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Strategic planning is a powerful tool for setting priorities and making informed decisions about the future. But simply having a Strategic Plan is not enough. To meet strategic goals, organizations also need a mechanism to assess progress and help adjust course from time to time. Thus, a successful, results-driven Strategic Plan will include three essential elements:

USAID Strategic Objective (SO) Teams shape their vision during the strategic planning process, either in Missions or Washington-based Operating Units. This process both informs and is informed by broader Agency strategic planning. The strategic planning process must include the participation of customer representatives, stakeholders, and Development Partners. Participation helps ensure development problems and opportunities are adequately identified and analyzed and that informed choices are made about the proposed results. In the case of public-private alliances, planning requires joint definition of problem solving by all partners and an explicit agreement among development partners to share resources, risks, and results in the pursuit of an objective that can be better obtained through joint effort. Participation is essential to ensuring the long-term sustainability of assistance programs. In USAID planning occurs at four principal levels.

Development Partners have their own organizational Strategic Plans, mission statements, goals and objectives. These will not always match those of USAID or any other individual donor. Nevertheless, in the process of mutual consultation between USAID and Development Partners there will often be a convergence of objectives representing a shared commitment to a customer-focused, results-oriented program that will contribute to sustainable development and the achievement of the Agency's goals. This common ground underlies results-oriented assistance. The challenge is to seek mutually desirable alignment of objectives and mechanisms for "managing for results" between USAID and Development Partners. For example, does the partner organization's Strategic Plan align with a Mission's or Washington-based operating unit's Strategic Plan? Alignment does not mean that the two must coincide one hundred percent: only that there is broad agreement on certain fundamentals in a particular case -- shared vision, results orientation, customer-focus and accountability for achieving shared performance targets or goals.

The chart below depicts this relationship:

Relationship between Development Partners and USAID Operating Units in Planning Results-Oriented Assistance

DEVELOPMENT PARTNER		USAID MISSIONS AND OPERATING UNITS		AGENCY
Organizational Strategic Plan		Country Strategic Plan Operating Unit Strategic Plan		USAID's Strategic Plan (revised 2000)
Activities/Results Frameworks (results partly funded by USAID)		Results Framework		Agency Strategic Framework
Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan		Performance Management Plan		Annual Budget Submission, Annual Performance Plan and Congressional Presentation
Organization's results that could be incorporated in the Annual Report		Annual Report		Annual Performance Accountability Report

Steps in planning results-oriented assistance instruments

Results-oriented assistance is based on participatory strategic planning. To plan results-oriented assistance instruments follow these four simple steps:

Analyze the critical factors and assumptions underlying the plan. Required analyses include:

• environmental analysis (impact upon biodiversity and tropical forestry);
• conflict vulnerability analysis (potential for conflict that might affect the plan and activities); and
• gender analysis (how will gender relations affect the achievement of sustainable results, and how will proposed results affect the relative status of men and women).

Describe your customers' participation in planning, achieving, and measuring and evaluating results. Since the intended results directly affect the condition of a customer or the host country, it is imperative that customers participate in defining what are those changes.

Align each proposed activity (an action to help achieve a program result or set of results, or to support the functioning of the Agency or one of its operating units) with the Agency's Strategic Plans and performance goals.

• Begin with a clear understanding of the Agency's goals, Agency Objectives, and Agency Pillars. Pillars refer to USAID's sector Bureaus that provide leadership and innovation in their respective fields - Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade; Global Health; and Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance - and to the Global Development Alliance, the Agency's basic business model of working with traditional and non-traditional development partners in public-private alliances based on shared goals and resources.

• Identify the Agency Goal(s) and Strategic Objective(s) and Agency Pillars a proposed activity will help achieve.

• Identify the Strategic Objective(s) or Intermediate Result(s) (of the Mission or Operating Unit) a proposed activity will help achieve.

USAID Mission and Washington based operating unit annual reports and their associated results frameworks may be accessed at http://www.dec.org/partners/ardb/. Define the specific, appropriate, and realistic results (changes in the condition of a customer or changes in the host country condition that affects a customer) to be achieved.

• Describe the different levels of results--at the output level, the outcome level, the sub-Intermediate Results and Intermediate Results levels, and, if appropriate, results at the Strategic Objective level.

• Describe whether each set of results works in conjunction with one or more other results and whether any sets of results have a cause-and-effect relationship.

• Describe quantitative and qualitative measures to assess whether results have been achieved.

• Explain the basis for determining that the results are within the operating unit's or Development Partner's manageable interest or span of influence and resources. In most cases, results at the output level will be within the direct control of a Development Partner using resources provided. It may take many outputs from several activities over a period of time to create measurable impact at an IR or SO level. Describe strategies and processes believed necessary to ensure successful achievement of results, without over-prescriptive detail that might limit a partner's ability to respond to changing circumstances during implementation.

• Describe operational processes, skills and technologies, and human, capital, information and other resources that are necessary to achieve the level of results. (For USAID, avoid being overly prescriptive and input-oriented as this can actually impede program success and flexibility.)

• Outline the process for assigning responsibility among Strategic Objective Team members. Identify external and uncontrollable factors that could significantly affect the achievement of the goal and objectives.

• Assess the likelihood and potential impact of key factors, such as political, economic, demographic, social or environmental that could facilitate or constrain achievement of the results.

• Describe how external factors will be monitored, what attempts will be made to mitigate potential negative effects and build on potential positive effects, and what types of adjustments may be necessary.

• Discuss the nature and extent of participation of customers, stakeholders, and other Development Partners needed to ensure achievement of results. Describe customer needs analysis, appraisals, evaluations, and other methodologies used in formulating results to be achieved.

• Identify customer/stakeholder analysis, evaluations, appraisals, and other sources used.

• Describe stakeholder and customer participation in defining results.

• State how coordination will be maintained among all actors.

• Summarize the plan for monitoring and evaluating performance.

DEFINITIONS: Automated Directive System (ADS)

PERFORMANCE INDICATOR: A particular characteristic or dimension used to measure intended changes defined by a results framework. Performance indicators are used to observe progress and to measure actual results compared to expected results. Performance indicators help answer how or if an Operating Unit or SO Team is progressing towards its objective, rather than why such progress is or is not being made. (Chapters 200-203) PERFORMANCE BASELINE: The value of a performance indicator prior to the implementation of USAID-supported activities that contribute to the achievement of the relevant result. (Chapters 200-203)

PERFORMANCE TARGETS: Specific, planned level of result to be achieved within an explicit timeframe. (Chapters 200- 203)

Establish Performance Indicators (measures).

• Identify a performance indicator, expressed as a tangible, measurable objective against which actual achievement can be compared for each result.
• Identify a baseline and then define a performance target (variously referred to as performance goal, performance standard, performance measure) for each indicator.
• Plan to measure performance against targets or goals at various levels of results -- output, outcome, sub-IR, IR, and SO.
• Link each indicator and corresponding data requirements to the applicable Strategic Plan.
• For tips and examples see CDIE's Establishing Performance Targets (PDF 39KB).

Establish Performance monitoring and evaluation plan for gathering and analyzing data.

• Define the unit of measure for each result. Provide enough detail to ensure that different people at different times, given the task of collecting data for a given indicator, would collect identical types of data.
• Identify the data source for each performance indicator. Data sources may include government departments, international organizations, other donors, NGOs, USAID offices, or activity implementing agencies. Be as specific about the source as possible, so the same source can be used routinely.
• Specify the method or approach to data collection for each indicator.
• Gather comparable data periodically to measure progress.
• Assign responsibility to a particular office, team or individual for the timely acquisition of data from data sources.
• Plan the analysis of performance data for individual indicators or groups of related indicators. Identify data analysis techniques and data presentation formats to be used.
• Plan any complementary evaluation efforts.
• Estimate roughly the costs to the operating unit of collecting, analyzing, and reporting performance data for a set of performance measures. Identify the source of funds. (Please note: Experience has shown that 3 to 10 percent of the total program resources should be allocated for performance management, but special circumstances may make it necessary to deviate from this range. Efforts should be made to keep the system cost-effective and to integrate USAID and partner efforts.

Establish a plan for reporting, using, and sharing performance information.

• Plan to use performance information to adapt and improve the performance, effectiveness, and design of existing development assistance activities. · Revise Agency or operating unit strategies where necessary.
• Plan new Strategic Objectives, Intermediate Results and activities.
• Inform decisions whether to alter or abandon Agency program strategies, Strategic Objectives or activities that are not achieving intended results.
• Document findings on the impact of development assistance.
• Plan what evaluation efforts, if any, will be needed to complement information from the performance monitoring system.
• Plan, schedule, and assign responsibilities for internal and external reviews, briefings, and reports.
• Clarify what, how and when management decisions will consider performance information.
• Share performance information with partners and customers, in order to mobilize the knowledge and experience of key stakeholders to identify ways to improve results.

Check these out for further detailed information on:

• Planning, monitoring and evaluating performance and on reporting, using, and sharing performance information.
• Monitoring and evaluating performance.
• CDIE Monitoring and Evaluation Tips.

Plan roles and responsibilities for achieving results

USAID uses grants and cooperative agreements in partnership relationships. These assistance instruments are not intended for use in cases where USAID seeks to exercise detailed operational control. However, experience does not indicate any correlation between such control and successful implementation of results. Grants and cooperative agreements are not only absolutely appropriate for achieving results, but they may in fact be superior vehicles for this purpose in many cases.

A partnership involves mutual consultation and dialogue on major aspects of the program. A basic aspect of program planning, which requires careful thought at the outset, is determining appropriate roles and responsibilities for both USAID and Development Partners.

Negotiate accountability for performance

How far up the hierarchy of results a Development Partner is held accountable for performance depends on a variety of factors: amount of resources, timetable, their span of influence over other Development Partners and the Host Country Government, and the gap between where things are and where things ought to be. Allocating responsibility to a Development Partner for achievement of results at the Intermediate Result or Strategic Objective level raises important issues about whether such results are within the partner's manageable interest. Although SO/IR level responsibility might be negotiated in an individual case (e.g., in a very small Mission or non-presence country), this is not currently common practice. Rather, SO-level results responsibility is more appropriately assigned to USAID.

The following table shows the different levels of results and the need for a baseline and performance target for each result, as well as the locus of accountability for performance. Note that entries in the third column depend upon the dialogue that has occurred between USAID and the Development Partner regarding the appropriate level of responsibility each has for achieving results.

Plan for flexible adjustments

Keep in mind that a wide variety of external factors can affect achievement of specific results and performance targets. For example, changes in political, social, economic, or other circumstances or types of external events, may occur. These events may render previous assumptions invalid, or performance as originally intended impossible or impracticable. The challenge for USAID and its Development Partners--as partners--is to work together, in an open and transparent way, to figure why results are not being achieved and to make the appropriate program adjustments in a timely manner. In cases in which the results to be achieved are in fact within the manageable interest of the partner but are not achieved, remedies are available. (See Monitoring and Evaluating Performance.)