Performance Measurement at USAID
Bright Spot or Black Hole?
May 5, 2010
Cynthia Gill
Biodiversity and Forestry Team Leader
USAID Office of Natural Resource Management
Bright Spots
• Biodiversity is a priority in a development Agency
• Consistent monitoring of high level biodiversity indicators
• Expectations from constituents and leadership that we will
– Report higher level results and
– Apply rigorous adaptive management
• Reinvigorated structure, culture and staffing for
performance measurement
• Many country level bright spots with excellent
performance measurement
Black Hole?
• Current indicators have
serious limitations
– Must ‘roll up’
– Communication role
– Little management
value
• Lack of Agency
biodiversity strategy &
corporate goal
• Balance between
integration and focused
performance
management
Will there be light?
• Much more recognition for role of monitoring and
evaluation at several levels
• Better tools evolving—geared toward managers,
more widely applied
• Common standards are emerging, and creeping
into USAID programming
• Don’t sacrifice the good for the perfect
Indicator Used as Management Tool: Sample One
Example Two: Tools for diverse programs
Where do we struggle most?
• Third party indicators at national level
• Ensuring there’s good adaptive management without
asking for data we don’t need
• Getting tools out for various situations our missions
encounter
Thank you!
Cynthia Gill
cgill@usaid.gov
Why do we care?
• Improvements in strategic planning and
programming encouraging
• Ad hoc adaptive management
– Can only take you so far
– Catches the obvious
– Will see what we’re looking for
• Lack of systematic adaptive management: a
vulnerability for conservation
Why aren’t we there?
• Crisis mentality: what’s the right balance between
conservation and monitoring?
• Constraints of cash and technical capacity
• Demand for other reporting/fundraising
Black Hole?
• Donors typically require reporting
– Qualitative reports
– Reporting indicators
• Qualitative reports can be rich but don’t
– Systematically guide management
– Sell