U.S. Government Accountability Office: State Department: Leadership Focus Needed to Guide Agency Reform Efforts
“In response to an Executive Order, the State Department launched an initiative to streamline its programs and processes in 2017 and reported specific reform projects to Congress in 2018. We found that State is implementing most of these projects. However, some projects have been stalled or discontinued due to top leadership transitions, shifting priorities, and a lack of confirmed officials in key positions. State also lacks a dedicated team to manage these projects, which could slow its overall reform efforts. We recommended that State establish a team to manage the implementation of all reform projects that the Secretary decides to pursue…” (8/1).

U.S. Government Accountability Office: Foreign Assistance: Federal Monitoring and Evaluation Guidelines Incorporate Most but Not All Leading Practices
“…We looked at how agencies monitor and evaluate [foreign assistance] programs. Specifically, we looked at the guidelines the Office of Management and Budget established for federal agencies with foreign assistance programs. We reviewed whether the guidelines incorporated leading practices for monitoring and evaluation, and whether agencies adopted the guidelines. We found the OMB guidelines included 23 of 28 leading practices, and most agencies adopted most of them. We made 7 recommendations to increase the use of OMB’s guidelines…” (7/31).