AMNA NAWAZ: One of the biggest challenges facing sub-Saharan African nations is how to help farmers withstand climate and economic headwinds and produce food for a growing population.

The U.S. Agency for International Development last year granted about $33 billion for projects across the world.

But critics say its results have fallen well short, with most aid dollars going to U.S.-based companies, with little involvement by locally led groups closest to the problem.

In his final report examining foreign aid, Fred de Sam Lazaro looks at two such food start-ups in the West African nation of Ghana.

It's part of his series Agents for Change.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It's still early in the growing season, but Faith Mawuko is guardedly optimistic about this season's yield from her 1,000 mango trees.

You expect a bumper harvest this year?

FAITH MAWUKO, Mango Farmer: Yes, I do.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What could make that not happen?

FAITH MAWUKO: The weather, the climate.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Like most Ghanaian farmers, she's at the mercy of market and increasingly unpredictable weather.

Farmers here depend on rain.

Few have irrigation systems.

FAITH MAWUKO: The climate also plays a major role during the fruiting, the flowering.

If you're unable to get enough rain, we get a lot of the fruit getting aborted.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That's what happened last year to mango farmers in Latin America, where widespread flooding reduced production by up to 80 percent.

To Nikki Okrah, that's created an opportunity here in Ghana's eastern region.

Those Latin American farmers sell most of their mangoes in the United States.

NIKKI OKRAH, Founder, Chaku Foods: You have the U.S. market, where millions of tons of dried mangoes and other products are consumed.

Then you need to get those mangoes from somewhere else.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Okrah's nonprofit, called Chaku Foods, agreed to purchase Mawuko's entire crop this year, a big relief for the farmer, since the price is locked in and should yield a profit.

Without this guarantee, her mangoes would go to the market at harvest time, where, ironically, a bumper harvest lowers prices.

Okrah's company will track the progress of Mawuko's and dozens of other client farms all the way to harvest, using geospatial mapping and data gathered through drone and satellite images.

It helps manage the climate risk, she says, and can reassure prospective buyers, especially a promising new American one.

So you would like to see mangoes from here wind up on a shelf at Trader Joe's?

NIKKI OKRAH: Yes.

Yes, exactly.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: From harvest to processing, there are still many steps before these mangoes hit store shelves, but Chaku Foods has a verbal agreement with a Trader Joe's supplier, the culmination of a vision Okrah had when she returned to Ghana in 2021.

NIKKI OKRAH: I think part of it's in the blood.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Born in Ghana and raised in the U.S., Okrah holds degrees from Northwestern and Harvard.

She left a corporate career and moved here to focus on creating wealth for smallholder farmers like her ancestors.

NIKKI OKRAH: There's an abundance of wealth and opportunity above the land and in this space.

We can have billions of dollars not going to waste and postharvest loss, but actually going to markets.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That's a goal shared by the U.S. government, which has granted hundreds of millions of dollars to help farmers across the developing world.

But very little of that money goes to local start-ups like Chaku Foods.

The grants, tens of millions of dollars and up, have reporting and accounting requirements well beyond their capacity.

NIKKI OKRAH: So much of our time is on the ground, in the field.

And committing hours and time to really go through the paperwork, answer the questions are some of the things that maybe keep us from fully integrating into that system.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So, most local nongovernment groups or start-ups in food, health care or other services must settle for small subcontracting roles with the large international agencies and private U.S.-based companies that receive the vast majority of U.S. development aid contracts.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH, Co-Founder, Farmerline: We have never contracted directly to USAID.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Alloysius Attah started a company called Farmerline in 2013.

It provides a range of services to a wide spectrum of small farmers, on this day, conducting a seminar for a women's group on how to improve soil conditions.

Farmerline digitizes financial records for client farmers and links them with merchants it has vetted to ensure they get reliable seeds and other inputs.

And it purchases their harvests, selling them to larger agribusinesses.

You midwife for the farmers, essentially link them up with buyers.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: Right.

Exactly.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Over its 12 years, the group reports it has grown to serve 2.2 million client farmers in 50 countries, scale that Attah says would be much greater with access to U.S. aid funds.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: We're just not trusted with the resources.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What he sees as a lack of trust is reflected in the strict guidelines of federal government grant applications, intended to ensure accountability and protect against corruption.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: Corruption is everywhere.

But it's -- you know, corruption is not just for locally led organizations or, like, developing countries.

It is everywhere.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The large aid contractors are experts in federal procurement, he and other critics say, but their administrative overhead, travel and consultant fees consume most of the award dollars.

And to improve their chances of being awarded grants, Attah says these companies approach groups like his early in the process, proposing to write them in as local partners.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: It is exploitation.

They get your content, they get your knowledge, not just your knowledge, the actual pictures to write the application, your videos, your impact reports.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: When the grant is awarded, he says, the local partner is cut out.

ALLOYSIUS ATTAH: We have experienced that like 1,000 times.

And it's like -- it's almost like you meet a girl and then you're very excited.

The person leads you on, you pour your heart in, then they just, like, ghost you.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Other Africa-based aid groups echo the complaints against the large USAID contractors, but say they fear doing so publicly would jeopardize any future prospects for work.

We invited the largest aid company, Chemonics, to respond to the allegations.

They declined, as did as the main trade association of aid implementing companies.

SAMANTHA POWER, USAID Administrator: The status quo is tough to shift.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: USAID Administrator Samantha Power also declined our request for an interview.

She pledged in 2021 to increase the share of grants going to local groups to 25 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030.

That percentage, which began near 7 percent at the time, has crept up to near 10 percent, still well short of the localization target.

J. BRIAN ATWOOD, Former USAID Administrator: That's got to change.

I mean, that just has to change.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Brian Atwood was USAID administrator under President Clinton.

And what's going to trigger that change?

J. BRIAN ATWOOD: Well, I think the way the contracts are written in the first place is -- it's got to happen.

It's got to be a policy change that starts from the top.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He says, in almost all cases, USAID pays contractors in full for work done, whether or not they deliver results, and a significant number do not.

That's not surprising to Atwood, who says development work is complex, with few clear-cut answers.

But he says the agency should be allowed to embrace some risk in pursuit of ideas that work.

J. BRIAN ATWOOD: It's got to be a learning agency.

It's got to have the flexibility if a program isn't working to move the money around to something that is working.

And that flexibility doesn't exist either once you have signed a contract.

So there has to be escape clauses in these contracts as well.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: While no one knows exactly what will come under the next Trump administration, Atwood says foreign aid has long enjoyed bipartisan support, seen as a national security priority by many Republicans.

And, he notes, Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundations blueprint for the second Trump term, has endorsed the idea of locally led development, even as it proposes significant cutbacks overall in foreign aid.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Washington.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

And he joins me now to discuss more of his reporting.

So, Fred, as you noted, USAID Administrator Samantha Power declined to participate in your reports.

Has there been any response from the agency since?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: We did hear, Amna, from a USAID spokesperson taking issue with a comment made by Walter Kerr of Unlock Aid, and issuing a statement that said it was incorrect to state that only 10 percent of USAID's total assistance funding reaches local communities, meaning in the countries targeted.

And the statement goes on that -- quote - - "This grossly misstates USAID's work, which reaches hundreds of millions of people around the globe every year."

Well, there's no dispute about reaching a lot of people.

It is close to $40 billion, after all.

When it comes to the number taking issue with how much money is actually spent locally, there is a lot of opacity.

It's a very elastic number, depending on who is interpreting it.

We asked the agency to furnish one that they thought would be more accurate, but have not heard back.

What is not in dispute among most experts is that the majority of USAID funds go to contracts with large international agencies, which have high overhead that consume a lot of the dollars.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Fred, a number of the critics you have featured paint a portrait of a very impersonal, very corrupt system.

Is it that simple?

Is that all it is?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: You know, nobody disputes that there are hundreds, thousands of people who work for the agency and work indeed for these implementer companies who are dedicated professionals, domain experts in what they're trying to deal with.

The criticism, I think, is off a system that's process-bound, that is inflexible, and that distorts and detracts from getting much better results than would be possible given the amount of money that's being spent.

AMNA NAWAZ: So what are the alternatives here to this status quo that can get better results, better efficiency without compromising transparency and control of abuse and corruption?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: You know, we have heard a number of ideas.

We just heard from Brian Atwood, who said it would be nice if the agency were given some flexibility to course-correct.

If something's not working, experiment with something that might have a better crack at solving a problem in whatever endeavor is being undertaken.

Another example that one has heard is about a model where the government incentivizes the private sector to come up with that magic seed that will be drought-resistant, and you can get a better crop, for example.

Just incentivize the private sector to come up with innovation.

That's what happened with Operation Warp Speed, and it gave us a COVID vaccine in record short time.

AMNA NAWAZ: Fred de Sam Lazaro, thank you so much for your reporting.

It's always good to speak with you.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Thank you, Amna.