Agencies use the goals in agency strategic plans and annual performance plans to inform annual budget decisions, longer-term investment planning, and human resource planning. The agency’s strategic goals and objectives are listed below.
Strategic Goal: Counter threats to the United States and the international order, and advance civilian security around the world.
Strategic Goal: Effectively manage transitions in the frontline states.
Priority Goal: Afghanistan
Goal Statement: Afghanistan
With mutual accountability, assistance from the United States and the international community will continue to help improve the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s (GIRoA) capacity to meet its goals and maintain stability. Bonn Conference commitments call on GIRoA to transition to a sustainable economy, namely improve revenue collection, increase the pace of economic reform, and instill a greater sense of accountability and transparency in all government operations. These efforts will strengthen Afghanistan’s ability to maintain stability and development gains through transition. By September 30, 2013, U.S. Government assistance delivered will help the Afghan government increase the level of domestic revenue from sources such as customs and electrical tariffs from 10 percent to 12 percent of gross domestic product.
Description: The U.S. Government’s long-term goal is to help Afghanistan establish itself as a secure, stable and democratically governed State that respects the rights of the entirety of its population and is on a trajectory to broad-based and sustainable economic growth. To achieve this, our immediate priority must be to create the conditions necessary for a successful transition to Afghan-led security. These conditions include basic levels of security and stability, and improved public trust in Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s (GIRoA) ability to govern effectively, deliver basic services (health, education and infrastructure) and facilitate economic growth. As such, U.S. assistance seeks to enhance GIRoA’s legitimacy and effectiveness at both national and subnational levels.
The goal of facilitating increased revenues for GIRoA is critical to the State Department and USAID’s strategic goal of effectively managing the transition process for frontline states. The GIRoA’s ability to collect revenues and provide services is crucial to the country’s future stability and directly linked to our main goal for the intervention in Afghanistan of disrupting, dismantling, and defeating Al Qaeda.
Strategic Goal: Expand and sustain the ranks of prosperous, stable and democratic states by promoting effective, accountable, democratic governance; respect for human rights; sustainable, broad-based economic growth; and well-being.
Priority Goal: Democracy, Human Rights, and Good Governance
Goal Statement: Democracy, Human Rights, and Good Governance
Advance progress toward sustained and consolidated democratic transitions in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Iran, Syria, and West Bank/Gaza. By September 30, 2013, support continued progress toward or lay the foundations for transitions to accountable electoral democracies in 11 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that respect civil and political liberties and human rights.
Description: As set forth in the National Security Strategy and Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, advancing democracy, human rights, and accountable governance are central to addressing the enduring national interests of security, prosperity, values, international order, and sustainable development. The State Department’s inaugural Quadrennial Development and Diplomacy Review made the specific commitment that the State Department and USAID “will work to create the political space necessary for democracy to flourish…support the human rights movement, [and work] with local partners to make fragile democracies more responsive to their citizens.” Specifically, it is in the United States’ national interest for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to transition to more democratic forms of government that are representative, accountable, effective, and respectful of human rights and the rule of law. The United States has a historic opportunity in the MENA region to support indigenous movements for political and economic reform that have come to the forefront in a number of countries in the region. Our assistance and engagement in the region will be both broad and targeted to the specific circumstances of each country, and this goal is focused on key measures that will help support transitions to sustainable democratic reforms in a majority of the region.
This Agency Priority Goal also directly supports the State Department and USAID’s Joint Strategic Goal to expand and sustain the ranks of prosperous, stable, and democratic states by promoting effective, accountable, democratic governance; respect for human rights; sustainable, broad-based economic growth; and well-being.
Priority Goal: Climate Change
Goal Statement: Climate Change
Advance low emissions climate-resilient development. Lay the groundwork for climate-resilient development, increased private sector investment in a low carbon economy, and meaningful reductions in national emissions trajectories through 2020 and the longer term. By the end of 2013, U.S. assistance to support the development and implementation of Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) will reach 20 countries (from a baseline of 0 in 2010). This assistance will be strategically targeted and will result in strengthened capacity for and measureable progress on developing and implementing LEDS by the end of the following year.
Description: Low-emission, climate-resilient sustainable economic growth internationally is highlighted as a U.S. diplomatic and development priority in the U.S. National Security Strategy, the President’s development policy, and the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. This Agency Priority Goal (APG) measures the progress of Enhancing Capacity for Low Emission Development Strategies (EC-LEDS), a flagship program of the President’s Global Climate Change Initiative, and related programs. Through EC-LEDS, a multiagency U.S. Government team is working with partner countries to identify and advance effective economy-wide Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS). These strategies lay the foundation for fundamental policy and technology changes required to support climate-resilient economic growth and increased private sector investment, while slowing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.
Additionally, this APG supports implementation of the State Department-USAID Joint Strategic Goal Three: “Expand and sustain the ranks of prosperous, stable and democratic states by promoting effective, accountable, democratic governance; respect for human rights; sustainable, broad-based economic growth; and well-being.
Priority Goal: Food Security
Goal Statement: Food Security
Increase food security in Feed the Future Initiative countries in order to reduce prevalence of poverty and malnutrition. By the end of the Fiscal Year 2013, agricultural profitability will improve, on average, by 15 percent among Feed the Future beneficiary farmers, and one million children under age two will experience improved nutrition due to increased access to and utilization of nutritious foods (prevalence of receiving a minimum acceptable diet).
Description: Approximately 870 million people-nearly one-eighth of the world’s population-suffer from chronic hunger, which robs the poor of a healthy and productive life and stunts the mental and physical development of future generations. More than 100 million children under the age of five are underweight. Undernutrition costs developing countries up to 3 percent of their annual gross domestic product and places individuals at risk of losing more than 10 percent of their lifetime earning potential.
Improving food security has risen to prominence as a global development goal in recent years due to factors such as food price spikes, increasing poverty rates, and social unrest related to poverty and hunger. At the G-8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, in July 2009, global leaders-including President Obama-agreed to take significant action to improve food security through a renewed financial commitment to agricultural development and a commitment to reform the way the international community approaches food security.
The aim of the Agency Priority Goal for Food Security is to increase agriculture sector profitability among male and female farmers, particularly smallholders, and improve nutrition for women and children in targeted areas by the end of Fiscal Year 2013. This is accomplished through the President’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future. Feed the Future attacks the root causes of global poverty and hunger through accelerated agricultural development and improved nutrition. Through this commitment we strive to increase agricultural productivity, particularly of staple foods, which will raise the incomes of the poor, increase the availability of food, and reduce undernutrition through sustained, long-term development progress. Due to their prominent role in agriculture and the persistent economic constraints they face as smallholder farmers, women are the main focus of many Feed the Future programs. Feed the Future also focuses on helping reduce the occurrence of repeated food crises, as well as to help vulnerable regions reduce the impact of repeated food crises, particularly in the Horn of Africa, by building resilience among vulnerable communities.
Feed the Future is well-positioned to support the U.S. Government’s goal of rapid, sustainable, and broad-based economic growth, both domestically and internationally as outlined in the new State Department-USAID Strategic Goals Framework. Feed the Future works with the global community to:
- Advance comprehensive strategies that focus on improving the productivity and market access of small-scale producers, particularly women, who make up the majority of small farmers in developing countries;
- Catalyze private sector economic growth, finance, and trade with necessary investments in public goods as well as policy, legal, and regulatory reforms;
- Use science and technology to sustainably increase agricultural productivity;
- Protect the natural resource base upon which agriculture depends;
- Build resilience and help to prevent recurrent food crises in vulnerable regions; and
- Invest in improving nutrition for women and young children as a foundation for future growth.
Priority Goal: Global Health
Goal Statement: Global Health
By September 30, 2013, the Global Health Initiative (GHI) will support the creation of an AIDS-free generation, save the lives of mothers and children, and protect communities from infectious diseases by: a) decreasing incidence of HIV infections in the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-supported sub-Saharan African countries by more than 20 percent; b) reducing the all-cause mortality rate for children under five by 4 deaths/1,000 live births in USAID priority countries; c) increasing the percent of births attended by a skilled doctor, nurse, or midwife by 2.1 percent in USAID priority countries; and d) increasing the number of people no longer at risk for lymphatic filariasis (in the target population) from 7.7 million to 63.7 million in USAID-assisted countries.
Description:The Global Health Agency Priority Goal (APG) is consistent with the strategic priorities and goals of the Global Health Initiative. It is centered on the achievement of selected global health outcomes that result from USAID and State Department health assistance. The Global Health APG reflects USAID and the State Department’s heightened emphasis on reducing HIV incidence in PEPFAR priority countries; reducing all-cause mortality for children under five; saving the lives of mothers within the critical 72-hour window of delivery; and increasing the number of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) treatments delivered through mass drug administration campaigns in USAID priority countries. Reducing incident HIV infections is critical to achieving an AIDS-free generation, the overall goal guiding the State Department’s and USAID’s efforts in HIV/AIDS. This impact will be achieved primarily by expanding antiretroviral treatment to six million patients, increasing coverage of voluntary male circumcision, preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), and scaling-up the procurement of condoms to meet global needs. The all-cause mortality rate for children under five and the percentage of births attended by a skilled doctor, nurse, or midwife are crucial indicators that demonstrate progress across USAID’s maternal and child health, malaria, and nutrition portfolios. Achieving high coverage of NTD treatments among target populations in USAID’s priority NTD-focus countries is vital to interrupting the transmission of lymphatic filariasis and increasing the number of people who are no longer at risk of becoming infected. These indicators are also associated with the overall performance of a country’s health system as well as other key development outcomes such as education and economic development.
PEPFAR-supported countries in sub-Saharan Africa are: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. USAID priority countries for Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programs are: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India UP, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, and Zambia. Although Southern Sudan is an MCH priority country, there is no data for Southern Sudan.
Countries receiving USAID assistance for NTDs include: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Nepal, Cameroon, Togo, Tanzania, Indonesia, Guinea, Bangladesh, Philippines, Vietnam and South Sudan.
The Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review conducted by the State Department and USAID identified global health as one of six development areas where the U.S. Government is best placed to deliver meaningful results. As such, USAID and the State Department’s near term achievement of the Global Health APG will advance the new State Department-USAID Joint Strategic Goal Three: “Expand and sustain the ranks of prosperous, stable and democratic states by promoting effective, accountable, democratic governance; respect for human rights; sustainable, broad-based economic growth, and well-being.”
Strategic Goal: Provide humanitarian assistance and support disaster mitigation.
Strategic Goal: Support American prosperity through economic diplomacy.
Priority Goal: Economic Statecraft
Goal Statement: Economic Statecraft
Through our more than 200 diplomatic missions overseas, the Department of State will promote U.S. exports in order to help create opportunities for U.S. businesses. By September 30, 2013, our diplomatic missions overseas will increase the number of market-oriented economic and commercial policy activities and accomplishments by 15 percent.
Description: The State Department’s economic and commercial diplomacy activities promote economic prosperity and growth in the United States and abroad. The Department’s efforts support President Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI) and its stated goal of doubling U.S. exports over five years (2010-2014, as compared to 2009 level) to support the creation of millions of U.S. jobs and help the United States recover from a protracted severe global financial economic crisis.
The Department’s activities, in Washington and especially through the efforts of U.S. diplomatic missions overseas, include:
- Promoting the export of U.S. manufactured goods, agricultural products and services;
- Counseling new-to-market U.S. firms;
- Analyzing foreign trade and investment barriers;
- Promoting more effective protection of copyrights, patents and trademark by our trading partners;
- Urging host government trade policy conformity with international standards, and;
- Addressing market access problems encountered by U.S. exporters.
We anticipate that by September 30, 2013, the number of market-opening economic and commercial policy advocacy activities by our embassies will increase by 15 percent. These will ultimately help create more export and employment opportunities in the United States, contributing to the Department’s role in promoting American prosperity.
In line with Secretary Clinton’s vision for Economic Statecraft, the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs (EB) in the State Department has redoubled its efforts to promote economic growth and job creation in the United States. The Department is working with the Department of Commerce’s Foreign Commercial Service (FCS), the Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service, and others to develop a sustainable, whole-of-government approach to U.S. export promotion. This will help the Federal government provide commercial services around the world more efficiently. Where Commerce is reducing or removing positions – for example, FCS will no longer have a presence in Ecuador, Venezuela, Switzerland, and Senegal, and is reducing personnel in Kazakhstan, Australia, Canada, Italy, and Mexico – economic sections will pick up commercial work.
Significant progress in achieving the Department’s goal of opening markets, enhancing competitiveness, building institutions for economic governance and creating opportunities for the private sector will concretely advance joint State-USAID Strategic Goal 5, Support American Prosperity through Economic Diplomacy.
The Department actively engages Congress, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and other interested stakeholders. Feedback is incorporated into U.S. government decision-making.
Key barriers and challenges:
- Transactional deals, resolution of investment disputes, and commercial negotiations are often long, complex, and iterative processes. The successful completion of these does not fully capture the effort involved;
- Outreach and advocacy efforts confront a shifting environment of constantly changing regulatory regimes and trade and non-tariff barriers, and;
- The State Department is seeking to compensate for reductions in Department of Commerce Foreign Commercial Service officer positions overseas with increased training for the Department’s economic staff.
Strategic Goal: Advance U.S. interests and universal values through public diplomacy and programs that connect the United States and Americans to the world.
View this agency’s performance plans and reports.
Strategic Goal: Build a 21st Century workforce; and achieve U.S. Government operational and consular efficiency and effectiveness, transparency and accountability; and a secure U.S. government presence internationally.
Priority Goal: Management
Goal Statement: Management
Strengthen diplomacy and development by leading through civilian power. By September 30, 2013, the State Department and USAID will reduce vacancies in high priority positions overseas to 0 percent and 10 percent respectively and will reduce instances of employees not meeting language standards to 24 percent and 10 percent respectively.
Description: The State Department and USAID plan to expand their presence in strategic areas to support United States national security goals. Improving peace and stability throughout these regions requires building political and popular will against terrorism, strengthening international cooperation, and bolstering the capabilities of our friends and allies. Important challenges remain in the areas of strengthening democratic practices and institutions, building robust economies, and improving access to those basic services that all people want – security, health care, and education.
At the same time, our collaborative global engagement strategy requires increased numbers of language-qualified employees to effectively work with their host country counterparts. We are making progress to fill these positions but have more work to do to meet our goal. The State Department has found new, innovative strategies to provide a flexible workforce to meet increases in consular workload in countries with growing economies.
The State Department is supporting the Secretary’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR)-related reorganization and realignment of key segments of the Department to ensure that we are able to address new and emerging foreign policy priorities quickly and efficiently, from reconstruction and stabilization to energy and counter-terrorism. Also acting under the QDDR, USAID will leverage its workforce to do business more effectively by in-sourcing design and evaluation; improve program performance and accountability; and reposition staff to where they are needed most.
The State Department’s consular offices will use its workforce to address U.S. law, which requires all visa decisions to be made by a consular officer. The State Department’s consular officers are specifically trained in the application of immigration regulations. In order to make more efficient use of consular officers’ time, the State Department is actively working to have as many non-security related visa-processing tasks (e.g., responding to inquiries, appointment scheduling, and document delivery) as possible done by locally employed staff and contractors. The State Department has also worked with the Department of Homeland Security to initiate a pilot program to expand the number of qualified foreign visitors who, having been interviewed and thoroughly screened in conjunction with a prior visa application, can renew their visas without another interview. This new policy allows consular officers to spend their time and resources more effectively, evaluating higher-risk visa applicants and other applicants who require interviews.
Assigning more consular staff in our fastest growing consular service locations reduces visa appointment wait times, allowing for significantly enhanced customer service by reducing requests for expedited interviews, while meeting the goal of increasing international visitors to the United States and benefiting the economy.
Enhanced data sharing and integration between consular and other U.S. Government agency systems increases effectiveness and efficiency, while eliminating duplication of effort, allowing the State Department to save on staffing and facility costs.
The successes of the other performance goals are interdependent on the success of the Management Agency Priority Goal. Our ability to lead through civilian power and to maintain the highest standards of operational readiness is necessarily dependent on recruitment of the right people with the right skills, providing necessary training, and deploying them strategically to meet the complex challenges of our day. A prime example of this would be the State Department’s recruiting, hiring, and placement of language-qualified Limited Non-Career Appointments (LNA) consular adjudicators for work at our fastest growing consular posts in Brazil, China, and Mexico. The LNA program gives us the flexibility to respond quickly to changes in workload in different countries.
Our need for effective civilian power is also currently addressed by USAID’s focus on Talent Management. Talent Management is one of the seven areas named in USAID Forward to address the way the Agency does business. In addition to USAID Forward’s attention to building civilian power and effectiveness, one of the goals of President Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development (PPD) is to restore Agency leadership and core competencies by attracting and retaining high-quality development professionals. This initiative is an outcome of the QDDR led by Secretary Clinton, which aims to modernize and strengthen USAID so that it can meet the most pressing development challenges with its high-quality workforce to move towards its ultimate goal-creating the conditions where its work is no longer needed.
Stakeholder Engagement: Through consultative staffing, Human Resources engages with all the regional and functional bureaus in the State Department. USAID follows shared and/or similar engagement activities.
Key barriers and challenges:
Retirement Surge: One of the most daunting challenges facing both the State Department and USAID is the potential for unprecedented numbers of “baby boomer” retirements. In 2011, retirements increased by 20 percent. This trend will create vacancies in all posts, including the high priority Afghanistan, Iraq or Pakistan (AIP) positions.
Increase in Hardship Assignments: Though the Secretary of State has authority to place Foreign Service employees in positions, the State Department has not needed to use this authority. Incentives and service packages have worked well. The number of State Department positions overseas that are designated “unaccompanied” or “limited accompanied” for reasons of hardship or danger has increased more than five times since 2001, from fewer than 200 positions in 2001 to more than 1,000 today. Nine out of ten unaccompanied positions are at AIP posts. This means that approximately one out of every fourteen Foreign Service Generalists or Specialists is serving in a location that is too dangerous for families to accompany. Many of these positions are one-year assignments, rather than the usual two to three years, resulting in an increase in the number of positions that the State Department and USAID must fill each year. In addition to the strain on the Foreign Service assignment system, the rising number of hardship assignments has put increased strain on the families of our employees and, over time, may impact employees’ willingness to serve repeatedly in the high priority AIP posts, which are also high-danger posts.
Future Visa Demand Determinations: Even with advanced data processing tools and years of historical data, accurate predictions of future visa and other consular service demands are elusive. In 2011, visa applications in Brazil were up 42 percent over 2010, while in China there was a 34 percent increase over 2010. Many factors drive this growth, such as economic growth in source countries, cost competitiveness of U.S. travel compared to other locations, and the availability of attractive transportation costs and options. The LNA Consular Adjudicator program gives us flexibility to rapidly respond to unanticipated changes in visa demand.
Priority Goal: Procurement Reform
Goal Statement: Procurement Reform
Strengthen local civil society and private sector capacity to improve aid effectiveness and sustainability, by working closely with our implementing partners on capacity building and local grant and contract allocations. By September 30, 2013, USAID will expand local development partners from 746 to 1,200.
Description: Fifteen years ago, USAID experienced a significant reduction in its direct hire staff. Due to this reduction, USAID began relying primarily upon large institutional contractors and international nongovernmental organizations for implementation of its foreign assistance programs. The agency lost an opportunity to strengthen local capacity in our partner countries to produce long-term sustainable outcomes, one of the primary objectives of our development assistance. In 2009, the Agency only spent 15.8 percent of its funds directly through partner governments and non-U.S. institutions.
In order to build a 21st Century development agency, and address these challenges, USAID has begun a series of reforms in seven areas. One of these, Implementation and Procurement Reform, is included in this goal. Further, the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) includes a series of directives to improve the way missions do business and directs increased engagement with the private sector and other nongovernmental actors. This will increase funds going directly through partner governments and local organizations, and strengthen local capacity in partner countries.
This Agency Priority Goal also supports State Department and USAID’s strategic goals by ensuring a high-quality workforce with appropriate skill sets, and providing strong operational support for mission programs, including access to local communities and creating the conditions for optimal effectiveness of implementing partners.
