Assessment of USAID’s Progress and Strategies in Achieving Selected Key Outcomes

This section discusses our analysis of USAID’s performance in achieving its selected key outcomes and the strategies the agency has in place.Although USAID reported it made progress toward achieving the selected outcomes, the extent of the progress is unclear because the agency based its support on disaggregated and, in some cases, out-of-date and selective data. Actual progress toward achieving outcomes, detailed in the FY 2000 Performance Overview, is not clear because USAID did not base its assessment of progress on fiscal year 2000 performance data. In addition, USAID did not assess agency progress against the performance goals contained in the Annual Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2000. Moreover, the Performance Overview relies on 1999 performance data of selected missions, and fiscal year 2000 data reported in the Budget Justification were not aggregated to summarize regional or agency level performance. The Budget Justification provides more detailed fiscal year 2000 performance information and fiscal year 2002 plans for individual countries and regional offices and bureaus. This year’s approach sought to tie the agency’s efforts more closely to the agency’s desired outcomes by reporting performance data at the operating unit level.
Why GAO Did This Study

This report reviews the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan to assess the agency's progress in achieving selected key outcomes that are important to the agency's mission.

What GAO Found

GAO found that although USAID reported progress toward achieving the selected outcomes, the extent of the progress is unclear because the agency based its support on disaggregated and, in some cases, out-of-date and selective data. Unlike past years when USAID issued separate performance reports and performance plans, the agency issued a performance overview supplemented by more detailed data in the fiscal year 2000 budget justification to Congress, both of which incorporated elements of performance reporting and planning. In the fiscal year 2000 Performance Overview, USAID based its statements of progress on self-reported fiscal year 1999 performance data provided by individual USAID missions. In addition, USAID reported progress toward achieving agency goals and objectives by relying on selected information about an individual country's missions' performance. Although USAID reported detailed fiscal year 2000 performance data at the operating unit level in its budget justification, those data were not aggregated to summarize progress toward agency objectives.