The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Systematic Assessment Is Needed to Determine Agencies' Progress toward U.S. Policy Objectives

In concurring with the above recommendation, State wrote that the recommendation would be met as the new joint State-U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) planning and budget process was extended to include other agencies engaged in the DRC. However, State informed us in June 2012 that the State office that oversees the planning and budget process focuses its attention on State and USAID efforts only. In 2009, a State planning and budget official informed us that State had included the DRC in a pilot country planning project that could help address the recommendation. However, in June 2012, State officials informed us that the pilot country planning project had been replaced by a different project that did not include the DRC. State did not provide any evidence that the Secretary of State had otherwise worked with the heads of other agencies active in the DRC specifically to plan the systematic evaluation of overall progress toward achieving the objectives of the DRC Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006.