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Strategic Objective
Enable Diplomats and Development Professionals to Influence and Operate More Efficiently, Effectively, and Collaboratively
Strategic Objective
Overview
Twenty-first century diplomatic and development challenges demand innovative approaches to create transformational solutions. In an era when information is disseminated instantaneously worldwide, our ability to engage quickly and effectively with the multitude of stakeholders, customers, and audiences is a core competency for our high-performing, motivated professionals. To meet these challenges also requires a flexible, nimble and efficient support platform for our professionals who are representing the United States around the world.
President Obama announced his commitment to attaining an unprecedented level of transparency and excellence in government, which is reflected in his second-term Management Agenda. The State Department and USAID, in support of this Agenda, are spearheading new efforts to engage with the public, modernize information systems, streamline administrative processes, and ensure the prompt release of information to the public, while remaining cognizant of protecting our partners working in closed societies and other sensitive environments. Several of our initiatives involve management innovations in an environment that encourages us to continuously improve our processes and procedures. These apply evidenced-based planning; acquisition and assistance reform; enhanced information technology platforms; and procedures for the strategic allocation, alignment, and assessment of our resources. Other initiatives involve creating new approaches to diplomacy and development that embrace the power and role of individual citizens and publics as critical to achieving shared goals or for countering the influence of extremist and violent individuals and groups. In meeting all of these challenges, State and USAID are committed to ensuring that we use our resources in the most effective and focused ways possible while also adhering to U.S. government statutes and regulations and embracing the highest ethical and professional standards.
Reflecting a new model, we seek to apply the transformative power of science, technology, innovation, and partnerships to deliver more cost-effective, sustainable results. Applying technological advances is a common element of the activities directed at achieving this goal’s objective. Improving customer service and coping with a projected 40 percent increase in passport applications through a new electronic application process; furthering sustainability of USAID development investments through a diversified partner base of local organizations, U.S. small businesses, and other high-impact partnerships; introducing interactive communications platforms for engagement beyond the state and to share more information with the public through innovative technologies, and creating training opportunities to keep our professionals and their families safe and secure. These exemplify efforts where State and USAID are changing the ways that we do business.
At a time when changes in technology, demography, and political discourse are giving citizens around the world unmatched power to affect their societies and U.S. interests, the President has called upon the Department and USAID to understand and forge stronger relationships with foreign publics and emerging leaders. Modernizing diplomacy and development requires the Department and USAID’s commitment to becoming more efficient, effective, transparent, and flexible organizations and to finding innovative approaches to advance U.S. interests and enhance our national security.
Strategies for Achieving the Objective
The Department of State and USAID are pursuing several courses of action to achieve this objective. They will continue to explore balanced, smart, and lean approaches to addressing joint management issues. The Joint Management Board, which was a direct result of Government Accountability Office recommendations, will continue to find ways to drive efficiency into our overseas operations and reduce operating costs. The Department and USAID will continue to adopt balanced, smart, and lean methodologies for continuously improving core business processes, including the completion of joint vouchering efficiencies by September 30, 2014. The Department and USAID will also leverage learning from each other to advance efficiency and effectiveness in their contributions to the achievement of Federal Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goals.
USAID and the Department will enhance their effectiveness by implementing new technology solutions. These are geared to improving the provision of American citizens services, streamlining and simultaneously enhancing the scrutiny given visa applicants, reducing operating costs, boosting collaboration, improving security and countering extremist threats, and broadening engagement opportunities. By applying existing and new analytical tools and data sources, USAID and the Department are aiming to strengthen their staffing and operations through identifying opportunities for more cost-effective procurement processes and foreign assistance management.
Another focus of the Department’s efforts involves transitioning its engagement activities from ones which tended toward engagements that involved limited, exclusive, and direct contacts to an approach based on a culture of openness. This has resulted in the expanded use of digital communications platforms such as social media, digital video conferencing, smart phone applications, and similar means that allow the Department to reach directly to people and that open up its public engagement to all who are interested, not just the limited audience that can be invited to attend our events in person.
Innovations at USAID make it possible to deliver results on a larger scale while simultaneously pursuing more strategic, focused, sustainable, and results-oriented approaches that maximize the impact of our development dollars. Evidence-based planning and increased operational efficiency and effectiveness are among the factors accounting for the impressive improvements in performance and results.
USAID is also promoting sustainable development through building high-impact partnerships. USAID is collaborating with and directly supporting host governments, the private sector, civil society, and academia, all of which serve as engines of growth and progress for their own nations. USAID is using, strengthening, and rendering accountable local partners so they can sustain their own development. These and other efforts have made it possible to identify and scale up innovative, breakthrough solutions to hitherto intractable development challenges. For USAID, the power of science, technology, innovation, and partnerships are all being applied to the goal of delivering more effective, cost-efficient results for sustainable global development.
Read Less...Progress Update
The Department of State and USAID have determined that performance towards this objective is making noteworthy progress in implementing management activities aligned around five key priorities which directly support the Joint Strategic Plan (JSP) Goal of enabling diplomats and development professionals to influence and operate more effectively, collaboratively, and efficiently.
USAID is modernizing the way it does development, advancing new theories of change, and institutionalizing its new model of development through enhanced public-private partnerships and multi-stakeholder alliances. These actions are part of the JSP, building on the USAID Forward reforms begun in 2010. USAID began systematically tracking activities that support this objective at a corporate level in November 2013 through the Agency’s Administrator’s Leadership Council. The Agency is beginning to make significant progress on its five corporate objectives due to these reforms.
Specifically, one of USAID’s five corporate objectives focuses on ensuring it is a strategically managed and effective development partner. To accomplish this, USAID has adapted evidence-based strategic planning and results management best practices for its operations, which includes using data to drive management improvements and decision-making. For example, as part of its procurement reform and efforts to reduce the Procurement Administrative Lead Time (PALT), the Agency tracks the percentage of Independent Government Cost Estimates and Technical Evaluation Panel memoranda that meet Agency standards and the percent of memoranda of negotiation on file. In FY 2014, USAID met or surpassed the targets for these indicators. Moreover, by tracking these metrics USAID has identified areas that need improvement, such as specific training for procurement professionals and streamlining the process for evaluating technical panel memoranda.
Excellence in Consular Service Delivery (APG):
In the face of increasing demand, the Department of State maintains timely and high quality consular service delivery by leveraging technology and building on best practices to ensure that American citizen and visa service delivery to the public is efficient, vigilant, professional, and within the targeted timeframes. The Department continues to exceed its goal of processing 99 percent of passport applications within the targeted timeframe. Passport Services processed 100 percent, 99.1 percent, 99.9 percent, and 99.4 percent of passport applications within the service level commitment to the American public in quarters one, two, three and four, respectively, and anticipates that it will continue to exceed its goal.
Executive Order 13597 (Establishing Visa and Foreign Visitor Processing Goals and the Task Force on Travel and Competitiveness), issued in January 2012, required the Department of State to increase its visa processing capacity in Brazil and China by 40 percent and ensure that 80 percent of nonimmigrant visa (NIV) applicants worldwide are interviewed within three weeks of receipt of an application. The Department surpassed the Executive Order target of a 40 percent increase in capacity, as defined by the number of adjudicating staff, in Brazil in June 2012 and in China in November 2012. Since January 2012, the Department added 60 new consular officer positions in Brazil and 92 in China, for a total of 118 and 196, respectively, as of end of CY 2014. In FY 2014, the Department of State adjudicated 11.6 million nonimmigrant visa applications, a 9.31 percent increase over FY 2013, and issued more than 9.9 million nonimmigrant visas. In FY 2014, 94 percent of applicants worldwide, on average, were able to schedule an interview within three weeks of submitting their applications, a significant change over the 82 percent in FY 2013.
‘Excellence in Consular Service Delivery’ provides additional benefits toward the achievement of the Department’s goals. The Department’s efforts facilitated the travel of 69.8 million visitors to the United States in 2013, who, according to the Department of Commerce, spent $214 billion in the U.S. International travel supported an estimated 1.1 million jobs in the United States. In addition to the economic benefits, the Department’s vigilant adjudication of visa and passport applications contributes to U.S. security by preventing applicants seeking to travel to the United States for illegitimate purposes.
ConsularOne is the Department’s major information technology initiative to modernize, restructure, and enhance our consular software, as well as improve efficiency, security, and consistency across consular workflows. ConsularOne comprises a complete consular suite of application services, which will incorporate virtually all the major functions of domestic and overseas consular work into a common, intuitive, and integrated user interface, and improve how information is shared within the Department and across the government. The first phase of ConsularOne will be an online passport renewal (OPR), a service, which will enable U.S. citizens to submit passport renewal applications, payments, and photos electronically. OPR is scheduled to begin deployment in December 2015.
USAID Procurement Reform (APG):
As a cornerstone of the USAID Forward reform agenda, the Agency is placing a greater emphasis on public-private partnerships; channeling funding to local governments and organizations that have the in-country knowledge and expertise to create sustainable positive change; and building new multi-partner alliances. USAID has nearly doubled the percent of mission program funds provided to local organizations and governments from 9.6 percent in FY 2010 to 17.9 percent in FY 2013 (FY 2014 data will be available in April 2015). USAID aspires to reach 30 percent by FY 2015.
USAID is also focused on streamlining the procurement process and institutionalizing a series of procurement reforms. One of its goals is to reduce the time it takes to award a contract, specifically to decrease its PALT by 40 percent from its 2009 baseline. As USAID anticipated, PALT increased in FY 2014 as the Agency works to address a backlog of large procurements which began prior to its reform efforts. USAID expects PALT to decrease in FY 2015 as the Agency institutionalizes the training and reforms to procurement processes and systems made during FY 2014. USAID is also supporting procurement reforms by developing templates, instituting an accountability review for complex awards, establishing procurement surge capacity, and disseminating best practices and lessons learned worldwide.
USAID has significantly increased contractor past performance assessment reporting (CPARS) from 11 percent at the end of FY 2012 to 59 percent at the end of FY 2014. Timely past performance data leads to improved technical evaluation panel reviews, which expedite the procurement process. In the fourth quarter of FY 2014, USAID’s improvement stagnated due to an increase in contracting activity. The end of each fiscal year is very demanding on contracting personnel and they are unable to focus as much attention on bringing their CPARS current. However, USAID is taking strong and definitive action to meet the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) ambitious target for 100 percent CPARS completion by FY 2015, including the following: 1) providing CPARS online training and workshops; 2) updating CPARS guidance, and 3) providing days for global staff to devote all their attention to bringing all their past performance reports current and providing one-on-one technical support.
USAID is also increasing its number of small businesses partners. Small businesses are vital to the U.S. economy and provide critical resources that contribute to the mission of USAID. USAID more than doubled the percent of prime contract acquisition dollars obligated to U.S. small businesses worldwide from 5.5 percent in the beginning of FY 2014 to 12.1 percent in the final quarter, far surpassing the target of 6.5 percent. Performance against this indicator has been so successful that USAID has increased its FY 2015 target from 9 percent to 10 percent.
Stakeholder Collaboration and Audience Engagement:
USAID and the Department of State have made progress on enhancing stakeholder collaboration and audience engagement. USAID launched a new social and content collaboration platform, MyUSAID.gov, which enables all USAID employees to better connect, collaborate, and locate the information and resources needed to execute our mission. USAID also established the Information Governance Committee to ensure that USAID adopts a unified, collaborative, and transparent approach to information and data collection, sharing, quality assurance, and integration. The body defines information and data governance roles and responsibilities, develops policy, applies lessons learned, and ensures compliance with OMB and Agency policy to make data open and machine readable. USAID's Development Data Library, www.usaid.gov/data, currently contains 77 datasets available for public use and is updated on an ongoing basis. The site also offers the public an opportunity to post questions or comments about the data on public forums.
In October 2014, USAID released its first ever open data policy, requiring that all USAID-funded data be submitted to the Development Data Library and released publicly to the greatest extent possible, while affording all protections for individual privacy, operational and national security, and other considerations allowable by law. Evaluation Reports are already available through the Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC). Of the almost 230 project evaluations completed in FY 2014, close to 40 percent are already available online in the DEC as of January 12, 2015 and many more are expected to be posted online in the coming months.
Human Capital Management and Business Process Improvement:
The Department of State is on track to continue efforts to implement its respective human capital management strategies and regularly review existing business practices and processes to identify areas for improvement and innovation. The Department is on pace to create a more diverse and representative employee population and achieve an 80 percent fill rate of Language Designated Positions by employees who meet or exceed the language requirements.
A Secure Diplomatic and Development Platform:
The Department of State is on track to complete a Master Plan revision by September 2014 and an Environmental Impact Study by 2015 for the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center (FASTC). In addition to this effort, the Department moved 1,439 personnel into more secure, safe, and functional facilities in FY 2014, under the Capital Security Construction Program.
USAID has a dedicated program underway to implement the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 requirement of Personal Identification Verification (PIV) usage across USAID. One hundred percent of Microsoft desktops and laptops are now equipped with PIV card readers inside Washington facilities. As of February 2015, all USAID Washington personnel are now required to log on using a PIV card. Implementing PIV overseas will require policy review and collaboration between USAID and the Department to determine how we should incorporate Foreign Service National staff.
