III. Goals, Objectives, Targets, andPerformance Measures of Effectiveness
Monitoring the Strategy's Effectiveness
Strategy links ends, ways, and means. Progress toward a strategy's goals and objectives must be constantly assessed in order to gauge success or failure and adjust the strategy accordingly. ONDCP has therefore, in conjunction with national drug-control program agencies, Congress, state and local officials, and private citizens with experience in demand and supply reduction, developed a Performance Measurement of Effectiveness (PME) system to orient drug-control efforts. This system (1) assesses the effectiveness of the Strategy, (2) provides information to the entire drug-control community on what needs to be done to refine policy and programmatic directions, and (3) assists with drug program budget management.
The PME system identifies ninety-seven performance targets, of which twelve (outlined in the preceding section) indicate the impact of national drug-control activities on the Strategy's five overarching goals. The other eighty-five measure progress toward the Strategy's thirty-one supporting objectives. These targets represent desired end-states for the years 2002 and 2007. They are "stretch targets" in that they require progress above that attained in previous years. This assessment is in keeping with recommendations of the National Academy of Public Administration, the General Accounting Office, and other organizations advocating good government practices. The overall performance system is described in detail in a companionvolume to this Strategy -- Performance Measures of Effectiveness: Implementation and Findings.
Progress toward each goal and objective will be gauged using existing research and new surveys. MTF and the NHSDA, for example, both estimate risk perception, rates of current use, age of initiation, and life-time use for alcohol, tobacco, and most illegal drugs. The ADAM system and DAWN indirectly measure the consequences of drug abuse. The State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) provides country-by-country assessments of initiatives and accomplishments. INCSR reviews statistics on drug cultivation, eradication, production, trafficking patterns, and seizure along with law-enforcement efforts including arrests and the destruction of drug laboratories. The Subcommittee on Data, Research, and Interagency Coordination will consider additional instruments and measurement processes required to address the demographics of chronic users, domestic cannabis cultivation, drug availability, and data shortfalls related to drug policy.
The relationship between goals, objectives, targets, and federal and non-federal resources will be reassessed and refined continuously to reflect the dynamic drug-abuse problem and progress in reducing its scope. Non-achievement of a target over a period of time will trigger an in-depth interagency program evaluation to identify problems and recommend corrective action. Such measures might include a range of options such as modifying programs, reinforcing them with more resources, or eliminating them altogether. This ongoing review process will also allow reinforcement of successful programs.
This PME system complies with congressional guidance that the Strategy contain measurable objectives and specific targets to accomplish long-term quantifiable goals. Indeed, the ONDCP Reauthorization Act of 1998 strongly endorses this performance measurement system. In accordance with the Act, this system establishes clear outcomes for reducing drug use nationwide during the next five years and is linked to all federal drug control program agencies and budgets. These targets and the accompanying performance measurement system will allow congressional appropriations and authorizing committees to restructure appropriations in support of the Strategy to ensure that resources necessary to attain ambitious long-term performance goals are provided.
Implementation of the PME system began within the federal government in 1998 with the publication of the first PME report. Federal drug-control program agencies formed five steering groups and twenty-one working groups. The former consist of high-level agency representatives who provide guidance for the PME development and implementation processes. The latter assessed the adequacy of data sources to support the eighty-five performance targets of the PME system. The working groups determined that thirty-seven performance targets are milestones and do not require quantitative databases. Of the forty-eight performance targets requiring quantitative databases, eight can be measured with existing databases, twenty require either modifications to existing databases or development of new databases, and twenty can be measured with administrative records maintained by the agency implementing the associated program. ONDCP, through its data subcommittee, is working with data managers from all federal agencies with a drug control function to develop or modify the required data systems.
These interagency "expert" groups have also been working on logic models to determine optimum ways of achieving these targets. These logic models seek to identify factors (or independent variables) that influence the desired target (or dependent variable). This exercise enables practitioners to identify external factors over which they do not have control. Eventually, this process should result in drug control agencies forging partnerships with non-drug-control agencies that influence extraneous factors. Based on the conceptual framework of the logic models, the working groups identified draft action plans for each target. These plans outline what needs to be done between now and 2007 in order to meet each target. In 1999 ONDCP will incorporate state, local, and private agency input into this process in order to develop intergovernmental logic models and action plans to focus programs and resources on PME targets nationally. The working groups have also projected preliminary annual targets for those numerical PME targets that are supported by established databases. In most cases linear glide paths were selected to depict projected progress. As logic models are refined, more appropriate annual targets will be adopted.
The process of integrating PME system targets and programs is underway. The Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Summary which is a second companion volume to the 1999 Strategy, associates for the first time federal drug-control budget requests with performance targets. This linkage will be strengthened in the FY 2001 budget submission. As the logic models and action plans are refined in 1999 with state, local, and private-sector input, action plans will be reflected in ONDCP's budget guidance to federal drug-control program agencies. However, the budgetary implications of the PME system will not be completely understood until annual targets and supporting action plans are finalized by each agency. Consequently, targets and budget submissions will be iteratively refined as agencies base budget requests on priorities for achieving performance targets.
The Administration is committed to examining and perfecting the PME system goals and targets -- through a comprehensive review involving federal agencies, state and local government, foreign countries,international organizations, and the private sector. The federal government alone cannot attain the ambitious goals of reducing illegal drug demand and supply by 50 percent and the consequences of drug abuse by 25 percent by 2007 simply by altering its own spending and programs any more than the United States can unilaterally reduce cocaine production in South America or opium cultivation in Asia. A coalition of government, the private sector, communities, and individuals -- a truly national effort -- must embrace such a commitment for it to be successful.
