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DFID Management Board

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Meeting on 13 December 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.

10.00 – 12.30 Location: PS 3W12 and AH 280

Topic	Attending	Purpose	MB Obj	Papers
Update of the of the Corporate Risk Register (CRR)	Anna Wechsburg Lizzie Smith Simon Jones	To update the CRR and agree next steps	B	Paper on CRR [RESTRICTED] Update of CRR [RESTRICTED] Submission from Simon Jones on addition to Corporate Risk Register
Second Horizon Scanning report	Jeremy Clarke Kate Tench	To review the Strategy Unit’s second horizon scanning report and issue briefs	B	Submission from Anna Wechsburg Horizon Scan
Investment Committee	Sam Sharpe Liz Ditchburn	To agree the Terms of Reference and next steps for the Investment Committee	C D	Submission from Liz Ditchburn Annex A – Draft Terms of Reference
Management Survey	Liz Davis Lynette Carrington	To review the top level results of the management	C D	Submission from Liz Davis [ RESTRICTED] Annex A Management Survey [RESTRICTED]

Attendees

Sue Owen (Chair), Minouche Shafik, Mark Lowcock, Bill Griffiths (Non-Executive Director), David MacLeod ( Non- Executive Director)

Observers

Sarah Harking; Louise Thomas; Lizzie Smith; Anna Wechsburg; Jeremy Clarke; Simon Jones; Kate Tench; Liz Ditchburn; Liz Davis; Sam Sharpe.

Corporate Risk Register

1. Anna Wechsburg and Lizzie Smith introduced the paper on the Corporate Risk Register.

2. The Board thanked the team for a very good paper and agreed with all five proposals. The Board agreed that FCPD should do some more thinking about

i) the system for escalating emerging risks onto the risk register and the flexibility within the system;

ii) how to ensure the right people are involved in identifying and assessing risks, and in taking forward mitigation stragegies;

iii) what is DFID’s appetite for risk. Do we have a clear policy.

3. Simon Jones introduced his proposal that an additional risk on data protection be added to the register.

4. The Management Board agreed that:

i) data handling to be added to the CRR for a period of time given the current political environment surrounding this issue. It should not however be kept as a permanent risk;

ii) issues like this should be elevated within the corporate risk register when necessary and that this was an effective and flexible use of the system.

5. The Board asked for further consideration of two specific risks on the register:

i) whether Risk 1 ( economic slowdown) was correctly assessed.

ii) whether the mitigating actions on Risk 6 were sufficient.

Horizon Scanning

6. Anna Wechsberg introduced this item.

7. The Board thanked the team for another set of very high quality papers. They agreed that:

i) the papers should be used as context for the forthcoming DPF meetings – the team should liaise with CPPG in order to feed into MB briefing;

ii) the scans should be widely circulated within DFID and in Whitehall;

iii) all staff should be encouraged to use the scans as part of CAP reviews;

iv) the team should continue to be plugged into Cabinet Office/ No.10’s strategic work;

v) the recommendations within the paper are very useful for internal digestion but should be removed for the external audience;

vi) the scans should also where appropriate be shared with our partner Governments;

vii) the scans should go into Christmas boxes for Minister’s Christmas reading;

viii) strategy unit should consider mapping the horizon scans main findings against DFID’s DSOs.

Investment Committee

7. Liz Ditchburn8. The Management Board agreed that:

i) the committee should be chaired by the DG Corporate Performance and not the Permanent Secretary

ii) Doreen Langston would be a non -executive member of the committee.

iii) the Chair of IACDI would be invited as an observer;

iv) the secretariat was an important function that should be provided by FCPD;

v) the Investment Committee would provide an annual report to the Management Board.

vi) the investment Committee would examine both multilateral and where necessary large bilateral investments. It would not at this time look at admin cost.

Management Survey

9. Liz Davis presented this item. She highlighted the positive response rate and that overall there had been some very good results. She said that the Directors would be given divisional breakdowns.

10. The Management Board agreed that:

i) the Management Survey continued to be a very useful product and that the overall results were good, especially given it was done during a period of change in the organisation.

ii) the differential across divisions created some worry and that DG’s should work with their Directors in order to respond to the findings.

iii) The findings would be discussed in more detail at a Leadership Group Meeting in January.

Lucy Livings
Management Board Secretary