Establishing Goals and Reporting Performance Tools for Capturing Environmental Outcomes

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Establishing Goals and Reporting Performance
Tools for Capturing Environmental Outcomes

• Letitia Toomer,
• Acting Director
• Operations Management and Oversight Division
• June, 2005

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Overview

• Integrated Accountability System
• Performance measures
• Logic model process
• State goals by program
• Reporting performance
• Role of Conservation System Guides
• Outcome reporting and enhancements

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Integrated Accountability System (IAS) Objectives

• Integrate budget and performance.
• Avoid duplicate data entry and reduce time for
  progress and performance reporting.
• Provide ready access to information
• Provide the operational basis for reporting
  outcomes and alignment with the Presidents
  Management Agenda.

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Field Operations to Outcomes
Technical Assistance Provided
Customer Contact
WebTCAS, Toolkit, Protracts, PRS
PHYSICAL EFFECT exported from CRA, Conservation
Guide Sheets
OUTPUTS (Ex. Tons of sediment Planned to be
reduced)
NRI-CEAP utilizes information to refine outcome
models
PERFORMANCE MEASURES (Ex. Reduced soil erosion on
___ acres of working lands)
OUTCOMES (Ex. By 2007, reduce sedimentation to
avoid ___ of on-site and off-site damages.)
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Field Office Business Tools
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Performance Measures

• Annual, long-term, and efficiency measures used
  to gauge agency progress toward natural resource
  and conservation goals
• Government Performance and Results Act
• Strategic Plan
• Annual Performance Plan
• Annual Performance Report
• Presidents Management Agenda
• Budget and Performance Integration
• OMBs Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) 50
  is performance results

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Program-Specific Performance Measures

• Each programs PART measures are included in the
  Presidents Budget
• For each program, we are developing an integrated
  set of performance measures that include
• Long-term performance measures (outcomes)
• Annual performance measures
• Efficiency measures

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Program Logic Model Process

• Program purposes in statutory authority
• Identified long-term outcomes
• Aligned annual measures to outcomes
• Developed program-specific activity codes
• Currently developing targets for long-term
  measures and developing program-specific
  efficiency measures

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Guiding Principles

• Focus on program-specific natural resource
  impacts
• Measure as close to end outcome as possible
• Measurable and achievable
• Balance accountability with data collection burden

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Outputs to Outcomes

• Healthy Watersheds
• Clean Water
• Sedimentation Reduced
• Tons of Soil Saved
• Number of Acres Treated
• Number of People Served

OUTCOMES
INTERMEDIATE OUTCOMES
OUTPUTS
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FY 2005 Goaled Measures

• Agricultural lands treated for which wildlife
  habitat is the primary or secondary resource
  concern, acres
• CTA, CRP, RCD
• Agricultural land managed for the protection and
  enhancement of habitat for species with declining
  populations, acres
• EQIP, Klamath Basin, WHIP, GRP

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WHIP

• Current annual performance measure is acres
  managed for the protection and enhancement of
  habitat for species with declining populations
• Long-Term Priorities
• Declining/high-valued, State-identified native
  terrestrial and aquatic critical habitats
• Terrestrial and aquatic habitats affected by
  invasive species
• Declining/high-valued Federal and
  State-identified native terrestrial and aquatic
  at-risk species.

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Goal Setting

• States need to set goals by program state
  totals across programs are not as important.
• State program goals need to be linked to budgets.
• State Conservationists negotiate final goals with
  Regional Assistant Chiefs and Deputy Chief for
  Programs, with input from national program
  managers and SPA staff.

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Performance Results System Integrated and Highly
Aligned Business Processes

• System for reporting progress toward performance
  goals
• Extracts data from planning tools (e.g., Toolkit
  and ProTracts)
• Integrates Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes
• Established CSG link to land unit

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Conservation System Guides

• Organized by CRA
• Source of Conservation Systems
• Source of Practice and System Impacts
• About 17,000 conservation system guides and about
  33,000 conservation systems

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Active CSGs per CRA 2/16/05
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CSGs Progress Reporting

• CSGs are used to report progress for a number of
  measures in PRS
• Reduction in cropland soils damaged by erosion
  (erosion
• Soil erosion reduced, tons
• Reduction in potential sediment delivery from
  cropland, percent
• Agricultural land actively managed for the
  protection and enhancement of habitat for species
  with declining populations, acres
• Irrigation efficiency improved, acre feet

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PRS 2005 Practice Tab
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PRS 2005 Impact Tab
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Improving Outcome Reporting

• Improve effects estimates through CSGs
• Incorporate CEAP results, verify and enhance
  models
• improved onsite physical effect models for field
  based planning
• Develop effects reports
• CSG data that display resource concerns and
  physical effect changes
• Protracts data for CSP environmental enhancement
  payments
• Improve outcome-based performance measures and
  reporting capability

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PRS Vision

• Eliminate field office performance reporting
  workload.
• Report environmental outcomes for major
  environmental issues for
• specific GIS areas
• based on annual and cumulative performance

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Recognition

• GAO if implemented as currently planned, the
  system will provide NRCS with the means to set
  agency-wide goals, determine the resources and
  strategies needed to achieve them, hold the
  different parts of the agency responsible for
  achieving the goals, and report on its
  performance.