INTRODUCTION

1. This document is submitted to the Programme and Finance Committees in accordance with operative paragraph 2 of Conference Resolution 7/2003 on Budgetary Appropriations 2004-05 (the full text of which is reproduced in Annex I).

2. The approved level of US$ 749.1 million in the Appropriations Resolution reflects only in part the exchange rate adjustment (at the budget rate of € 1 = US$ 1.19 set by the Conference) and the provision for anticipated cost increases, which would have been necessary to reach a Zero-Real Growth (ZRG) budget level of US$ 800.3 million. It may be recalled that this approved level of US$ 749.1 million was the result of a compromise, after protracted negotiations among Members during the Conference. The US$ 51.2 million difference to the ZRG level was simply pro-rated across the various budgetary chapters, leading to the macro-level figures in the Resolution. Hence, it was necessary to identify, after due analysis of underlying priorities, net resource reductions totalling US$ 51.2 million from the ZRG scenario presented in the Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) 2004-05 (in percentage terms: 6.4%).

3. Accordingly, the scope of this document is to:

• outline the policy approach, and the measures taken, to identify the required reductions;
• present revised budget allocations by main programme headings;
• explain the impact in terms of substantive activities as well as support services, set against the ZRG proposals in the PWB document; and
• present related staffing changes.

4. For the sake of economy and to avoid unnecessary repetitions, the baseline information contained in the PWB document has been used in the present document to the extent that it was deemed pertinent to facilitate the task of the Committees (e.g. major resource tables and output lists). Material which was not considered essential to the explanation of the budgetary reduction, has been excluded. Examples include the section on regional dimensions and the tentative plans relating to the Priority Areas For Interdisciplinary Action (PAIAs) and the Strategies to Address Cross-Organizational Issues (SACOIs) in the PWB, which remain valid in broad terms, although resource constraints will unavoidably affect capacities to support them. Attention is drawn to the additional information available on FAO’s website at www.fao.org/pwb/, including the distribution of resources by region.

APPROACH

5. Managerial action leading to the present proposals included the following:

• Initiation of implementation of activities was based on “conservative” provisional allotments issued to all units, together with measures to slow down the filling of vacant posts. Firmer parameters to govern implementation of revised work programmes will be issued once the proposed distribution of resources has been considered by the Committees.
• Policy guidance was provided to all Assistant Directors-General (ADGs) and other office heads in terms of indicative overall “reduction targets” from provisions in the ZRG scenario. In line with paragraph 2 of the Appropriations Resolution, these targets already took account of priorities as expressed in Governing Bodies, albeit in a broad manner. These targets foresaw a few selected areas to be accorded absolute protection, including instances of commitment to third parties, while other areas were tentatively assigned to “high” and “medium” protection categories. Latitude was offered to the concerned ADGs and office heads to modulate the impact of these aggregate reduction targets at the level of programme entities and outputs, also bearing in mind the results of the application of criteria for priority setting for substantive work, as established by the Council at its 110^th Session (cf. subsequent explanations).
• Regional and Subregional Offices were actively involved in commenting on the proposals of departments at Headquarters (HQ) about specific priority concerns in respective regions.
• A renewed call was made to all units for the vigorous identification of further efficiency gains. A number of resource reductions reflected in the present document can be attributed to this effort. Additional ideas are still being pursued, but have not yet reached the stage of proven feasibility to allow for potential savings to be taken into account (cf. subsequent section on Efficiency Savings).
• Submissions from all units in response to the above guidance were centrally analyzed and major problems brought to the attention of Senior Management for arbitration and final decision.
• The whole exercise benefited from the system support available in FAO’s Programme Planning, Implementation Reporting and Evaluation System (PIRES). The starting point for submissions was the detailed information of the ZRG scenario, stored in that system. However, it may be noted that some adjustments to the “base” were necessary prior to units formulating revised proposals for 2004-05. These adjustments are reflected in the tabular material throughout the document whenever referring to ZRG provisions (cf. additional explanations below).
• Consultations were ensured as required with staff representative bodies on the impact of proposals on staffing levels and current incumbents.

MEMBERS’ PRIORITIES AND THE APPLICATION OF CRITERIA FOR PRIORITY SETTING (Technical and Economic Activities)

6. The general criteria, endorsed by the Council at its 110^th Session in November 1995 – which are mentioned in Resolution 7/2003 – and as subsequently reviewed in their revised formulation by the Programme Committee at its 89^th Session are as follows:

• conformity to the Organization’s mandate and relevance to the strategic objectives of the Organization as specified in the Strategic Framework;
• expressed priority and usefulness to a broad section of the membership or to special groups identified by the Governing Bodies, e.g. least developed countries, the small island developing states;
• FAO’s comparative advantage in terms of potential for synergies through collaboration with partners, track record, avoidance of duplication with the work of other institutions and internal capacity;
• quality of programme design, including clarity of the causal link between the inputs provided and planned outputs and objectives;
• extent to which the achievement of Objective (Outcome) can be evaluated through the criteria and indicators proposed;
• probable cost-efficiency of the programme entity in mode of operation, including the use made of internal and external partnerships;
• likelihood of achieving desired Objective (Outcome) and substantive and sustainable impact.

7. Already at the stage of formulation of proposals for the MTP 2004-09, FAO units were invited to “score” entities under their responsibility, based on the above criteria.

8. In the context of the present exercise of revision of the PWB 2004-05, the results of the above criteria analysis offered an additional input to the departmental resource reallocation/ reduction process. This analytical input was correlated to the other key input, i.e. the expressions of priority made by Members to specific areas which – as mentioned above – had guided the categorization of activities to determine the overall reduction targets. Charts have been included at Major Programme level to illustrate the degree of correlation between the net reduction percentages effectively applied to specific entities, and the range of percentage cuts which could be expected from the preceding analysis.

ZRG BASE

9. It is recalled that the PWB 2004-05 document included two scenarios at the Real Growth (RG) and Zero Real Growth (ZRG) resource levels. Data in most tables was presented at constant (2002-03) costs, with, where appropriate, the impact of anticipated cost increases identified separately. In addition, although the main tables in the document did not include any exchange rate impact, as the final budget rate was not yet known, paragraphs 250 to 256 provided general information on the budget level and funding under split assessments and at various exchange rates.

10. To facilitate understanding vs. the tabular material in the PWB document, the following summary table shows the ZRG scenario adjusted for cost increases without the exchange rate impact versus the ZRG scenario adjusted for both cost increases and the exchange rate impact at the approved budget rate. It is the latter scenario amounting to US$ 800.3 million that serves as the starting point for the various tables in this document.

11. The “other adjustments” in the column entitled Exchange rate impact at 1.19 and other adjustments refer to special allocations which were made within the cost increases and within the distribution of the exchange rate impact. For example, Chapters 1 and 3 received specific allocations for security costs. Furthermore, in order to apply the exchange rate effect appropriately by Chapter, expenditure between euro and other currencies was analyzed by chapter. As a result, Chapter 6, which has a very high percentage of euro-based expenditure, received a larger share of the exchange rate adjustment than, for example, Chapter 4, which has a low percentage of euro-based expenditure.

OVERALL RESOURCE AVAILABILITY AND SUMMARY OF REVISED PROPOSALS

12. As regards foreseen total resource availability, a table similar to that included in the PWB (paragraph 156) is provided below. This time, it illustrates movements in resources between the ZRG scenario adjusted for cost increases and the exchange rate impact at the approved budget rate, and the revised budget proposal in this document complemented by updated figures where appropriate, as follows.

Overview of Total Resource Availability (adjusted for cost increases at € 1 = US$ 1.19)

13. The table shows slight changes in total Other Income, the most significant one being the increase of US$ 2.8 million in Direct Operating Costs charged to Emergency Projects to reflect the impact of the increase in the rates.

14. The level of voluntary contributions under Financial Regulation 6.7: Trust Fund was revised under Emergency Projects to reflect the updated situation on Iraq – the closure of the Oil-For-Food Programme and the start-up of rehabilitation activities.

SUMMARY OF ESTIMATES BY CHAPTER AND MAJOR PROGRAMME

15. The preceding summary table reflects the differentiated budget reductions under both the Programme of Work and the Appropriation, in order to reach the approved level of US$ 749.1 million in the Appropriations Resolution (from the ZRG scenario in the PWB recosted at the exchange rate of 1 € = US$ 1.19, i.e. totalling US$ 800.3 million).

16. It may be noted that, in developing the revised budget, the underlying basis of the standard costs for staff has not been changed other than to reflect the approved budget rate of exchange. However, the Finance Committee’s attention is drawn to two offsetting factors in the underlying costs.

17. The General Service (GS) language factor for Headquarters staff, estimated at US$ 3.7 million for the biennium, was included in the standard rates for posts in 2004-05, pending the outcome of the appeal launched on behalf of the General Service staff to have the language factor reinstated. As the appeal was dismissed by the ILO Administrative Tribunal in February 2004, the provision within the standard rates for this purpose is no longer required. On the other hand, there is a needed increase in the estimated biennial current service cost of after service benefits, as a result of revised actuarial valuations that were released in early March 2004. As the increased cost which should be included in the standard rates is currently estimated to be at least US$ 3.7 million for the biennium, the standard rates by location and grade used in the revised budget have not been changed. As usual, any variance between budgeted and actual staff costs will be monitored throughout the biennium and reported to the Finance Committee.

18. In the last section of this document entitled Revised Programme Budget, detailed tables show the programme change amounts at various levels of the established PWB programme structure, accompanied by narratives describing the attendant impact on the planned outputs outlined under the ZRG scenario in the PWB document. A brief synthesis is provided below.

19. Under Chapter 1 General Policy and Direction, the figure under Major Programme (MP) 1.1 Governing Bodies takes account of all possible cuts in resources for major meetings. The low or even positive figures for MP 1.2 and 1.3 stem respectively from: i) a substantial increase in resources for evaluation work, and ii) the higher costs for field security arrangements, in line with most recent inter-agency agreements. Under MP 1.2, an organizational change regarding the administrative unit hitherto servicing a number of ODG offices as well as cuts in other units, have partially offset the net increase deliberately made for evaluation activities over the original ZRG allocations.

20. Under Chapter 2, in the first instance, the relatively more favourable situation of MPs 2.3 Fisheries and 2.4 Forestry appears clearly from the table. Beyond that, it may be stressed that the percentage reductions under the component programmes and programme entities within each Major Programme (which are shown throughout the standard tabular material in the section Revised Programme Budget) are not the result of a simple “across-the-board” approach. They result from the conscious application by the concerned department heads of the criteria outlined above and take account of priorities formally expressed in Governing Bodies (e.g. IPPC, Codex, SPFS, etc.). In respect of the latter, it must be observed that these may create unavoidable, and often undesirable bias in favour of only those areas specifically mentioned by Members in interventions during discussions, or formally reflected in approved reports as their collective guidance. It is clear that the Secretariat must respect such guidance which forms the essence of the governance structure of an international organization. Regrettably, some areas such as the GIEWS or statistics, have recently tended to be mentioned less frequently or supported less emphatically than for instance TCP, forestry or fisheries although there is no doubt that they are also much valued by the Membership. This aspect is being addressed in a document on priority setting submitted to the Programme Committee at the same session.

21. Under Chapter 3, three areas stand out among those which had to bear the brunt of reductions: the decentralized policy advisory teams of the TCA division (Programme 3.1.2 of MP 3.1), the Investment Support Programme of the TCI division covering cooperation with Financial Institutions other than the World Bank (Programme 3.2.2 of MP 3.2), and the FAORs (MP 3.4). In the latter case, as explained more fully in the pertinent narrative, the reductions result from a combination of measures, while not affecting the present country coverage of the FAOR Network (but no doubt impacting negatively on the quantity and quality of services provided by these offices). Selective cuts for the various units budgeted under MP 3.5 complete the global picture of resource changes under Chapter 3.

22. As regards Chapter 4, full protection was afforded to the Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP), in full consistency with the directives of Governing Bodies, the expectations from beneficiary countries and the central role of this Programme within the overall field activities carried out by FAO.

23. Under Chapters 5 and 6, it was not possible to shield from at times substantial reductions the activities of the GII division (MP 5.1) despite their intrinsic usefulness in disseminating FAO’s messages, and those of the AF department (MP 5.2 and Chapter 6), despite recommendations of reputed management consultants and the concerns expressed by the External Auditor, especially regarding AFF and AFI divisions.

STAFFING IMPLICATIONS

24. The evolution of posts is given in the following table.

Overview of Post Changes

25. A net total of 232 posts, 89 Professional and 143 GS, need to be abolished in order to meet the required resource reductions from the ZRG scenario. FAO’s staff establishment is to be reduced by 6.6 %, with reductions of 7.2% and 5.9% in the GS category and in the Professional category respectively.

26. FAO units will take advantage to the maximum extent possible of vacant posts, possible retirements of incumbents and redeployment opportunities while taking due account of Members’ expressed priorities. With a budget reduction of this magnitude, however, the abolition of a limited number of encumbered posts will also be necessary.

27. Although most of the post abolitions will be effective as of the beginning of the current biennium, approximately 60 posts are to be abolished following retirement of the incumbents or other foreseen turnover during the 2004-05 biennium.

28. For the remaining post abolitions, the separation or redeployment of the incumbents of approximately 8 Professional and 40 GS posts is necessary. In this connection, redeployment task forces for the Professional and GS categories will be established to resolve these cases. Every effort is being made to keep redeployment and separation costs to a minimum, in part because of reliance on the use of arrears which have already been earmarked for specific purposes. It is expected that the additional cost involved in resolving these cases will be approximately US$ 3.5 million.

29. The extent of decentralization among the RP-funded posts is maintained: 6.8% of posts are to be abolished at HQ and 6.5% in the decentralized locations. Although no international Professional posts in FAOR offices are abolished, reductions are required as regards posts in the GS and National Professional Officers categories, for a total reduction of 43 posts in FAOR offices.

30. The Grade Point Average (GPA) increases slightly for RP Professional posts under the revised budget (from 4.00 to 4.04), as many lower-graded posts which were to be newly established in the ZRG scenario, will need to be cancelled.

31. The ratio of GS vs. Professional posts evolves from 1.29 under the ZRG scenario to 1.27 in the revised budget. The GS establishment decreases by 102 posts in non-FAOR locations; 41% of this reduction occurs in the occupational groups related to general administration and records and documents administration.

32. The major review of the GS category is expected to guide changes to workflows and the roles of support staff. As adequate training and development of staff concerned will be required to obtain the broader range of competencies, the absolute amounts of resources for staff development that were budgeted under the ZRG scenario will be maintained as a minimum for both GS and Professional staff.

33. No major change in organizational structures at the departmental level is anticipated at this juncture. Additional proposals may be considered in the course of the biennium, aiming at better aligning structure to the programme priorities or to generate efficiency gains.

34. Annex II lists all new and abolished posts under the RP, excluding NPO and GS posts in FAO Country Representations.

RISK ASSESSMENT

35. The PWB 2004-05 contained a brief list of the major risks to the achievement of the Programme of Work (C 2003/3, paragraphs 159-168), which was welcomed by the Finance Committee (CL 125/4, paragraph 54). The risk relating to Split Assessment has been addressed through approval of the related proposal by the Conference. The risk to Field Staff Security and Safety, and security in general, has been further responded to by an additional allocation of US$ 3.7 million to Major Programme 1.3 External Coordination and Liaison, and Chapter 6 Common Services. Risks relating to Systems Development Management, Inter-disciplinary Management Challenges, and Change in the Demand and Flexibility to Meet it, remain as described.

36. The identified risk that the Level of Funding sought in the originally proposed PWB would not be agreed by Members has, in fact, resulted in this revised Programme of Work. In presenting this proposal, the Secretariat points out some additional areas of risk to implementation arising from the reduced budget level:

37. Streamlining - the likelihood that cost-saving measures to streamline services will be approved at the appropriate level (e.g. the Governing Bodies or senior management as applicable). Certain cost savings expected from proposals have been incorporated in the budget in anticipation that they will be approved and implemented during the biennium, including a reduction in the duration of and documentation for Governing Body sessions, streamlined publications distribution, and consolidated registry services. If the required actions do not materialize in a timely manner, the savings not generated will have to be matched by reducing work in other areas.

38. Support and Common Services – the possibility of less than acceptable levels of service. As explained under Major Programme 5.2 and Chapter 6, there is a heightened risk to internal financial control and management, information system security, and basic infrastructure maintenance, although the budget provides for the minimal level of assurance in these areas.

39. Field Programme Approvals and Delivery – the impact of reduced technical and operational capacity on the rate of approval and quality of delivery of the field programme. Reduced allocations to decentralized policy assistance units and technical support services put at risk the capacity of the Organization to develop and maintain a field programme that adequately responds to Members’ needs and requests. A reduced field programme would also put at risk the achievement of planned outcomes in the results-based technical programmes.

40. Income targets – the chance that higher standard staff costs will make some technical support services (TSS) non-competitive. Due to the strength of the euro, Professional staff standard costs have significantly increased over the previous biennium. Technical units have budgeted a portion of their Professional staff time to be charged out for support services. In view of the higher costs, project managers and other clients might seek alternative, less costly sources of technical support. This would also put at risk the essential contribution of TSS work to ensuring synergies between normative and operational work. A reduction in income would effectively reduce the total resources available to implement the programme of work in technical units.

EFFICIENCY SAVINGS

41. As reported in earlier documents, FAO’s efforts at improving efficiency have so far focused on the more obvious input cost related savings. Beyond these, there is a need to look at cost reductions which might be generated through changes in structure and/or process. Inevitably, these take time to generate and hence this section is mostly of a “work-in-progress” nature.

Savings proposed in the current revised PWB 2004-05

• Substantial reduction in the Administrative Unit in the Office of the Director-General (ODGX)
  The Management Support Service in AF had arrived at the point where it was in a position to absorb most of the transaction processing undertaken by ODGX without additional staff. This will allow the application of the functioning model used in other HQ departments, wherein budget holders take direct responsibility for initiating and approving transactions. Four posts can be abolished at a saving of US$ 535,000 per biennium.
• Incentive-driven chargeback for publications distribution
  Advances in technology will allow individual publication mailing and packing costs to be charged back to the concerned units, based upon bar-coding techniques. It is expected that by transferring the budget for complimentary copy distribution lists to these units and then charging for actual costs, much greater attention will be given to the need to minimize distribution costs. This would allow up to US$ 700,000 per biennium although only part of this amount has been included in the present proposals, pending submission and approval by the Corporate Communications Committee.
• Streamlining Governance
  The proposals assume savings of US$ 1.3 million related to the following initiatives:

• The duration of the Conference could be reduced from 9 to 7 days.
• Conference working hours would not go beyond 18.00 hours, in order to avoid evening sessions.
• There would be fewer messengers available during Governing Body meetings.
• The total volume of documentation for all Governing Body meetings could be reduced by 10% in terms of word length.

A document on these and other proposals will be prepared for the Joint Meeting of the Programme and Finance Committees at their September Session, before eventual consideration by the Council in November 2004.

• Restructuring of Registries and consolidation at departmental level
  The Digital Records Management System (DRMS) has reached the stage of maturity where it can be reasonably assumed that certain improvements can be made to the physical structure of registries – in particular, through their consolidation at departmental level. The proposals include the benefits of the pilot implementation of this approach in the ES department as well as reductions in related Registry functions across the Organization resulting in net savings of US$ 537,000 per biennium). If this is successful, further savings can be expected to result from the progressive implementation of the approach in other departments in future biennia.
• MSS post reductions
  It will be possible to reduce the number of posts in the MSS because of improved practices and procedures. Savings being proposed will total close to US$ 1.0 million, although not all of this amount can be attributed to increased efficiency, as there may also be some reduction in service or transfer of work to other units.
• Workflow improvements
  Many posts are proposed to be eliminated for a variety of reasons such as further improvements in productivity, changes in programme requirements, outsourcing, etc. As such it is difficult, without considerable detailed analysis, to clearly attribute specific savings to efficiency per se. However, it is estimated that efficiency savings could be as much as US$ 3 million per biennium.

Tentative areas for potential efficiency savings under review

42. The following tentative areas stem from a renewed search for ideas on how to generate more efficiency savings, although undoubtedly not all of them will come to fruition. Others will be dependent upon the availability of resources to cover pre-requisite on-time investment for their realization.

• Cost of inputs

• Redirecting procurement action to sources outside the euro zone.
• Implementation of a lump-sum arrangement for Removal of Household Goods – this has been already been implemented in several UN system organizations and needs to be investigated for FAO.
• Travel Arrangements – although a major source of savings in the 1996-97 reduction exercise, it is now worth revisiting this area through two avenues: the first will be a reissue of the tender; and the second through a coordinated effort with other UN system bodies to benefit from the UN’s overall bargaining power with airlines.
• Elimination or reduction of handling and storage costs – increased use of print on demand could greatly reduce the need to store excessive numbers of publications.

• Structural changes

• Outsourcing mainframe services to ICC – outsourcing so far has been implemented on a no loss/no gain basis but can, subject to some investment, now lead to cost savings with the transfer of FAO systems to a larger UN shared facility.
• Outsourcing and/or relocation of administrative/financial transaction processing – considerable cost saving can theoretically be made by outsourcing IT and administrative work to developing countries or, alternatively, by building capacity in a suitable Regional Office, where the cost of GS posts is much lower than at HQ.
• Information Technology Officer posts were established in each HQ department as part of the 1996-97 revised budget in an effort to accelerate the application of IT solutions at the departmental level. Ten years later, technological sophistication throughout the Organization has increased such that the need for these posts is less compelling – several departments have already eliminated them and the need for them in the remaining departments and Regional Offices will be reviewed.

• Process changes

• Human Resources Management System (HRMS) – this major development which includes integration and interfacing many individual systems, is bound to have implications for efficiency throughout the house. The benefits cannot yet be quantified and are unlikely to be realized before 2006 and following years.
• Streamlining of Regional and Country level administrative activities – following the extensive internal review of the MSU and Regional Operations Branch in RAP, several actions, including changes in delegations and decentralization of travel processing, should result in savings which should eventually flow to other regions.
• Information Systems Governance – the KPMG report on staffing in the AFI division identified governance to be insufficient, such that multiple IT platforms are maintained simultaneously for much longer than should be necessary (N.B. the introduction of capital budgeting is also expected to partially address the same problem). The staffing levels of AFI were expected to be eventually reduced as a result of improved IT governance. Under the ZRG scenario, additional staff had been proposed to strengthen the governance function. Unfortunately, these new posts have had to be cancelled in the revised budget thus greatly slowing progress in this area.
• Streamlining business processes in the MSS – although progress has been made, a working group is being established to examine the possibilities of further improvement.

• Governance

• Reduction of maximum length of meetings documentation – e.g. the possibility of reducing the maximum length of meetings documentation from 6,400 words to 5,000 (a 22% reduction).
• Application of UN Secretariat system-wide best practices for Governing Body Meetings – it implies reviewing UN experience and determining applicability to FAO environment.
• Elimination of verbatim records – i.e. reviewing the implications of limiting verbatim records to be replaced by indexed digital recordings available on CDs.

• Other

• Improved management of Miscellaneous Income and Reserve Funds through enhanced management of FAO’s investments.
• Ways and means of improving support cost recovery both for Technical Support Services (TSS) and for Administrative and Operational Support Services (AOS).

43. The Secretariat will pursue the search for such savings with vigour and will report back to the Finance Committee in due course. In general, however, Finance Committee support is sought for a framework of adequate incentives in the generation of efficiency savings: that is, for the units generating savings to benefit from their effort in some appropriate manner, which may need to vary from case to case. Without such incentives, it is difficult to motivate managers to commit valuable time and resources to such efforts.

ACTION FOR THE PROGRAMME AND FINANCE COMMITTEES

44. The Committees are invited to review the Director-General’s proposal for a revised version of the Approved Budget in line with their respective areas of competence so as to enlighten the Joint Meeting.

45. The Joint Meeting is requested to endorse the revised budget.

46. The Finance Committee is requested to approve the following budgetary transfers between Chapters as per Financial Rule 4.5b).

REVISED PROGRAMME BUDGET

47. This part of the document derives baseline information from the section with the same title in the PWB 2004-05 document (C 2003/3). The narratives below do not repeat the descriptive material about the scope of activities and the major substantive thrusts, or the objectives of individual entities, which remain generally valid. They focus essentially on the eventual impact of resource reductions set against the ZRG scenario in C 2003/3. For technical and economic programmes, ZRG output lists have been reproduced, with changes indicated by specific “markers”. Thus, affected outputs appear as “eliminated” (struck out in the text) or reduced (those with the sign). In very limited cases, the resource reallocation process has resulted in “new” outputs to be formulated. Charts at the Major Programme level address the application of criteria for priority setting. A revised list of planned sessions is provided in Annex 3.

48. It may be noted that against an original population of over 1,200 outputs, 9% of them have been eliminated, about 29% have been reduced, while only a few new outputs have been included.