State’s Amount of International Development and Humanitarian Assistance Has Increased Significantly in Recent Years

State’s funding available for international development and humanitarian  assistance, such as democracy promotion, drug interdiction, and refugee  assistance, nearly doubled between fiscal years 2000 and 2006. State primarily uses grants and cooperative agreements to fund  development and humanitarian assistance activities. State Uses a Variety of Approaches to Manage and Monitor Development and Humanitarian Assistance Programs

State primarily manages its development assistance and humanitarian  programs centrally, obligating the majority of the funds and making the  assistance awards from State headquarters in Washington, D.C. Grants  officers and grants officer representatives have formal oversight  responsibilities, though other staff also carry out such functions  informally. A mix of headquarters and overseas staff monitor the  implementation of program activities, and only a few bureaus have staff  overseas specifically assigned to their programs. State Does Not Use Strategic Workforce Planning to Support Its Foreign Assistance Efforts

A key principle of strategic workforce planning is to define the critical  skills and competencies that will be needed to achieve current and future  programmatic goals. For example, grants officers—who are responsible for the legal  aspects of entering into, amending, and terminating awards—must meet  educational and training requirements, while grants officer representatives  in some State Bureaus—who are delegated some of these monitoring  responsibilities—do not have to meet such requirements. Finally, State has not used strategic  workforce planning to align the efforts of its recently established Office of  the Director of Foreign Assistance to reform the foreign assistance budget  with staffing and skill requirements. State has not taken such action for staff with foreign  assistance management responsibilities. State Has Not Collected Critical Information on Current Staff with Foreign Assistance Management Responsibilities

The collection of information on critical skills and competencies needed  to perform an agency’s mission is one step in determining current and  future human capital needs. We found that State has inconsistent training and skills requirements for  its staff involved in foreign assistance oversight. Moreover, an FSI survey in response to employee requests for grants  management training suggests that Foreign Service officers overseas  recognize that there is a gap in their foreign assistance management skills. GAO staff who made major contributions to this report are  listed in appendix V.

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

To determine the size and scope of the Department of State’s (State)  development and humanitarian assistance, we first reviewed U.S. budget  documents to identify funding supporting U.S. foreign assistance, as well  as State’s part in supporting these overall efforts.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Secretary of State has made foreign assistance a pillar of the department's Transformational Diplomacy Initiative and has sought better policy coordination, planning, and oversight by establishing a Director of Foreign Assistance (F Bureau). Even though the U.S. Agency for International Development has been the principal agency for development and humanitarian aid, the Department of State (State) has had a significant role delivering this type of assistance. Thus, it is essential that State have the right staff, with the right skills, in the right places to carry out its foreign assistance management responsibilities and ensure that U.S. funds are well spent. As requested, this report (1) describes the size and scope of development and humanitarian foreign assistance programs managed by State, (2) describes State's approaches to managing and monitoring such programs, and (3) evaluates State's processes for determining its human capital requirements for managing these programs.

What GAO Found

In fiscal year 2006, State had about $4.7 billion available for development and humanitarian assistance activities, nearly double the amount it was responsible for managing in 2000. This funding supported, for example, programs aimed at alleviating poverty and the suffering of refugees, as well as funding international drug interdiction efforts. State primarily uses grants and cooperative agreements to deliver this type of assistance. State manages its development and humanitarian assistance programs centrally, obligating about 80 percent of the funds and making awards from headquarters. State uses a variety of oversight approaches. Grants officers and grants officer representatives have formal oversight responsibilities, but other staff also carry out functions informally. A mix of headquarters and overseas staff monitor program implementation. State's strategic workforce planning does not reflect its foreign assistance activities. A key principle of strategic workforce planning is to define the critical skills and competencies that will be needed to achieve current and future programmatic goals. State has not defined its staff needs to manage and monitor its foreign assistance programs and has not collected critical information on current staff with these responsibilities. Moreover, GAO found inconsistent training and skills requirements for staff involved in foreign assistance oversight. For example, grants officers--who are responsible for the legal aspects of entering into, amending, and terminating awards--must meet educational and training requirements, while grants officer representatives--who are delegated some monitoring responsibilities--do not. Further, a recent State survey suggests that Foreign Service officers overseas recognize that there is a gap in their foreign assistance management skills. Various State officials have concerns about the department's ability to effectively manage its development and humanitarian assistance. Finally, State has not used strategic workforce planning to align F Bureau budget reforms with staffing and skill requirements.