The glossary defines legislative, administrative, programming
and budget terms referred to in this budget justification.
Underscored terms in the definitions are defined elsewhere
in the glossary. Frequently used abbreviations are included.
Click a letter below to jump to glossary terms
that begin with that letter
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| Budget Justification Terms |
Accrual: |
An estimate of cost that has been incurred
but not yet paid by the Agency. An accrual is calculated
for a specific agreement. It helps provide current information
on the financial status of an activity and program. |
|
Activity: |
A set of actions through which inputs such
as commodities, technical assistance and training are
mobilized to produce specific outputs such as vaccinations
given, schools built, and micro-enterprise loans issued.
Activities are undertaken to achieve "strategic," "special,"
or "strategic support" objectives that have been formally
approved and notified to Congress. |
|
Agency Strategic Plan:
|
The Agency's overall plan for providing
development assistance. The strategic plan articulates
the Agency's mission, goals, objective, and program approaches.
The Agency strategic plan is coordinated with, and reflects
the priorities of, U.S. Government international affairs
agencies. |
|
Agreement: |
An agreement is the formal mutual consent
of two or more parties. The Agency employs a variety of
agreements to formally record understandings with other
parties, including grant agreements, cooperative agreements,
strategic objective agreements, memoranda of understanding,
interagency agreements, contracts, and limited scope grant
agreements. In most cases, the agreement identifies the
results to be achieved, respective roles and contributions
to resource requirements in pursuit of a shared objective
within a given timeframe. |
|
Annual Performance Plan:
|
The Agency's annual performance plan (APP)
summarizes the Agency's performance plans for the same
year as the budget request year (e.g., FY 2004). It is
organized by the Agency goals outlined in the Agency strategic
plan. The annual performance plan is a required document
under the Government Performance and Results Act. In contrast,
the annual budget justification, formerly titled the Congressional
Presentation, is organized by specific countries, regions,
or global programs. The budget justification contains
the plans for each Agency operating unit. |
|
Annual Performance Report:
|
The Agency's annual performance report
(APR) synthesizes the Agency program performance for the
year ending the past September (e.g., FY 2002). It reports
by Agency goal against the Agency's FY 2002 annual performance
plan that was prepared and submitted to Congress in 2000.
The annual performance plan is a required document under
the Government Performance and Results Act. In contrast,
the annual budget justification, formerly titled the Congressional
presentation, is organized by the operating, or management,
units in countries, regions, or Washington. The budget
justification reports on the performance of each program
managed by each Agency operating unit. |
|
Annual Report: |
The document that is reviewed internally
and submitted to USAID headquarters by the field or Washington
operating unit on an annual basis. The Annual Report is
used to produce several other Agency reports. |
|
Actual Year: |
Last completed fiscal year; in this case,
FY 2002. |
|
Appropriation: |
An act of Congress permitting Federal agencies
to incur obligations for specified purposes, e.g., Foreign
Assistance and Related Programs Appropriation Act, 2003.
Appropriation Accounts: The separate accounts for which
specific dollar amounts are authorized and appropriated. |
|
Authorization: |
Substantive legislation which establishes
legal operation of a Federal program, either indefinitely
or for a specific period, and sanctions particular program
funding levels, e.g., the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961,
as amended (FAA). |
|
Bilateral
Assistance: |
Economic assistance provided by the United
States directly to a country or through regional programs
to benefit one or more countries indirectly. (USAID Child
Survival and Health Programs Fund, Development Assistance,
Economic Support Fund, Assistance for Eastern Europe and
the Baltic States, Assistance for the Independent States
of the former Soviet Union, and most P.L. 480 food aid
are among the U.S. bilateral programs. Others include
Peace Corps and International Narcotics Control.) |
|
Budget Authority: |
Authority provided to the U.S. Government
by law to enter into obligations that result in outlays
or government funds. |
|
Budget Justification:
|
The presentation to the Congress that justifies
USAID's budget request and provides information on the
programs, objectives, and results. Formerly, referred
to as the Congressional Presentation (CP). |
|
Budget Year: |
Year of budget consideration; in this
case, FY 2003. |
|
Child
Survival and Diseases Program Fund: |
An appropriation account (formerly Child
Survival and Diseases Program Fund) for funding child
survival, assistance to combat HIV/AIDS and other infectious
diseases, and family planning activities. |
|
Consortium Grant: |
A grant to consortia of private and voluntary
organizations (PVO) to enable a group of PVOs with similar
interests to exchange information and program experiences
and to collaborate in programs, thereby avoiding duplication. |
|
Continuing Resolution:
|
A joint resolution passed to provide stop-gap
funding for agencies or departments whose regular appropriations
bills have not been passed by the Congress by the beginning
of the fiscal year. |
|
Cooperative Development
Organization (CDO): |
A business voluntarily owned and controlled
by its users and operated for their benefit. |
|
Deobligation:
|
Unexpended funds obligated for a specific
activity that are subsequently withdrawn, following a
determination that they are not required for that activity. |
|
Development Assistance: |
Assistance under Chapters 1 and 10 of the
Foreign Assistance Act primarily designed to promote economic
growth and equitable distribution of its benefits. |
|
Development Assistance
Committee (DAC): |
A specialized committee of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The purpose
of the DAC is to increase total resources made available
to developing countries. Member countries jointly review
the amount and nature of their contributions to bilateral
and multilateral aid programs in the developing countries.
DAC members are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark,
Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands,
New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom,
the United States, and the Commission of the European
Economic Communities. |
|
Development Fund for
Africa (DFA): |
The Development Fund for Africa (Chapter
10 of the Foreign Assistance Act), relating to the authorization
of long-term development assistance for sub-Saharan Africa,
was added to the FAA by the Foreign Operations, Export
Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of
1991 (P.L. 101-513). |
|
Development Loan: |
Development assistance which must be repaid,
usually a long-term, low-interest loan repayable in U.S.
dollars. |
|
Development Program
Grant (DPG): |
A grant to assist a private and voluntary
organization to strengthen its ability to be an effective
development agency. |
|
Disbursement: |
Actual payment made for a product, service
or other performance, pursuant to the terms of an agreement. |
|
Economic
Assistance: |
Bilateral and multilateral foreign assistance
designed primarily to benefit the recipient country's
economy. Military assistance, Export-Import Bank activities,
Overseas Private Investment Corporation programs and Commodity
Credit Corporation short-term credit sales, which have
primary purposes other than economic development, are
not included in this category. |
|
Economic Support Fund:
|
An appropriation account for funding economic
assistance to countries based on considerations of special
economic, political or security needs and U.S. interests.
It took the place of Security Supporting Assistance, as
provided in Section 10(b)(6) of the International Security
Assistance Act of 1978 (92 STAT 735). |
|
Expenditure: |
As reported in this document, represents
the total value of goods and services received, disbursement
for which may not have been made. A disbursement, also
referred to as an actual expenditure or outlay, represents
funds paid from the U.S. Treasury. |
|
Fiscal
Year: |
Yearly accounting period, without regard
to its relationship to a calendar year. (The fiscal year
for the U.S. Government begins October 1 and ends September
30.) |
|
Foreign Assistance Act
(FAA): |
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as
amended (USAID's Present authorizing legislation). |
|
Foreign Assistance and
Related Programs Appropriation Act: |
The Appropriation Act for a particular
year for economic (except P.L. 480 food aid) and military
assistance and Export-Import Bank. |
|
FREEDOM Support Act
(FSA): |
The Freedom for Russia and Emerging Eurasian
Democracies and Open Markets Support Act of 1992 (FREEDOM
Support Act, P.L. 102-511) authorizes assistance to the
Independent States of the former Soviet Union (referred
to as Eurasia). |
|
Functional Assistance:
|
Development Assistance funded from the
Development Assistance, Child Survival and Health Programs
Fund, and Development Credit Programs appropriation accounts
and authorized from one of the following eight authorization
accounts: (1) Agriculture, Rural Development and Nutrition;
(2) Population Planning; (3) Health; (4) Child Survival;
(5) AIDS Prevention and Control; (6) Education and Human
Resources Development; (7) Private Sector, Environment
and Energy; and (8) Science and Technology. |
|
Global
Program or Activity: |
A global program or activity refers to
a USAID program or activity that takes place across various
regions (i.e., trans-regional in nature). This type of
program is most often managed by a central operating bureau
such as Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance;
Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade; and Global Health. |
|
Goal: |
A long-term development result in a specific
area to which USAID programs contribute and which has
been identified as a specific goal by the Agency. |
|
Government Performance
and Results Act (GPRA): |
The Government Performance and Results
Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-62) provides for the establishment
of strategic planning and performance management in the
Federal Government. |
|
Grant: |
Assistance to an organization to carry
out its activities as opposed to the acquisition of services
for USAID or a host country which need not be repaid.
(Term also describes a funding instrument for programs
of an institution or organizations, e.g., International
Executive Service Corps or an international agricultural
research center.) |
|
Gross Domestic Product
(GDP): |
Measures the market value of total output
of final goods and services produced within a country's
territory, regardless of the ownership of the factors
of production involved, i.e., local or foreign, during
a given time period, usually a year. Earnings from capital
invested abroad (mostly interest and dividend receipts)
are not counted, while earnings on capital owned by foreigners
but located in the country in question are included. The
GDP differs from the GNP in that the former excludes net
factor income from abroad. |
|
Gross National Product
(GNP): |
Measures the market value of total output
of final goods and services produced by a nation's factors
of production, regardless of location of those factors,
i.e., in the country or abroad, during a given time period,
usually a year. Earnings from capital owned by nationals
but located abroad (mostly interest and dividend receipts)
are included, while earnings in the country by factors
owned by foreigners are excluded. |
|
Host
Country: |
A country in which the USAID sponsoring
unit is operating. |
|
Input:
|
A resource, operating expense or program
funded, that is used to create an output. |
|
Intermediate Result:
|
The most important results that must occur
in order to achieve a strategic objective; a cluster or
summary of results used in summarizing the results framework. |
|
International Financial
Institution (IFI): |
Currently known as a multilateral development
bank (MDB), a multilateral lending institution that provides
resources for development. These institutions, or banks,
include the following; Asian Development Bank (ADB) and
Fund (ADF), African Development Bank (AFDB) and Fund (AFDF),
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, or the
"World Bank"), International Finance Corporation (IFC),
International Development Association (IDA), Middle East
Development Bank (MEDB), and North American Development
Bank (NADB). |
|
Joint
Planning: |
A process by which an operating unit actively
engages and consults with other relevant and interested
USAID offices in an open and transparent manner. This
may occur through participation on teams or through other
forms of consultation. |
|
Life
of Strategic Objective: |
The approved time for a strategic objective,
that can be amended at any time. While formal approval
is within the overall operating unit's strategic plan,
a strategic objective may not necessarily begin and end
when a plan begins and ends. No activity helping to achieve
a result for a given strategic objective can be implemented
beyond that strategic objective's life. |
|
Limited Scope Grant
Agreement: |
This agreement is similar to the strategic
objective agreement, but is shorter in length. It is used
for obligating funds for a small activity or intervention,
e.g., participant training or program development and
support. |
|
Loan: |
Assistance which must be repaid. Repayment
terms for development loans under Development Assistance
and the Economic Support Fund are established by USAID
in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961,
as amended (FAA), and the current Foreign Assistance and
Related Programs Appropriation Act. |
|
Manageable
Interest: |
That which is within USAID's reasonable
control, within the context of contracts and grants. That
which is in the strategic objective team's reasonable
influence, in the context of the strategic objective team
including partners. |
|
Management Services
Grant: |
A grant to a private and voluntary organization
(PVO) which in turn provides management or program support
services (e.g., clearinghouse, accounting assistance,
evaluation) to other PVOs. |
|
Mission: |
The ultimate purpose of the Agency's programs.
It is the unique contribution of USAID to U.S. national
interests. There is one Agency mission. |
|
Multilateral Assistance: |
Assistance which the United States provides
to less or least developed countries (LDC) through multilateral
development banks, the United Nations agencies, and other
international organizations with development purposes. |
|
Multilateral Development
Bank (MDB): |
See international financial institutions.
|
|
National
Interest: |
A political and strategic interest of the
United States that guides the identification of recipients
of foreign assistance and the fundamental characteristics
of development assistance. |
|
New Directions :
|
Legislation enacted in 1973 requiring USAID
to focus more of its efforts on helping the poor majority
in developing countries. |
|
Nongovernmental Organization
(NGO): |
An organization, organized either formally
or informally, that is independent of government. |
|
Non-Presence Country:
|
A country where USAID-funded activities
take place but where U.S. direct-hire staff are not present
to manage or monitor these activities. Note that some
non-presence countries may have other USAID employees,
such as foreign service nationals or U.S. personal service
contractors, present. |
|
Non-Project Assistance:
|
Program or commodity loans or grants that
provide budget or balance-of-payments support to another
country. Such assistance is usually funded under the Economic
Support Fund or Development Fund for Africa. |
|
Obligation: |
Legal commitment of funds through such
mechanisms as signed agreements between the U.S. Government
and host governments, contracts and grants to organizations,
and purchase orders. |
|
Objective: |
A significant development result that contributes
to the achievement of an Agency goal. Several Agency objectives
contribute to each Agency goal. An Agency objective provides
a general framework for more detailed planning that occurs
for a specific country and regional program. |
|
Ocean Freight Reimbursement:
|
Reimburses private and voluntary organizations
(PVO) for up to one -half of their cost in shipping equipment
and commodities overseas in support of their development
programs. |
|
Official Development
Assistance (ODA): |
Assistance on concessional terms (with
a grant element of at least 25%), provided by member countries
of the Development Assistance Committee to promote economic
development in developing countries. |
|
Operating Expenses: |
Those appropriated funds used to pay salaries,
benefits, travel, and all support costs of direct-hire
personnel. The "cost of doing business." |
|
Operating Unit: |
An agency field mission or Washington office
or higher level organizational unit that expends program
or operating expense funds to achieve a strategic or special
objective, and that has a clearly defined set of responsibilities
focused on the development and execution of a strategic
plan. |
|
Operational Year: |
Fiscal year in progress (current year),
presently FY 2003. |
|
Operational Program
Grant (OPG): |
A grant to private and voluntary organizations
to carry out specific programs. |
|
Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD): |
Organization of donor countries that promotes
policies designed to stimulate economic growth and development
of less developed countries. OECD member countries are
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Iceland,
Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. |
|
Outlay: |
Cash disbursement from the Treasury. |
|
Output: |
A tangible immediate and intended product
or consequence of an activity. Examples of outputs include
personnel trained, people fed, analyses prepared, vaccinations
given, policies recommended, technical assistance delivered,
better technologies developed, and new construction completed. |
|
Parameter: |
A given framework or condition within which
decision making takes place, i.e., Agency goals, earmarks,
legislation, etc. |
|
Parameter-setting: |
A process by which a parameter is agreed
upon and used to define limits, constraints and options
for the development or revision of a strategic plan. |
|
Participant: |
USAID-sponsored, less developed country
(LDC) national being trained outside his or her own country. |
|
Peacekeeping Operations: |
The program authorized and appropriated
for a special type of economic assistance for peacekeeping
operations and other programs carried out in furtherance
of the national interests of the United States. |
|
Performance Indicator: |
Particular characteristic or dimension
used to measure intended changes defined by an organizational
unit's results framework. Performance indicators are used
to observe progress and to measure actual results compared
to expected results. The indicators are usually expressed
in quantifiable terms, and should be objective and measurable
(numeric values, percentages, scores and indices). |
|
Performance Plan: |
The performance plan identifies annual
performance benchmarks of the operating unit. Meeting
benchmarks, or the planned levels of achievement for a
given year, are considered important steps toward ultimately
achieving the ten-year performance goals identified in
the Strategic Plan. |
|
Performance Target: |
The specific and intended result to be
achieved within an explicit timeframe and against which
actual results are compared and assessed. In addition
to final targets, interim targets also may be defined. |
|
Pillar: |
USAID's new strategic orientation involves
four pillars. The first, the Global Development Alliance
(GDA), represents a change in the way USAID implements
assistance; USAID will serve as a catalyst to mobilize
the ideas, efforts, and resources of the public sector,
corporations, the higher education community, and nongovernmental
organizations in support of shared objectives overseas.
USAID has aggregated its current and new mutually reinforcing
programs and activities into three program pillars to
utilize resources more effectively and to describe its
programs more clearly. The three program pillars are Democracy,
Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance; Economic Growth,
Agriculture, and Trade; and Global Health. |
|
Pipeline: |
The difference between obligations and
expenditures. |
|
P.L. 480: |
The Agricultural Trade Development and
Assistance Act of 1954, as amended, which governs administration
of the U.S. Food for Peace program. (Term is often used
to describe food aid.) |
|
President's Budget: |
Budget for a particular fiscal year transmitted
to Congress by the President in accordance with the Budget
and Accounting Act of 1921, as amended. |
|
Private and Voluntary
Organization (PVO): |
A non-profit, tax-exempt and nongovernmental
organization established and governed by a group of private
citizens whose purpose is to engage in voluntary charitable
and development assistance operations overseas. |
|
Program: |
A coordinated set of USAID-financed activities
directed toward specific goals. For example, maternal
and child health, nutrition, education and family planning
activities designed to promote the spacing of children
may comprise a program to reduce infant deaths. |
|
Program Approach: |
A tactic identified by the Agency as commonly
used to achieve a particular objective. Several program
approaches are associated with each Agency objective. |
|
Project: |
A structured undertaking (often involving
considerable money, personnel and equipment) of limited
duration that is developed through various bureaucratic,
analytical, and approval processes in order to achieve
a tangible objective (e.g., a school construction project,
an adult literacy project). A project should be considered
as one of several types of activities that contribute
to a given result or set of results. (See Activity.) |
|
Reimbursement: |
Collection of funds for services provided
to recipients outside the USAID. |
|
Reobligation: |
Obligation of an amount that had been obligated
and deobligated in prior transactions. |
|
Result: |
A significant, intended and measurable
change in the condition of a customer, or a change in
the host country, institution or other entity that will
affect the customer directly or indirectly. |
|
Results Framework: |
The results framework explains how the
strategic objective is to be achieved, including those
results that are necessary and sufficient, as well as
their causal relationships and underlying assumptions. |
|
Results Package: |
A collection of activities, including staff
and partner involvement, necessary and sufficient to achieve
one or more results in a results framework. |
|
Results Review and Resource
Request (R4): |
This document has been replaced by the
Annual Report. |
|
Special
Objective: |
The result of an activity or activities
which do not qualify as a strategic objective, but support
other U.S. Government assistance objectives. A special
objective is expected to be small in scope relative to
the portfolio as a whole. |
|
Stakeholder: |
An individual or group who has an interest
in and influences USAID activities, programs and objectives. |
|
Strategic Framework: |
A graphical or narrative representation
of the Agency's strategic plan. The framework is a tool
for communicating the Agency's development strategy. The
framework also establishes an organizing basis for measuring,
analyzing, and reporting results of Agency programs. |
|
Strategic Objective: |
The most ambitious result that an Agency
operational unit, along with its partners, can materially
affect, and for which it is willing to be held accountable
within the time period of the strategic objective. |
|
Strategic Plan: |
The framework which an operating unit uses
to articulate the organization's priorities, to manage
for results, and to tie the organization's results to
the customer and beneficiary. The strategic plan is a
comprehensive plan that includes the limitation of strategic
objectives and a description of how resources will be
deployed to accomplish the objectives. A strategic plan
is prepared for each portfolio whether it is managed at
a country, regional, or central level. |
|
Support for East European
Democracy (SEED) Act: |
The Support for East European Democracy
Act of 1989 (P.L. 101-179) authorizes assistance to Eastern
Europe. |
|
Sustainable Development: |
Economic and social growth that does not
exhaust a country 's resources; that does not damage the
economic, cultural or natural environment; that creates
incomes and enterprises; and that builds indigenous institutions. |
|
Target: |
See Performance Target. |
|
BUDGET JUSTIFICATION TERMS
|
|
All Spigots Table: |
Table that shows U.S. economic and military
assistance levels from all International Affairs (Function
150) sources, broken out by program, region and country.
The State Department Budget Justification contains the
International Affairs "all spigots" tables. The USAID
Budget Justification "all spigots" tables show USAID-managed
assistance levels only (Child Survival and Health Programs
Fund, Development Assistance, Economic Support Funds,
Assistance for Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, Assistance
to the Independent States of the former Soviet Union,
Economic Support Fund, and P.L. 480). |
|
Congressional Presentation: |
Now called Budget Justification to the
Congress. |
|
Green Book: |
This publication is entitled U.S. Overseas
Loans and Grants and Assistance from International Organizations.
The data, that is grouped by country and geographic region,
includes assistance from USAID, military assistance, P.L.
480, Export-Import Bank, etc. from 1945 to the last completed
fiscal year, in this case FY 2002. This publication is
released shortly after the Budget Justification is presented
to the Congress. |
|
Program Summary Table: |
The table found at the end of each region,
country and central program narrative contained in the
Budget Justification document. This table summarizes the
budget levels for the prior two fiscal years (i.e., FY
2001 and FY 2002), current year (i.e., FY 2003), and budget
year (i.e., FY 2004) by type of assistance (i.e., by accounts). |
|
Strategic Objective
Summary Table: |
The table found at the end of each region,
country and central program narrative contained in this
Budget Justification document. The table summarizes budget
levels for the prior two fiscal years (i.e., FY 2001 and
FY 2002), current year (i.e., FY 2003), and budget year
(i.e., FY 2004) for the strategic objectives by type of
assistance (i.e., by accounts). |