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

DFID Management Board

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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 14 December 2005

15:00 - 17:30

Topic/Paper	Attending	Purpose	MB Obj
2005 - Presidency of the EU and G8 closure - review and next steps(28 kb)	Graham Stegmann, Nick Dyer, Margaret Cund, PeterTaylor	To review the Presidencies and agree next steps	A, B, C & D
People Strategy(24 kb)	Liz Davis, John Anning, Ian McKendry	Update on People Strategy 6 months on	A, B, C
CRS 2007	Richard Calvert, Helen Mealins, representatives from HMT	To discuss actions and implications for DFIDof the CSR	B, C & D
Attendees	Suma Chakrabarti (Chair) Mark Lowcock, Minouche Shafik, Bill Griffiths, Helen Ghosh, Masood Ahmed
Observing	Jane Doogan, Kevin Gardner, Victoria Seymour, Catherine Masterman, Ian Symons, Gregory Briffa

Review the 2005 EU Presidency and Next steps

1. Nick Dyer introduced this item by highlighting that the UK position paper on the budget for 2007 that was presented today. He was pleased to inform the Board that this included the text we had wanted on development. He took this opportunity to thank all those presidency in his team and from all parts of DFID who had helped make the presidency a success.

2. The Board were asked if they were content with:

the outcomes and the handling of the Presidency;

the suggested next steps.

3. In discussion the Board:

congratulated both EUD and the 2005 teams for all their hard work over the year. A truly excellent job!

thanked EUD for a very comprehensive paper;

commented that knowledge of the EU and negotiating skills had been built up and mobilised very effectively in DFID during our presidency. There was concern that as a large number of EUD staff were leaving in the New Year much of this knowledge would be lost. This would need to be carefully managed;

commented that mainstreaming work on EU policy across DFID will require a serious commitment of time and resources. Links between senior staff and members of the Commission are not as strong as they are in other Departments, such as DEFRA that are more EU focused. If we make the effort to continue to engage with the Commission and Member States we need to be sure the pay offs make it worth while;

4. In conclusion the Board:

asked EUD to produce by end of January a paper setting out a full business case for a strategy for stronger engagement with the EU.. This should include guidance on the value of engaging with different Member States and the Commission. It should feed into WP3;

Review the 2005 G8 Presidency and Next steps

5. Graham Stegmann introduced the paper. He noted that the G8 agenda will be more diffuse next year. Roles in Whitehall will change. The administration and delivery will shift away from Number 10 to the FCO (Martin Donnelly’s division). With the 2005 unit dismantling we will potentially have less people to deal with a more disparate agenda. This raises questions about how we should best engage and how much resource we should devote to follow up.

6. Graham Stegmann asked the Board:

How best can we ensure that work on coherence, as part of the new White Paper, includes follow-up by other Whitehall Departments on the commitments on Africa and development made at the G8 Summit at Gleneagles?

How should DFID Ministers and top management communicate the achievements of 2005, and promote the delivery of the key milestones for 2006?

7. In discussion the Board:

asked the Graham how he would prioritise resources. He replied that he thought we now need to demonstrate that we are a player across the board on influencing and developing policy. This means the development of influencing and negotiating skills should be prioritised;

requested that each milestone set out in the “Gleneagles implementation plan for Africa” be allocated a DFID lead. There was agreement on the need for active individual accountability. There also needs to be clarity on the outcomes individuals are expected to deliver. These outcomes would need to be reflected in DGs work plans for 2006/7

agreed the WP will be a key vehicle for setting out our strategy on how we will deliver on our G8 commitments;

noted external pressure on the other G8 members will be limited. The Russians will look to us to continue to push on Africa and aid commitments.

asked what we can do in the second half of 2006 to mobilise follow up. We will need to continue to reinforce reporting to help maintain momentum. Number 10 are also pushing for review mechanisms. Should we also commission research? Mobilise NGOS?

8. In conclusion the Board:

Requested a paper by January 2006 setting out the accountability for the different G8 milestones.

People Strategy- Review of Progress and Next Steps

9. Liz Davis set out the context in which the strategy was developed. She asked the Board to:

assess the effectiveness of the plan to date; and

agree the forward plan.

10. In discussion the Board:

requested that the proposed early departure scheme be included in the forward plan;

confirmed they were pleased with the acceleration of the pace of change over recent months;

agreed promotion of the change process by the Management Board and Leadership group will be fundamental to its successful delivery;

agreed that HR should be consulted earlier on staffing implications of policy decisions and prioritisation than they are the moment;

noted that the Investors in People accreditation is a good mechanism for ensuring our continuous improvement.

11. In conclusion the Board

agreed the forward work plan with the inclusion of the delivery of the early departure scheme;

emphasised that they want to do all they can to support this work;

requested more formal communication on the progress in the delivery of the strategy. Notices should go on InSight when milestones have been reached and discussions need to be scheduled in the Leadership Group.

Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR)2007

12. Mark Bowman, Robert Pollock and Peter McDermott gave a short presentation. The key points were as follows;

DFID’s trajectory looks good in comparison to other Departments with the recent commitment to reach 0.7% by 2013.

But no particular part of expenditure is guaranteed and no part of DFID has a prior claim on the expected increment in the DFID budget.

HMT and DFID will conduct a series of “zero-based” reviews to look at where DFID should spend the extra resources and how DFID should be organised to deliver the increase in spending most effectively.

CSR work needs to link in with the DAC peer review, WP3 and the people strategy.

HMT emphasised that we have a shared objective to ensure we deliver on improving the efficiency of the Department.

13. In discussion the Board:

welcomed the HMT presentation;

confirmed that that they, like the Treasury, are keen to maintain pressure to increase efficiency and effectiveness across DFID’s work;

emphasised the need for clear informal communication to get across the message that moving to deliver “more with less” will necessitate an acceleration of efficiency improvements;

suggested that we need to update the current analytical base to understand what are the maintain gaps that still exist in meeting the MDGs, what aid can do to meet these gaps, what the multilaterals and other donors are focusing on and therefore what does all this mean for DFID, bearing in mind our comparative advantage;

noted that we also need to report on our approach to working in countries where we do not have bilateral programmes and how we should we allocate staff resources for this.

14. In conclusion the Board

agreed that Richard Calvert would adapt the paper in light of the comments and submit to the SoS next week;

noted that CSR07 will be useful vehicle for looking at programme efficiency;

thanked the Treasury team for their excellent presentation and collaborative way in which work on the CSR had begun.

Anna Morgan
Management Board Secretary