Policy and Public Coordination
The Development Challenge
The new century continues to present many daunting challenges to development assistance. The War on Terrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction, natural disasters, failed states and persistent human rights violations are among the most difficult issues to address. Above and around all of these issues is the pervading concern for U.S. national security. Each issue presents its own unique set of challenges to USAID's mission and stretches the Agency's resources as never before. The sudden occurrence of world-changing events and their ensuing effects on the international policy environment require that USAID redesign and reinvent its programs on a continual basis to keep them relevant and to maintain USAID's place at the forefront of development assistance. Greater requirements for accountability in the form of strategic budgeting and performance monitoring demand that USAID improve upon its internal program planning and evaluation processes in order to maximize its resources and provide the greatest benefit at the most reasonable cost. With programs operating in over 115 countries worldwide, USAID's challenge to design, fund, manage and monitor all of its activities, ensuring that they correspond to and support Congressional and Administration priorities, is not an easy one to overcome. Efforts in recent years to reorganize the Agency's administrative structure have resulted in a better functioning organization that is better equipped and prepared to handle today's challenges as well as those of tomorrow and beyond. USAID will continue to refine its programs and internal processes, evolving and adapting to changing global conditions in pursuit of U.S. national interests, values and foreign policy objectives.
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The USAID Program: USAID's Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination (PPC) addresses the above development challenge on three fronts: 1) directly addressing and shaping the global policy debate on development assistance and humanitarian relief; 2) integrating the best practices of strategic budgeting and performance monitoring to ensure that budgets reflect strategic priorities of Congress and the Administration; and 3) providing the most up-to-date knowledge for development in the form of information, analyses and evaluations related to policy and critical development issues.
In shaping the global policy debate, USAID will actively participate in a host of international fora carried out between various governmental and quasi-governmental development partners from around the world. These partners include Great Britain's Department for International Development, the Canadian International Development Agency, the European Commission, the United Nations and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency among others. USAID will continue to promote and develop the policy priorities elaborated in its new Joint Strategic Plan with the Department of State, the 2002 Agency report on "Foreign Aid in the National Interest," and the recently published White Paper entitled "U.S. Foreign Aid: Meeting the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century." The Agency's principal mechanism to systematically tap into leading scholarship and research in the academic and think thank communities to inform policy and strategy development is the "Ideas" contract that the PPC Bureau awarded to the University of Maryland's Center for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector in October 2003.
Toward integrating strategic budgeting and performance monitoring into Agency programming processes, USAID will continue its activities to provide workshops and technical assistance directly to overseas missions and to Washington-based offices. These workshops and technical assistance activities train Agency personnel how to design and implement strategic plans and performance monitoring plans for their programs in order to comply with the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act and the President's Management Agenda. The PPC Bureau will also continue to work with the Office of Management and Budget to use the program assessment rating tool process to improve its budget and performance integration. These activities will continue to be a crucial part of the Agency's overall effort to improve its performance and ensure the accountability of its programs. The principal partnering mechanism through which the PPC Bureau carries out these activities is the Integrated Managing for Results contract. This contract provides a wide variety of activities that are available to all overseas missions and Washington-based offices. Principal partners in this mechanism include IBM Global Services and Insights in Action.
In recent years, Knowledge for Development has become an important concept for organizations seeking to harness the power of their knowledge and informational base. USAID will continue to promote creative and innovative ways to provide timely and pertinent information and analyses to its workforce in order to help them excel in their program activities. Elements of this area include long- and short-term evaluations of Agency programs, the USAID Library, interactive Web sites, access to electronic journals and other data resources, and the creation of technical communities of practice to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience within and between groups of practitioners. In so doing, USAID will maximize the value of its knowledge and provide a stronger base of understanding for its personnel and for its development partners. Principal development partners in this area include Logical Technical Services, Inc. and the Academy for Educational Development.
Other Program Elements: An innovative aspect of the PPC Bureau's program is that almost any overseas mission or Washington-based office can participate in and benefit from the Bureau's activities through "buy-ins" to many of PPC's contracting mechanisms. For instance, over two-thirds of the funding for the Integrated Managing for Results contract is provided by non-PPC entities. These funds go to pay for activities such as the Agency's Planning, Achieving and Learning course, considered to be the principal introductory course ("USAID 101") for new direct-hire personnel. Other activities funded through this contract are Performance Monitoring Plan and Mission Strategic Planning workshops and technical assistance. With buy-ins, USAID missions and offices are able to work directly with the contract vendor to customize the delivery of services, which, due to the wide variety of programmatic needs experienced in the field, has found great acceptance and approval throughout the Agency. The PPC Bureau has designed many of its contracting mechanisms in the same way, to be flexible and scalable, allowing for customized and optimized results and meeting a wide array of needs.
In seeking to maintain a high level of technical proficiency, the PPC Bureau acquires several policy experts through two program-funded staffing mechanisms provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. These specialists provide expert technical advice and counsel in a number of areas including education, agriculture and statistical analysis. Through these mechanisms, USAID acquires the strength and flexibility in technical expertise to maintain its leadership position in the global development policy arena.
Other Donors: The multilateral and bilateral donor communities have key interests in the work of the PPC Bureau. The Bureau helps to maintain USAID's leading position in policy development, carrying on a continual dialog with other donors, encouraging harmonization of development objectives and providing policy leadership. The PPC Bureau has played an active role in organizing donor pledging conferences for Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia, among others. The PPC Bureau also assists the inter-agency process in reviewing projects of the multilateral development banks and participates in reviews of the programs and policies of both the international development banks and the United Nations system. Examples of the PPC Bureau's engagement with other donors are in the areas of fragile states and poor performing countries. USAID will coordinate with Great Britain's Department for International Development and other members of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on security system reform and the implications for fragile states, post conflict reconstruction and poverty reduction. The PPC Bureau works actively with other donors and international organizations to establish best practice and monitor progress toward international development objectives.
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