Statement of Intent 1 July 2003 - 30 June 2004
Part 1: Strategic framework (continued)
High-level and intermediate outcomes
The Ministry of Defence has developed a high-level security outcome that guides our work in every area.
Our high-level outcome is: a secure New Zealand that contributes to international security.
A secure New Zealand is a critical precondition to economic growth and social well-being. For the people who live in New Zealand to be able to achieve their aspirations they need to live free from physical threat from external parties. New Zealand's security is directly affected by the security of other countries, and we must, therefore, contribute to international security also. Our high-level outcome contains both these elements: New Zealand's security and our contribution to international security.
We have also developed an intermediate outcome that will allow us to measure our progress towards our high-level security outcome.
Our intermediate outcome is: Ministry of Defence advice and action are credible and respected, and the Government's defence policy objectives are achieved.
Our intermediate outcome reflects the fact that the Ministry achieves the high-level outcome through the actions of others. For example, military deployments are undertaken by the New Zealand Defence Force, not the Ministry. So our advice and action must be credible. Other agencies must be prepared to act on it. We need to operate through persuasion and influence. Our credibility is critical to our effectiveness. The Ministry cannot work in a vacuum to respond to security challenges. We work closely with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (specifically the External Assessments Bureau and the Domestic and External Security Secretariat), Government Communications Security Bureau, New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, Police and others.
But to be credible and respected is not enough - we are focussed on contributing to the specific outcomes sought by the Government, currently expressed in the defence policy objectives.
The Government's defence policy objectives are set out in the Government's Defence Policy Framework, issued in June 2000. The Framework sets out five objectives for New Zealand's defence policy:
- to defend New Zealand and to protect its people, land, territorial waters, Exclusive Economic Zone, natural resources and critical infrastructure
- to meet New Zealand's alliance commitments to Australia by maintaining a close defence partnership in pursuit of common security interests
- to assist in the maintenance of security in the South Pacific and to provide assistance to New Zealand's Pacific neighbours
- to play an appropriate role in the maintenance of security in the Asia-Pacific region, including meeting New Zealand's obligations as a member of the Five Power Defence Arrangements
- to contribute to global security and peacekeeping through participation in the full range of United Nations and other appropriate multilateral peace support and humanitarian relief operations.
We have created a number of interventions that will enable us to achieve our intermediate outcome. These interventions provide the link between our output classes and our outcomes. They are set out below.
- In consultation with the New Zealand Defence Force, the Ministry will:
- incorporate changes in the strategic environment, and their implications, into the development of New Zealand's defence and security policy;
- meet defence policy objectives through the implementation of the Long-term Development Plan;
- maintain effective bilateral and multilateral defence relationships.
- The Ministry will acquire significant military equipment in a transparent and fair way, and in accordance with government procurement policies. 'Significant' means equipment that will usually cost more than NZ$7 million. The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing competitive local (Australian, New Zealand, and Singaporean) industries with the opportunity to support defence, and to ensuring that the Government and the taxpayer get value for money.
- The Ministry's Evaluation Division will audit and assess the New Zealand Defence Force and the Ministry of Defence.
The audits and assessments will be independent, strategic, and risk-based. The Defence Evaluation Board will assess the Evaluation Division's advice and actions, and ensure that the Ministry of Defence and the New Zealand Defence Force make the recommended improvements in performance and accountability. It is through these improvements in performance and accountability that the Evaluation Division contributes to the achievement of the Ministry's outcomes.
We will seek the views of the Minister of Defence, the New Zealand Defence Force, and other related government agencies to measure and assess our progress towards our intermediate outcome. We will review the way we measure our progress.
Figure 1 shows how our output classes, interventions, and intermediate and high-level outcomes work together.
It shows that our interventions can achieve the intermediate outcome because our policy advice, acquisition actions, and audits and assessments contribute directly to the intermediate outcome. The intermediate outcome will impact on the major outcome.
We will test the outcomes and interventions we have described and in particular the intervention logic we have identified. We will gather baseline information about the effectiveness of our policy advice in order to measure progress over time.
Figure 1: Outcome Framework
