South African Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs

1
South African Parliamentary Committee on Foreign
Affairs

• Department of Foreign Affairs 2006-07 pre-Budget
  briefing
• South African Institute of International Affairs
  (SAIIA)
• Wednesday May 17 2006

2
Briefing objective

• To assess alignment consistency between
• DFA Strategic Plans
• Annual Reports
• Budgets
• To identify variance
• To identify blockages
• Highlight other areas

3
DFA peculiarities

• Increasingly ambitious programme
• DFA mandate is broad, multi-faceted
• DFA activities are global and increasingly
  complex
• Performance measurement difficult
• Key variables out of control of DFA
• 2/3 of budget in foreign currency
• Department has experienced flux

4
Strategic plan part 1

• Message from Minister
• Foreword by DG
• Mandate of Department
• Definition of SAs foreign policy
• SAs regional and multilateral interests
• Shortened from 127 to 112 pages

5
Strategic Plan part 2

• Key performance areas
• Medium-term priorities and objectives
• Service delivery improvement plan
• Resource allocations per Departmental Programme

6
Key performance areas

• Consolidation of African agenda
• South-south co-operation
• Bilateral relations
• Global governance
• Politics and security
• Socio-economic

7
Service delivery improvement plan

• Priorities
• Objectives
• Performance indicators
• Critical issues

8
Resource allocations per departmental programme

• Administration
• Foreign relations
• Diplomatic protocol services
• International transfers

9
Strategic Plan Part 3

• Asset management plan
• ICT plan
• Foreign Service Institute HR

10
Areas of DFA consistency

• Prioritisation and consolidation of the African
  Agenda (with caveats)
• Multilateralism
• Middle East Asia
• Employment equity
• Recruitment and skills development (with caveats)

11
DFA SP MDGs South-South co-operation
12
Questions of DFA SP

• Part one succinct overview of SAFP, but
• Longer-term, macro, globalisation framework?
• Globalisation and BRICs?
• How and why has SP been adjusted?
• Much repetition with no clear indication of
  progress
• Need to highlight what is new
• Critical issues sometimes vague and read as a
  wish list

13
DFA SP global developments
14
DFA SP and emerging powers
15
DFA skills audit

• Positive and welcome initiative, but
• What evaluative criteria were used?
• How were skills and qualifications assessed?
• What was the outcome of the audit?
• Steps taken to raise skills language,
  economics, trade, managerial, budgeting?
• Identification of new or future skills sets?
• In-depth analysis of new FSI

16
Issue of concern

• Secondment of DFA personnel
• To AU and SADC
• Clarity needed on terms of secondment
• Temporary skills loss to DFA
• Measures in place to plug personnel skills gap
• Measures in place to re-integrate maximise
  experience of seconded staff?

17
Case study of concern - SADC

• The Departments goals for the Continent are
  therefore the resolution of conflict and the
  building of a framework within which
  socio-economic development can take place. The
  entry points for achieving these goals are
  provided by SADC, the AU and NEPAD DFA SP
  2005/2008

18
SADC priority ctd.

• Within the region, the SADC remains the primary
  vehicle for South African policy and action to
  achieve regional integration and development
  within all priority development sectors. DFA SP
  2005/2008

19
SADC structure delivery

• Although the restructuring exercise has been
  completed, the SADC has not been performing as
  expected, which has negatively affected the
  implementation of the RISDP.
• The main reasons for the under-performance are
  constraints in financial and human resources,
  which require immediate attention. In addition,
  the financial and human resources constraints at
  the Secretariat need to be addressed.
• DFA Annual Report 2004/2005

20
DFA SP 2006-2009Service delivery improvement
plan(Africa multilateral)
21
DFA budget 2006-07
22
DFA 2006-07 budget statement

• National departments are expected to begin
  implementing the (SADC) regional indicative
  strategic development plan.
• Need to outline DFA role in this

23
DFA Budget 2006-07 Overview
24
DFA budget 2006-07 Administration
25
DFA budget 2006-07 Foreign Relations
26
DFA Africa budgetary expenditure, transfers and
subsidies

• R682m of R1.783bn i.e. 35 on Africa
• R350m of R473m transfers and subsidies to Africa,
  i.e. 74
• SA share of AU budget from 8.2 to 15
• Manpower secondment to AU R155 million
• African renaissance fund R150 million
• NEPAD R30 million
• SADC R12.6 million

27
DFA staff challenge
28
Key DFA personnel concern
29
DFA staff vacancy issues

• Reasons for continued and persistent high levels
  of staff vacancies despite active recruitment
  campaign?
• Exit interviews conducted?
• What emerges from exit interviews?
• Steps taken to redress issues?
• Timeline for closing personnel gaps?

30
Proposed PCFA measures ctd.

• Need for a customers audit/survey
• What has experience of dealing with DFA been for
• Government Departments (IRPS)
• SA citizens
• Business
• Visitors
• Media

31
Proposed PCFA measures

• Request an annual DFA consistency and variance
  report
• Strategic Plan adjustments
• Key performance areas
• Employment, skills, equity
• Budget

32
Proposed PCFA measures ctd.

• Request timeous and comprehensive feedback on
  measures taken to address previous variance
  before budget approval
• Reasons for continued variance
• Reasons for adjustments
• Reasons for failure to achieve performance

33
Possible pre-budget steps for PCFA

• Annual DFA consistency/variance analysis
• DFA report-back on FCFA queries
• Annual think tank analysis
• Two weeks of Chief Directors briefings
• Two weeks FCFA pre-budget preparation

34
Thank you

• Questions and clarifications