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- Addressed

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- Partially Addressed

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- Not Addressed

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- Consolidated or Other

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- Pending

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- Closed-Partially Addressed

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- Closed-Not Addressed

Year Identified: 2019

Area Number: 11

Area Type: Fragmentation, Overlap & Duplication

Action:

The State Department should lead an effort to establish, in collaboration with the five other agencies that implement most of U.S. foreign assistance, guidance for developing foreign assistance strategies that addresses key elements GAO identified related to interagency coordination, strategic integration, and assessment of progress.

Progress:

The Department of State (State) agreed with and, as of December 2019, has implemented GAO’s July 2018 recommendation to work with the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, and Health and Human Services; the United States Agency for International Development; and the Millennium Challenge Corporation to develop guidance for foreign assistance strategies. The guidance document, approved in November 2019, outlines the nine key elements of strategic alignment as described in GAO-18-499 and states that each of those elements must be addressed or referenced in such a way as to be clear to the reader. Also, in a May 2019 addition to the Foreign Affairs Manual, State established a standard for foreign assistance strategies that they should take into account the key elements related to interagency coordination, strategic integration, and assessment of progress toward strategic goals. This guidance, when applied consistently in developing foreign assistance strategies, should help ensure that planning foreign assistance among multiple agencies is not fragmented.