Report Contents
What OIG Inspected
OIG inspected the Office of Global Women’s Issues’ executive direction, policy implementation, foreign assistance, and administrative operations.
What OIG Recommends
OIG made 7 recommendations to the Office of Global Women’s Issues.
In its comments on the draft report, the Office of Global Women’s Issues concurred with 6 recommendations and disagreed with 1 recommendation. OIG considers 6 recommendations resolved and 1 recommendation unresolved. The Office of Global Women’s Issues’ response to each recommendation, and OIG’s reply, can be found in the Recommendations section of this report. The office’s formal written response is reprinted in its entirety in Appendix B.
What OIG Found
- A new Ambassador-at-Large began leading the Office of Global Women’s Issues in January 2020, after the position had been vacant for 3 years.
- Under the office’s new leadership, stakeholders from the Department of State and other Federal agencies described the Office of Global Women’s Issues as reasserting a lead role on women’s issues and greatly increasing its influence in the interagency process.
- The office’s organizational structure did not align staff roles, priorities, and responsibilities with operational needs, which could limit the office’s effectiveness in its pursuit of foreign policy goals and objectives.
- A lack of clarity on the bureaucratic status of the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Unit generated confusion about the new unit’s status and its relationship with the Office of Global Women’s Issues.
- The office lacked a public diplomacy strategy for external messaging.
- Oversight of foreign assistance management, including documentation of monitoring and timely close out of grants and cooperative agreements, needed improvement.
- The office did not adhere to requirements regarding unliquidated obligations, resulting in $300,000 in FY 2019 funds being returned to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and putting an additional $3.5 million in FY 2020 funds at risk. • During the inspection, leadership from the Office of Global Women’s Issues took action to address an office space ventilation system problem that had generated health concerns among the staff.
Report Terms
Report Recommendations
The Office of Global Women’s Issues, in coordination with the Bureau of Global Talent Management, should conduct an organizational assessment to align its organizational structure with operational needs.
The Office of Global Women’s Issues, in coordination with the Office of the Secretary’s Executive Secretariat’s Executive Office, should follow Department guidelines outlined in the Foreign Affairs Manual to establish the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Unit as a subordinate bureaucratic entity.
The Office of Global Women’s Issues, in coordination with the Bureau of Global Public Affairs, should develop a public diplomacy action plan consistent with its Functional Bureau Strategy and that supports the Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security and the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative.
The Office of Global Women’s Issues, in coordination with the Office of the Secretary’s Executive Secretariat’s Executive Office, should review and staff its public diplomacy operation to comply with Department guidelines.
The Office of Global Women’s Issues should develop and implement standard operating procedures to provide oversight and accountability for maintaining records of its foreign assistance awards, in accordance with the Federal Assistance Directive.
The Office of Global Women’s Issues should close out Federal assistance awards as required by Department and Federal standards.
The Office of Global Women’s Issues, in coordination with the Office of the Secretary’s Executive Secretariat’s Executive Office, should develop and implement a process to identify and reclassify foreign assistance funds before they cancel, in accordance with Department guidance.