U.S. Department of State

Over the past 8 years, USAID has embraced new evaluation and review models to ensure the use of robust and accurate data in USAID's budget and performance planning and reporting. Beginning in FY 2000, USAID has made particular efforts to provide explicit policy guidance, extensive training, and supportive technical assistance to establish these data collection and analysis systems into all aspects of program management. With these new systems, we now have the capacity to turn from merely tracking inputs and outputs to being able to assess whether we are achieving our overall objectives. Program evaluation and special studies are important tools used to determine whether our programs have reached their objectives, as well as being tools providing objective inputs to policy and planning decisions.

EVALUATION TOOLS AND METHODS

USAID will continue to use a variety of methods and tools to evaluate its work. The tools and methods offer varying levels of detail based on their intended audience, but each tool or method is critical to ensure USAID evaluates all of its programs and is wisely spending its resources to reach the tenets of this Strategic Plan. The following are the different tools and methods USAID will continue to use:

• "Foreign Assistance in the National Interest." USAID commissioned this study to fully evaluate all aspects of foreign assistance and make recommendations for how best to proceed in this decade-full review. Together with this Strategic Plan, this study will continue to act as a high-level strategic document as USAID plans for its future.

• Business Transformation Executive Committee (BTEC). Early in the Bush administration, USAID established the Business Transformation Executive Committee (BTEC) to evaluate and make recommendations to improve USAID management. This ongoing effort has already made many changes in the way USAID does business. One of the BTEC's major efforts included a pair of worldwide staff surveys (baseline and follow-up) to determine which management systems were rated best and worst. The second survey demonstrated that progress had been made in several service areas, but much work remains to be done. The BTEC will continue to be a vital and necessary mechanism to review management programs.

• Agency Level Evaluations. The Development Evaluation and Information Division of the Policy and Program Coordination Bureau (PPC/DEI) also conducts evaluations of topics germane to Agency overall performance and policy-making. To capitalize on the considerable amount of evaluation research that is being supported at the Bureau, Mission, and Contractor/partner levels, this division will establish the Evalnet Web site where evaluation agendas can be posted and findings disseminated widely.

• Internal Mission Assessments. USAID's internal Mission evaluation system focuses on four critical elements: (1) careful planning to ensure that programs have clear, attainable, and verifiable objectives; (2) explicit performance monitoring systems built into the objective management systems themselves; (3) extensive surveys (in appropriate sectors) that measure changes that are occurring in USAID supported areas; and (4) formal evaluations as appropriate to understand changes and to guide future policy and programming. A majority of this work is done at the individual operating unit level (country Mission), with oversight and technical support by the regional bureaus, the pillar (technical) Bureaus, and the Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination. All foreign missions submit annual reports providing information about their accomplishments. The regional Bureaus analyze the reports and use them in Bureau decision-making. To augment this process, recognizing that development only occurs over a longer term, there is a mandatory triennial Washington review of every Mission program. These reviews are used to guide the next 3 years' program implementation. The Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination and the pillar (technical) Bureaus also participate in these evaluations.

• Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART). USAID also utilizes the results from the Office of Management and Budget's Performance Assessment Rating Tool (PART) to inform how we will improve performance. USAID will include information relating to the identified PART programs in internal annual performance reviews.

• Office of Inspector General (OIG) and General Accounting Office (GAO) Evaluations. The OIG and the GAO are two independent bodies that drive evaluation within USAID. These evaluations and reports provide the Strategic Plan with an independent assessment of performance and specific recommendations for improvement. A list of those conducted and major findings can be found in the USAID's FY 2002 Performance and Accountability Report. Currently, the FY 2004 OIG audit schedule is being prepared.

• Special Studies. In addition to formal evaluations, USAID conducts a number of special studies to determine program impact. The most well-known of these is the Demographic and Health Survey, which USAID conducted in numerous countries and is often the primary mechanism to measure status and change in a variety of health, child survival, population and HIV/AIDS indicators.

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