U.S. Department of State Fiscal Year 2020 Agency Financial Report

Department updated its evaluation policy to encompass the full spectrum of performance management and evaluation activities including program design, monitoring, evaluation, analysis and learning. Bureaus are responding to this updated and expanded policy, located in 18 FAM 300 ( https://fam.state.gov/fam/18fam/18fam030104.html ) by putting in place performance management documents and practices, including the use of logic models, theories of change, performance metrics, monitoring structures, and other foundational components, against which progress can be monitored and evaluated. The Department also established guidance and a plan for implementing the updated policy and is working with bureaus and offices to complete program and project design steps for their major lines of effort. The Department is developing further revisions to 18 FAM 300 to cover all OMB guidance program evaluation standards from the Evidence Act, specifically, to add a section on ethics previously only addressed in the Department’s evaluation policy guidance. M aximizing A merica ’ s I nvestments T hrough A nalysis and E vidence Evidence and Evaluation The Department supports the analysis and use of evidence in policymaking by training staff, creating groups for knowledge sharing, establishing and monitoring evaluation requirements, providing funding opportunities to gather better evidence, and maintaining a central database to manage and share evaluations. The Department continues efforts to strengthen the use of data and evidence to drive better decision making, achieve greater impacts, and more effectively and efficiently achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives. Ongoing performance monitoring data provide a picture of how programs are doing, and program evaluation is used to understand why they are working. The Department’s learning agenda is encompassed and supported in the MfR framework, which integrates planning, budgeting, managing, and learning processes to inform and support programmatic, budget, and policy decisions. Through this approach, the Department examines programs and opera- tions in such a way that is relevant to its bureaus and the stake- holders they serve. The introduction of a program and project design and monitoring policy in 2018 further strengthened this framework. This program and project design work serves as a foundation for the collection and validation of perfor- mance monitoring data, confirming alignment to strategic objectives, and purposeful evaluative and learning questions. The MfR intranet site offers guidance, tools, updates, and opportunities to engage with technical experts. Bureaus can locate key strategic planning documents including the Department’s Joint Strategic Plan, bureau and mission-specific strategic plans, and tools for facilitating progress reviews against strategic plans. The site is essential to supporting bureaus in their program design and performance moni- toring work as it houses all of the guidance and resources for these processes. The site also offers templates and guides for evaluation plans. Ongoing efforts to bolster the Department’s ability to plan and execute programs and projects in a way that encourages learning and adapting include: Evidence Act Implementation In summer 2020, the Department formed a working group – the Evidence Act Team – comprised of performance and evaluation professionals working under the co-evaluation officers’ leadership to address implementation of Title 1 of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act; Public Law No. 115–435). The Evidence Act Team and corresponding sub-groups are leading implementation of 2020 A gency F inanci al R eport U ni ted S tates D epartment of S tate | 19 PERFORMANCE SUMMARY AND HIGHLIGHTS | MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS