PMP Budget

USAID Missions should include sufficient funding and personnel resources for performance management work. Experience has shown that 5 to 10 percent of total program resources should be allocated for this purpose. Within this framework, USAID will devote approximately 3 percent of total program dollars, on average, to external performance and impact evaluation. This is distinct from resources dedicated to monitoring.

Taken together, USAID’s guidance on the development of a PMP in ADS 201 and its Evaluation Policy provide a clear sense of the resources USAID anticipates devoting to Performance Management in PMP Budget Summary prepared for a single DO, or for all of the DOs under a CDCS, inclusive of monitoring, evaluation and closely linked aspects of a Mission’s learning approach.

To determine the actual amounts a Mission will propose for each element of its Performance Management budget, it may be useful to estimate the costs of various types of monitoring, evaluation and learning activities in which the Mission expects to engage over the CDCS period. Thus, for example:

The performance monitoring component of a PMP budget might be constructed by looking at the baseline data collection implications of its CDCS Results Framework; considering data collection and analysis costs for projects and other activities, and for monitoring assumptions over a CDCS period, and factoring in funds needed to conduct required Data Quality Assessments for indicators on which the Mission will report externally. Consider the elements of a PMP budget, as illustrated below, before you prepare a DO level summary of costs using the PMP Budget Template on the following page.

The evaluation component of a PMP budget would generally include planned performance evaluations at both the program/sector and project levels, at the midway point or towards the end of a project period or the CDCS cycle. In addition to planned evaluations, USAID anticipates that issues that arise during implementation may trigger decisions to undertake additional evaluations. These could be anticipated, from a budget perspective, with a contingency fund line for unanticipated evaluations. Evaluation quality reviews, or meta-evaluations, the Mission might want to undertake to review sets of evaluation Statements of Work or sets of evaluations should also be factored into this component of a PMP budget. Consider the elements of a PMP evaluation budget at the DO level, as illustrated below, before turning to the PMP Budget Template provided in this kit.

In the Learning Approach component of a budget for performance management, some of the types of activities that might be included could be a meta-analysis to extract common findings and lessons across a group of evaluations; learning workshops organized with partners, and other activities that could help close the loop between the Mission monitoring and evaluation activities and their utilization in decision-making within the Mission and by its partners. Identify the elements of your learning approach before moving on to the PMP Budget Template at the DO level on the following page.