Foreign Assistance: Enhanced Coordination and Better Methods to Assess the Results of U.S. International Basic Education Efforts Are Needed
GAO-07-523
Published: Mar 30, 2007. Publicly Released: Mar 30, 2007.
Skip to Highlights
Highlights
Pub. L. No. 109-102, section 567, mandated that GAO analyze U.S. international basic education efforts overseas. In this report, GAO (1) describes U.S. agencies' basic education activities and how the agencies plan them; (2) examines U.S. coordination of basic education efforts among U.S. agencies, and with host governments and international donors; and (3) examines how U.S. agencies assess the results of their basic education programs. In conducting this work, GAO obtained and analyzed relevant agencies' documents and met with U.S. and foreign government officials and nongovernmental organizations, traveling to selected recipient countries.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of State | To enhance efforts to coordinate and better assess the results of U.S. international basic education-related activities and to improve interagency coordination of basic education efforts at headquarters in Washington, the Secretary of State should work with the heads of executive branch agencies responsible for international basic education-related assistance to convene formal, periodic meetings at the headquarters level amongst cognizant officials. | GAO's March 2007 report, FOREIGN ASSISTANCE: Enhanced Coordination and Better Methods to Assess the Results of U.S. International Basic Education Efforts Are Needed, found that agencies did not always coordinate in the planning or delivery of basic education-related activities. From 2001 to 2006, there was no government-wide mechanism to facilitate interagency collaboration and, as a result, GAO identified instances where agencies missed opportunities to collaborate and maximize U.S. resources. For example, USAID officials responsible for planning and managing USAID's basic education programs were not present at key DOL and USDA meetings at which the planning of overseas... education-related activities were discussed, or were not aware of some agencies' basic education-related activities. Although we recognized that State's Director of Foreign Assistance (DFA) had begun to address this issue by attempting to implement a country-wide program planning and budgeting process, we noted that this process was still evolving, and that it was yet to be determined what impact these efforts would have on future strategic planning of education-related assistance. As a result, we concluded that without a government-wide mechanism to systematically coordinate all agency efforts in basic education at the headquarters level, agencies' programs may not maximize the effectiveness of U.S. basic education assistance. To improve interagency coordination of basic education efforts at headquarters in Washington, we recommended that the Secretary of State work with the heads of executive branch agencies responsible for international basic education-related assistance to convene formal, periodic meetings at the headquarters level amongst cognizant officials. State generally concurred with our recommendations and noted that its Office of the Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance was in the process of developing mechanisms to ensure coordination of U.S. assistance programs with other federal agencies, implementers, and stakeholders. In response to this recommendation, in May 2007 State created the position of Basic Education Coordinator within the DFA Office, responsible for directing the strategic use of U.S. basic education assistance. This position was also called for by the 2008 Appropriations Act, which directed State to establish the Coordinator position with primary responsibility for the oversight and coordination of all resources and international activities of the United States Government that provide assistance in developing countries for basic education. The first Coordinator in this position contacted all U.S. agencies involved in basic education assistance to gather information for a report to the Committees on Appropriation on the implementation of United States Government assistance programs in developing countries for basic education?as called for by the State, Foreign Operations and Related Program Appropriations Act of 2008. The Coordinator submitted this report to Congress in October, 2008 in Excel workbook form. The Coordinator also published a strategic framework for basic education assistance with recommendations to, among other things, concentrate basic education efforts on measuring education quality and convene a Basic Education Foreign Assistance Council on a quarterly basis, or as needed, with participation from all United States Government agencies supporting basic education abroad.
View More |
| Department of State | To enhance efforts to coordinate and better assess the results of U.S. international basic education-related activities and to improve interagency coordination in recipient countries, the Secretary of State should direct the relevant countries' Ambassadors to establish a mechanism to formally coordinate U.S. agencies' implementation of international basic education-related activities in the relevant country. | GAO's March 2007 report, FOREIGN ASSISTANCE: Enhanced Coordination and Better Methods to Assess the Results of U.S. International Basic Education Efforts Are Needed, report found that agencies did not always coordinate in the planning or delivery of basic education-related activities. In the eight countries the GAO team visited, the report noted several instances where project implementers in the countries did not collaborate or take advantage of opportunities to maximize U.S. resources in areas in which they had similar objectives of improving the quality of education. For example, in several of these countries, DOL could have joined USAID's efforts to effect policy reforms directed at...
|
| Department of State | To enhance efforts to coordinate and better assess the results of U.S. international basic education-related activities and to better assess the results of U.S. basic education assistance, the Secretary of State, through the Director of Foreign Assistance, should work with USAID and to the extent practicable, with other U.S. agencies providing basic education related-assistance to develop a plan to identify indicators that would help agencies track improvements in access to quality education. Indicators could include output measures, such as the numbers of U.S. programs designed to improve curriculum and teacher training, and to develop and validate student tests; and outcome measures, such as literacy and numeracy assessments of student achievement. | GAO's March 2007 report, FOREIGN ASSISTANCE: Enhanced Coordination and Better Methods to Assess the Results of U.S. International Basic Education Efforts Are Needed, found that in many instances, USAID faced challenges in collecting valid and reliable data needed to measure improvements in education quality. Without this information, agency officials could not fully determine if the programs were achieving their strategic goals. To better assess the results of U.S. basic education assistance, we recommended that the Secretary of State, through the Director of Foreign Assistance (DFA), work with USAID and to the extent practicable with other U.S. agencies providing basic education...
|
Full Report
Public Inquiries
Topics
Agency missionsEducationFederal fundsForeign aid programsForeign governmentsInteragency relationsPerformance measuresProgram evaluationSchoolsStrategic planningInternational cooperationDevelopment assistance programsProgram goals or objectives