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Management Board | Development Committee | Audit Committee | Human Resources Strategy Committee | Investment Committee

DFID Management Board

Membership | Terms of Reference | Minutes of Meetings

Meeting on 02 July 2007

In working towards the delivery of the Public Service Agreement the Management Board will aim to:

• A. communicate the vision, role, direction and priorities of DFID to staff and other stakeholders;
• B. ensure DFID's financial resources and staff are allocated and managed effectively;
• C. monitor and improve DFID's performance;
• D. protect and enhance DFID’s reputation as a highly effective international development organisation.

9.30-11.30 Location: PS 3W13

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Results Action Plan

1. Sam Sharpe and Owen Barder presented this item, noting that this paper builds on the summary Results Action Plan discussed at the Development Committee in 2006 and presents a set of detailed actions to be implemented in the 2008-11 CSR period. The paper identifies nine priority actions. Nearly all the actions are underway or planned.

2. The Board:

• welcomed the work that has been done on the RAP and commented that it was very impressive;
• noted that the actions in Annex A were a comprehensive list of everything going on across the Department, and agreed that only the nine priority areas should be tracked;
• agreed that DFID should increase its multilateral investment in statistics and monitoring and evaluation systems. The Board suggested that this investment be focussed on the subset of PSA countries (possibly through earmarking);
• asked the team to look for options for investing/engaging in this area which do not impose administrative cost burdens on country teams;
• agreed that funding for this should be top sliced at the centre rather than taken from specific country programme budgets;
• welcomed the proposal to develop a core set of standardised indicators that can be aggregated;
• asked FCPD to define and cost the proposed training further;
• agreed the submission and paper at Annex B subject to some revisions in the text around current corporate reporting systems.

PSA Targets and Delivery Plans

3. Sam Sharpe and Simon Gill presented this item. Simon Gill updated the Management Board on the current status of the work. He flagged 6 July as the deadline for written comments to HMT and the PSX meeting on the 19 July when new Ministers will need to agree the DFID PSA responsibilities.

4. The Board:

• noted that the 6 July deadline for Ministers to comment on the PSA delivery agreement would probably not be met given the Ministerial and policy responsibility changes. The Board suggested that FCPD flag this to the Treasury as soon as possible;
• agreed the number and scope of indicators as outlined in the paper, noting that ratio of girls to boys in secondary and tertiary education should be monitored under indicator 3 as a proxy for women’s economic empowerment;
• agreed the country set and rationale subject to the removal of Lesotho;
• noted that work is ongoing on the method of data aggregation;
• agreed to Annex A and B subject to FCPD ensuring inconsistencies between the two are removed;
• asked that a specific reference to the 90/10 target be included in section A of Annex A;
• noted progress on the joint PSAs delivery agreement. The Board flagged that DFID would need to engage in an HMG discussion about whether an additional joint PSA on trade is necessary.

Investment Committee

5. Sam Sharpe introduced this item. He flagged that this was being presented to the Management Board as a “first reading”. After initial reactions from the Management Board FCPD will work with Minouche Shafik to consolidate work on this,

6. The Board agreed that:

• the rationale for this committee (ie the gap it is filling) needs to be clearer;
• the Investment Committee should look at overall portfolio choices and at a selection of large investments as well as at systems for investment appraisal;
• portfolio analysis would in many cases require more detailed information than is currently included in CAPs;
• further consideration should be given to whether the Investment Committee should cover administrative cost as well as programme investments;
• the QAG should continue to meet as a sub-committee of the Investment Committee.

HR Transformation Programme

7. Liz Davis introduced this item. She highlighted that the proposed HR transformation programme is mainly about a behavioural change which will bring line managers to the centre of human resource planning.

8. The Board agreed the proposed HR Transformation programme subject to the following things:

HRD are clear in their communications that this programme is moving DFID towards business needs determining HR systems;

• communication plans use concrete examples of a number of scenarios;
• some flexibility is built in to the suggestion that recruitment should always be undertaken internally first;
• Heads of Profession play an equal role with line managers in internal postings decisions for all advisory posts at A2 and above. HRD were also asked to work with HoPs to improve information on individuals in each advisory cadre;
• overseas recruitment starts 6-12 months in advance of the post being taken up;
• HRD do further work around a) what happens to unposted people and b) how to handle corporate priorities;
• end dates for posts are settled between line manager and candidate, but that HRD establish norms to help these be enforced;
• exit interviews are made compulsory.

The Board noted that the last cluster under the current system would be Autumn 2007.