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Open Recommendations (29 total)

Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprise Development: USAID Needs to Develop a Targeting Process and Improve the Reliability of Its Monitoring

GAO-21-269
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
U.S. Agency for International Development The USAID Administrator should direct the Private Sector Engagement Hub or other appropriate entity to establish a method to identify the total funding subject to the WEEE Act's requirements in order to develop a process that provides reasonable assurance of compliance with the Act's requirements for targeting assistance to the very poor and women. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
In USAID's letter responding to our report, USAID concurred with this recommendation. In its Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprise (MSME) Results Report completed after our recommendation, USAID clarified that the total funding subject to the WEEE Act's requirements is the appropriated amount of the congressional spending directive for MSME. USAID set targets for MSME resources to the very poor and small and medium-sized enterprises owned, managed, and controlled by women based on this amount. However, the Fiscal Year 2020 MSME Results Report, issued in 2021, notes that this methodology will be fully completed in the report on Fiscal Year 2022 MSME results. As of September 2023, this report has not been completed. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation.

Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprise Development: USAID Needs to Develop a Targeting Process and Improve the Reliability of Its Monitoring

GAO-21-269
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5 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
U.S. Agency for International Development The USAID Administrator should direct the Private Sector Engagement Hub or other appropriate entity to provide information and guidance to bureaus and missions on their roles in meeting the agency's targeting requirement regarding the very poor. (Recommendation 2)
Open
In USAID's letter responding to our report, USAID concurred with this recommendation and identified plans to address it. USAID developed a "Microenterprise and Livelihoods" key issue in its Operational Plans to enable missions and bureaus to better track spending on the very poor, as well as created a new indicator to enable missions and bureaus to better count very poor beneficiaries. However, in its Fiscal Year 2021 MSME Results Report, USAID noted that work remains to be done to further educate USAID operating units and implementing partners on changed definitions and practices in regards to reporting, including on the very poor. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation.
U.S. Agency for International Development The USAID Administrator should direct the Private Sector Engagement Hub or other appropriate entity to establish a definition for enterprises owned, managed, and controlled by women in order to develop a process that provides reasonable assurance of compliance with the WEEE Act's requirements for targeting assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises owned, managed, and controlled by women. (Recommendation 3)
Open
In USAID's letter responding to our report, USAID concurred with this recommendation and identified plans to address it. USAID created a preliminary definition for enterprises owned, managed, and controlled by women. However, USAID has not yet finalized this definition. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation.
U.S. Agency for International Development The USAID Administrator should direct the Private Sector Engagement Hub or other appropriate entity to disaggregate MSME data to distinguish among micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises in order to develop a process that provides reasonable assurance of compliance with the WEEE Act's requirements for targeting assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises owned, managed, and controlled by women. (Recommendation 4)
Open
In USAID's letter responding to our report, USAID concurred with this recommendation. In December 2022, USAID noted that it had updated its definitions for microenterprise and small and medium-sized enterprises in order to better track and identify spending on microenterprise assistance to the very poor, and small and medium-sized enterprises owned, managed, and controlled by women. However, USAID is in the process of clarifying the definitions of such enterprises and then would develop a process to collect the data accordingly. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation.
U.S. Agency for International Development The USAID Administrator should direct the Private Sector Engagement Hub or other appropriate entity to develop a methodology to ensure that it collects data from all relevant missions and bureaus with micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise assistance. (Recommendation 5)
Open
In USAID's letter responding to our report, USAID concurred with this recommendation. The Fiscal Year 2020 MSME Results Report, completed after our report issued in 2021, noted that USAID planned to change its methodology for data collection of MSME results. Specifically, for the Fiscal Year 2020 and 2021 MSME Results Reports, it used missions' and bureaus' Operational Plans to identify planned spending on MSME assistance, including for the very poor and women. USAID used relevant performance indicators in the Performance Plan and Reports (PPRs) to collect data from missions and bureaus who had reported on MSME-related indicators. However, the data collection for the Fiscal Year 2020 and 2021 MSME Results Reports declined, which suggests that this new process is not yet capturing all relevant assistance. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation.
U.S. Agency for International Development The USAID Administrator should direct the Private Sector Engagement Hub or other appropriate entity to take steps to ensure the reliability of the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise assistance data reported to Congress. (Recommendation 6)
Open
In USAID's letter responding to our report, USAID concurred with this recommendation and identified plans to address it. USAID's letter stated that the full incorporation of data collection procedures in the PPR and use of standard foreign assistance indicators would provide reasonable assurance that the data in MSME Results Reports is reliable, noting that all PPR data is required to have a data quality assessment in order to meet USAID's data quality standards. However, USAID still needs to finalize new definitions and conduct data quality assessments on the revised indicators. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation.

Global Food Security: Improved Monitoring Framework Needed to Assess and Report on Feed the Future's Performance

GAO-21-548
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
U.S. Agency for International Development The Administrator of USAID, in consultation with FTF partner agencies, should (1) evaluate and revise, as necessary, which indicators should be required as applicable as performance indicators across the initiative to include only those that are used for FTF-wide performance monitoring; and (2) clearly and specifically explain the linkage of those FTF-wide indicators to the initiative's performance goals and strategic objectives. (Recommendation 2)
Open – Partially Addressed
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. In March 2022, USAID began a process to revise the FTF performance indicators, which it completed in May 2023. As a result of this process, USAID finalized a set of FTF indicators that they plan to use for performance monitoring and that are linked to the initiative's performance goals and strategic objectives. In February 2024, USAID provided documentation showing the linkages of the initiative's three performance goals to the associated five performance indicators and relevant strategic objectives. However, FTF has additional performance indicators that are not linked to performance goals and do not have FTF-wide targets, as stated in the status of recommendation three, and therefore cannot be used for FTF-wide performance monitoring. As of February 2024, USAID planned to provide additional information on these indicators by end of March 2024. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.

Global Food Security: Improved Monitoring Framework Needed to Assess and Report on Feed the Future's Performance

GAO-21-548
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
U.S. Agency for International Development The Administrator of USAID should describe in the Progress Snapshot and Strategy Implementation reports how performance data included in those reports align with and can be used to assess progress toward FTF's performance goals and strategic objectives. (Recommendation 4)
Open
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. As of February 2024, USAID had not yet taken steps to implement this recommendation, but had set a target completion date of September 2024. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.
U.S. Agency for International Development The Administrator of USAID should, in the Progress Snapshot and Strategy Implementation reports, (1) include performance targets for all performance indicators included in the reports so these data can be used to meaningfully demonstrate progress or performance gaps, and (2) discuss planned actions for unmet performance targets. (Recommendation 5)
Open
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. In December 2023, USAID provided FTF's FY2022 Global Food Security Strategy Implementation report and FY2023 Progress Snapshot report, which included targets for the performance indicators associated with the performance goals that were active during the relevant reporting year (three of five indicators). The report also included planned actions for unmet targets for those select indicators. USAID plans to report on all five of these performance indicators by September 2024. However, these reports included data on other performance indicators that do not have FTF-wide targets, as noted in the status of recommendation three. USAID plans to provide additional information on these indicators by end of March 2024. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.

Global Food Security: Coordination of U.S. Assistance Can Be Improved

GAO-22-104612
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
U.S. Agency for International Development The Administrator of USAID should ensure that the country coordinator at the U.S. mission in each GFSS target country takes steps to ensure that all relevant U.S. agencies are included in the planning and coordination of food security assistance. (Recommendation 1)
Open – Partially Addressed
USAID concurred with GAO's recommendation and stated that USAID will work with GFSS interagency country coordinators to ensure all relevant U.S. agencies are included in the planning and coordination of food security assistance. As of March 2024, USAID has collected interagency points of contact for all GFSS countries and has disseminated that information through country support teams. USAID also drafted and updated their country plans outlining how regular interagency coordination will occur, according to officials. GAO continues to monitor agency actions related to this recommendation.
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