DFID's Public Service Agreement
11. DFID's organisational structure is a matrix constructed along
two axes, one geographical (country programmes), and one sectoral
or thematic. Objectives and goals have tended to be sectoral;
resource allocations have tended to be geographical. It is left
to DFID's internal institutions to integrate these two axes of
organisational structure, and to ensure a good match between DFID's
internal organisation and its various external relationships and
responsibilities. Given its importance in shaping DFID's internal
structure, its relationships with external stakeholders, and its
effectiveness, it is surprising that the Departmental Report fails
to outline DFID's organisational structure. We recommend that
subsequent Departmental Reports do this, and as a minimal step,
at least include an organisation chart.[10]
12. To achieve this internal integration and external articulation,
DFID has a complex array of policies, processes and institutional
structures (see figure 4). Different elements—Target Strategy
Papers, Country Strategy Papers, Policy Resource Plans, Institutional
Performance Reviews—are relevant to different parts of the
organisation and/or different stages of the cycle of development
policy and practice, but ought to fit together into a coherent
whole.
13.The PSA is intended to play a key role in orientating DFID.
The PSA is, primarily, DFID's statement to the UK Government about
its key objectives and performance targets. DFID has had two PSAs
prior to the announcement of a new PSA in July 2002, together
with associated Service Delivery Agreements (SDAs) which set out
what DFID will do to achieve the PSA targets, and Technical Notes
which provide greater detail on individual targets and their measurement.
These covered the periods 1999-2002 and 2001-2004, and set measurable
targets for DFID to report against. The PSAs are included as an
annex to the Departmental Report.
14.DFID's Permanent Secretary, Suma Chakrabarti, told us in evidence
that: "The best description of departmental objectives are
the two Public Service Agreements we have had. ... The development
goals [MDGs] in some ways are the objectives underlying both those
Public Service Agreements and will underlie the next one too.
They are, really, the driving force behind [our] staff's work."[11]
The 2001-2004 PSA links DFID's performance to progress against
the MDGs by including key human development goals relating to
health and education.[12]
Progress against these PSA targets is then measured in the ten
countries where DFID spends the majority of its resources on health
and education, and hence believes it can make "a plausible
link between the concentration of our financial (and human) resources
in these countries and progress against the core human development
outcomes".[13]
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