“Federal agencies have focused on enhancing data-driven decision making, the federal workforce and the customer experience for years. But now with the recent President’s Management Agenda vision and other executive-level directives, management leaders are beginning to shape next steps in agency priorities, even calling attention to recent work at the Department of Veterans Affairs as a model for one key area.”
“The PMA was released rather early — 11 months into President Biden’s term — followed by a draft of a management-focused ‘learning agenda’ in December…”
“The first-ever learning agenda draft details key research questions intended to drive evidence-building around the PMA priorities.”
“‘The idea with a PMA learning agenda was to identify some government-wide, management-focused research questions that would support those priorities that are set forth in the PMA vision,’ said Michele Johnson Billips, leadership development fellow at the White House. ‘We want to really prioritize those key questions, spur some research, and figure out a way to get those results to inform the decision-making that is to come.'”
“The learning agenda is designed to be complementary to agencies’ work around the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act in 2018, which requires agencies to establish data-driven approaches to policy and governance development and produce their own multi-year learning agendas, said Johnson Billips.”
“’Many agencies were already building and using evidence prior to the Evidence Act,’ added OMB Evidence Team Lead Diana Epstein. ‘But this new law, passed three years ago, has really accelerated and amplified the work. The Evidence Act is centered on the idea that evidence-based policymaking really needs systematic planning and that we also need strong data governance to use federal data assets effectively. And that we also need really coordinated support to share that data effectively while protecting privacy and confidentiality.'”
“The key learning areas that will inform implementation planning include strengthening the federal workforce, improving program delivery and advancing equity, all of which also underpin the priority areas of the PMA…” Read the full article here.
Source: Agency Leaders Tout VA Work Ahead of PMA Priorities – By Katherine MacPhail, February 7, 2022. GovCIO.
