DFID Management Board
In working towards the delivery of the Public Service Agreement the Management Board will aim to:
- communicate the vision, role, direction and priorities of DFID to staff and other stakeholders;
- ensure DFID's financial resources and staff are allocated and managed effectively;
- monitor and improve DFID's performance;
- protect and enhance DFID’s reputation as a highly effective international development organisation.
Meeting on 6 November 2006
Topic |
Attending |
Purpose |
MB Obj |
Papers |
Capability Review |
External team |
To introduce the Board to the Capability Review process |
A, B, C & D |
|
Autumn Performance Report and Quarterly Management Report (2nd 1/4 2006) |
Richard Calvert |
To assess DFID's performance on the basis of programme expenditure, IT, HR and risk indicators, and to consider the draft APR prior to submission to HMT |
A, B, C & D |
QMR cover note QMR |
Resource Allocation 2007/08 |
Richard Calvert Liz Ditchburn |
To update the board on the proposed programme and headcount allocations for 2007/08 |
B, C & D |
|
Public Service Agreement |
Richard Calvert |
To agree DFID's approach to its Public Service Agreement 2008-2011 |
||
Management Board Objectives - Review |
Justin Williams |
For the Management Board to informally review progress against its objectives |
A, B, & C |
|
Attendees |
Suma Chakrabarti (Chair), Mark Lowcock, Minouche Shafik, Bill Griffith (Non-Executive Director), Sue Owen, Helen Ghosh (Non-Executive Director) sent her apologies |
|||
Observers |
In PS: Geraldine Murphy, Teresa Kondratowicz, Martin Leach, Hamisi Babu, Kebur Azbaha, Julius Court, Stephen McClelland, Clare Moye, Helen Mealins, Shailaja Annamraju, Alexandra Soden, Sasinapa (Nong) Asavaphanlert, Antony Robbins In AH: Kate Belshaw, Simon Gill In DFID Ethiopia: Paul Ackroyd In DFID Tanzania: Roy Trivedy, David Stanton In DFID India: Fiona Lappin In DFID Pakistan: Yusaf Samiullah |
Capability Review
1. The Capability Review team gave a presentation explaining the rationale behind the review and likely process from now until completion in March 2007.
2. The Board:
- welcomed the review as a timely exercise which would help DFID address some strategic challenges around productivity and performance;
- suggested that the review team should visit more countries than currently planned, in order to get a good sense of DFID’s devolved structure and the contexts in which we work;
- asked the DFID team to provide to the review team:
- a list of countries that the review team should visit “in an ideal world”;
- evidence of the recent improvements on portfolio quality;
- a note on how the Capability Review fits with other recent reviews of DFID, such as the OECD DAC peer review, Egon Zehnder review of the Management Board, and the Investors in People reaccreditation process.
Quarterly Management Report (Q2 2006/07) and Autumn Performance Report
3. Richard Calvert introduced this item.
4. The Board:
- commended the team on the high quality of the papers;
- noted the continuing positive trend on portfolio quality;
- noted the slow progress on our target on Programme-Based Approaches, and agreed to discuss this with Ministers;
- asked that the success story of Africa over the last 10 years be reflected even more in our communications;
- asked FCPD and GDED to do a piece of work on how far the robustness of developing country statistics has improved, and specifically what has been achieved by the PARIS21 initiative;
- agreed to aim to hold a Management Board meeting with Peter Ricketts and Bill Jeffrey (or officials to whom they delegate) on progress on our joint PSA target on conflict early next year;
- asked FCPD to look again at (a) the 90:10 figure for 2005/06; (b) grey scores for HIV, in particular to see whether it would be possible to assess future trend;
- asked OSSD and FCPD to do a piece of work on the pros and cons of potential targets on carbon offsetting, taking into account the importance of travel to our business, as well as the need to cut down unnecessary travel;
- noted the slow progress on the IiP target, and asked (a) that the SCS awayday is sufficiently focussed on this issue; (b) each team to look at incentives and prioritisation, to ensure we achieve reaccreditation;
- asked that Parliamentary Unit’s regular updates on Parliamentary business should go to Directors, with a cover note from the PPS/SoS dealing with resources required for handling.
Resource Allocation 2007/08
5. Richard Calvert and Liz Davis introduced this paper, which set out how DFID should allocate its financial and human resources in order to achieve a balanced budget by start end FY 2007/08.
6. The Board:
- agreed the recommendations of the paper;
- expressed a concern about using the vacancy rate as the default way of controlling headcount – Directors should ensure that it was not the corporate priority posts (e.g. in fragile states) that were carrying the vacancies;
- asked HRD to provide a footnote to the numbers for their own division setting out how many posts represent core (“Saratoga”) HR and how many are performing other functions, such as Overseas Pensions Department or Office Services.
Performance Framework 2008-11
7. Richard Calvert introduced this item.
8. The Board agreed that:
- we should seek a Public Service Agreement and Departmental Strategic Objectives which remain close to our existing PSA, namely through
- a worldwide PSA target with coverage of MDG sub-targets (i.e. including both income poverty and selected sector targets); Departmental Strategic Objectives which are organised according to our departmental structure, rather than the White Paper. Informal Review of Management Board Objectives
9. Justin Williams introduced this item.
10. The Board:
- agreed the recommendations of the paper;
- asked the Board secretary to continue to be tough on timing of papers;
- agreed to continue to keep up the level of challenge from the Board to the organisation, especially through the DDP reviews in January.
Justin Williams
Management Board Secretary