OIG’s Evaluation of USAID’s Compliance with Executive Order 13950

Evaluation
Report Number
E-000-21-001-M

On September 22, 2020, the President signed Executive Order 13950, “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.” The order required Federal agencies to cease all workplace trainings that inculcate “divisive concepts” in diversity and inclusion trainings for agency employees, contractors, and grantees. In addition, the order required agencies to identify diversity and inclusion trainings that may contain such content and to submit the training materials to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for review and approval prior to being used. Further, section 6(c)(ii) of the order required each agency to request its Inspector General to review and assess agency compliance with the order’s requirements and submit a report to OMB by the end of the calendar year and annually every year thereafter. Our objective was to describe key actions that USAID has taken in implementing the requirements of Executive Order 13950. Following the issuance of Executive Order 13950, USAID took a number of actions to implement key parts of the order. The Agency paused all diversity and inclusion trainings on September 30 and appointed the Chief of Staff of USAID’s Bureau for Global Health to support the implementation of the order. Further, USAID announced the formation of an executive committee and working group tasked with implementing provisions of the order. A key output of the working group was coordinating a review of Agency diversity and inclusion training among USAID operating units and reporting this information to OPM on November 12, 2020. OPM responded to the Agency’s submission on December 9, 2020. Executive Order 13950 also requires agencies to incorporate the requirements into contracts and sub-contracts. In November 2020, USAID reported to OIG that officials from the offices of General Counsel and Acquisition and Assistance were researching the Agency’s authority to enforce aspects of the order on contractors.

Recommendations