How We Track Our Programs
The Bureau spends over a billion dollars every year to help refugees, other migrants, internally displaced persons and stateless people. We have a responsibility to the American taxpayer and to those we help to make sure the money is spent as effectively as possible.
How does the Bureau decide which programs to support?
The first step each year is to develop a plan. Working with other bureaus in the Department of State and with other U.S. government agencies, officials in the Bureau identify groups which need help and learn what type of help they need. That research informs the Bureau Strategic Plan and a Congressional Presentation Document, which details PRM’s priorities and programs.
To meet the goals laid out in the plan, the Bureau gives money, on behalf of the State Department and the American people, to international organizations and to non-governmental organizations. Most of our contributions -- in Fiscal Year 2008, $996,379,837, almost 88% of the Bureau’s expenditures -- go to international organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
The remainder of our contributions – in Fiscal Year 2008, $144,306,055, more than 12% of the Bureau’s expenditures -- goes to non-governmental organizations that also provide essential services to refugees and other displaced people. NGOs compete for these funds based on notices the Bureau issues regularly.
PRM conducts formal competitive reviews of proposals submitted in response to its funding announcements. NGO proposal submissions are evaluated on the criteria and priorities listed in the related PRM funding announcement and in the context of available funding.”
For an example of the type of agreement the Bureau and its grantees sign, see a typical Framework Agreement.
How does the Bureau monitor the assistance and admissions programs it funds?
Once a project is underway, Bureau program officers review regularly submitted narrative, statistical, and financial reports and stay in touch with staff from the headquarters of the particular international or non-governmental organization to make sure the programs are going forward as planned.
Furthermore, regional refugee coordinators (based at U.S. embassies) and program officers (based in Washington) visit project sites overseas, while refugee admissions staff inspect domestic resettlement centers. This oversight is essential to ensuring that the programs we fund meet the required standards and produce the results specified in cooperative agreements and international organization appeals.
In 2008, the Bureau commissioned an evaluation of the Bureau's support for refugee return and reintegration programs in Burundi. (For a copy of the full report, please contact us.)
Meanwhile, the Bureau’s Office of the Comptroller, the Department of State’s Office of the Inspector General and the Federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) review the Bureau’s spending to ensure that the programs are staying within budget and meeting the stated objectives of the project.
In recent years, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has reviewed six of the Bureau’s programs using its Program Assessment Rating Tool, and gave all of them favorable ratings:
· Migration and Refugee Assistance – Protection;
· Migration and Refugee Assistance – Other Populations, Refugee and Migration Programs;
· Refugee Admissions to the U.S.;
· United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees;
· Assistance to Refugees;
· Humanitarian Migrants to Israel.
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