"Strengthening institutional capacity is one of the greatest challenges faced by USAID as it works to fulfill its development assistance mandate worldwide. USAID's host country partners include organizations tasked to provide services and products to their constituents across a wide spectrum of sectors. These organizations face daunting challenges as they struggle to perform in developing country environments often undergoing or recovering from political, social and economic upheaval. Such overwhelming changes would tax the ability of any well-established organization in the developed world to adapt and thrive; the challenges posed to newly established organizations and organizations mired in decades of bureaucratic cultures and work ethics are even greater. Yet, the greatest legacy USAID could leave in the wake of its long-term development programs is one of successful host country partner organizations capable of providing quality services and products to their constituents and stakeholders. USAID's innovative Human and Institutional Capacity Development (HICD) initiative provides methodologies and tools designed to assist USAID's partner organizations in their quests for performance excellence. Through the application of these methodologies and tools USAID can help its partners develop clearly articulated goals, and objectives and achieve those goals and objectives through exemplary performance. HICD can be successfully applied to any type of organization including government organizations, non-profit organizations and professional associations. HICD will enable these organizations to responsibly meet the needs of their countries and their citizens."