical foreign policy priority for the U.S. Government. USAID partnered with the State Department to prioritize the delivery of assistance to the Venezuelan people and to neighboring countries supporting and aiding Venezuelan migrants. However, USAID faced significant policy, coordination, and strategic planning challenges in responding to the Venezuela regional crisis, from not having a process for documenting directives from the National Security Council and the State Department to not having developed joint strategic humanitarian response plans with the State Department and Strategic Frameworks internally to guide its development programs in the region affected by the Venezuelan crisis. Also, while the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Office of Food for Peace incorporated leading practices to manage fraud risks, their guidelines to implementers lacked risk management requirements. We made six recommendations to improve USAID’s response to the Venezuela regional crisis and, in some instances, improve USAID’s future responses to international disasters—including strengthening humanitarian assistance policy and processes, strategic planning for development programs, and requiring implementer use of leading practices for fraud risk management in humanitarian programs.
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