PC 89/6 (b)

Programme Committee

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS TAKEN TO RESPOND TO RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE INDEPENDENT EXTERNAL EVALUATION

1. The Organization is continuing to take steps to respond in a practical way to the recommendations contained in the Report of the Independent External Evaluation of the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS). Main recommendations related to the need to address:

• widespread misconceptions on the SPFS;
• lack of systematic impact assessment;
• insufficient systematic oversight of national SPFS projects;
• weaknesses in constraints analysis;
• insufficient application of participative approaches in SPFS design and implementation;
• limited impact on national policies for food security;
• lack of clarity on scaling-up processes;
• insufficient targeting.

2. Amongst the main actions taken or initiated are the following:

1. The conceptual framework for the Special Programme for Food Security has been revised, following discussion by the SPFS Oversight Panel (October 2002) of the implications of the Independent External Evaluation Report. A short paper entitled The Special Programme for Food Security – Responding to New Challenges was published in March 2003. The paper, which has been thoroughly discussed by the SPFS Technical Support Group (TSG), Oversight Panel and the Project and Programme Review Committee (PPRC), outlines how the Organization can respond to the broadening range of demands on its services made by member countries which embark on national-scale food security programmes aimed at fulfilling their commitment made at the World Food Summit (and reaffirmed at the World Food Summit:five years later) to halve the number of undernourished by 2015. The paper stresses the importance of partnerships between governments, donors and civil society and portrays FAO as playing a subsidiary but catalytic role in such partnerships. A brochure, based on this paper, is under preparation.
   
2. The thinking in the above-mentioned paper is already guiding the Organization’s approach in working with countries initiating new SPFS activities (e.g. Brazil and Sierra Leone) as well as some 20 other countries that have indicated a strong commitment to address food insecurity problems on a national scale. In both cases, strong emphasis is being placed on the institutional and policy dimensions of food security. Many of these countries are financing their food security programmes largely or entirely from domestic resources.
   
3. Measures have been taken to ensure greater consistency between the Organization’s policy assistance work and the new vision of the SPFS. Assistance to countries in updating their food security and agricultural development strategies will be guided by a new concept paper prepared by the Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis Division (ESA). This paper recommends the adoption of a twin-track approach in strategies for achieving higher levels of food security, in which a balance is sought between broadening access of poor people to adequate food and improving the performance of small-scale farmers, in line with the strategies set out in the Anti-Hunger Programme. Training of Policy Assistance Division (TCA) staff in the application of these concepts has been conducted. TCA has also conducted a number of training courses on analysis of socio-economic constraints for its outposted officers and has intensified technical backstopping of the constraints analysis at field level.
   
4. Measures have also been taken to engage regional economic groups more fully in reducing hunger. With the support of FAO, some 20 groups have prepared Regional Food Security Strategies and Programmes.
   
5. An in-house Technical Support Group (TSG) has been established to deepen the engagement of the Organization’s technical staff in the design and implementation of SPFS programmes and projects. The TSG is beginning to play a significant role in providing advice and strategic guidance on various aspects of the SPFS. To further strengthen technical oversight, Technical Support Teams (TST) consisting of FAO subject matter specialists from the ROs, SROs and HQs are being set-up in support of major country-specific SPFS operations.
   
6. Steps are being taken to improve monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the SPFS. An M&E Handbook has been drafted and is currently under field-testing. The Handbook includes modules covering Programme and Project Action Planning; Monitoring and Ongoing Evaluation; Impact Evaluation; and Reporting.
   
7. 
   7. Further meetings have been held with the World Bank and IFAD with the aim of developing more links between their projects and the SPFS. In the field, a concerted approach is being taken by the three agencies as well as AfDB and UNDP, in supporting the Government of Sierra Leone in achieving its goal of eradicating hunger within five years. A joint FAO/World Bank/Inter-American Development Bank reviewed Brazil’s Zero Hunger Project together with the new government’s Transition Team in December 2002.
   
8. The SPFS Management and Coordination Service is being strengthened with additional staff, and this is enabling the more systematic oversight of national programmes and allowing for a progressive shift from a reactive to a proactive approach to project supervision. Its food security officers have carried out over 30 backstopping visits to the programmes under their supervision in the last six months resulting in marked improvement in programme implementation. Project implementation is also expected to benefit from a large training programme, undertaken under the leadership of the Field Operations Division in November/December 2002, with the aim of improving project operational capacities in the FAO Representations.
   
9. The gap between the intended emphasis on the use of participative approaches to improving food security and what is happening on the ground is being narrowed, particularly by developing greater synergy in the field between the SPFS and other FAO programmes which emphasize participative methodologies (especially the work of the Agriculture Department on Integrated Pest Management and Water Management).
   
10. A high-level visit to SPFS projects in Guatemala and Ecuador in October 2002 enabled representatives of donor governments and ministers from developing countries to have a first-hand look at SPFS activities.
    
11. In several countries, SPFS activities are being targeted explicitly on the poorest districts and communities (e.g. Indonesia, Kenya and Mexico).
    
12. A concept note on school gardens within the framework of the SPFS is being finalized. The objective of this paper, also being converted into a field manual, is to assist in the implementation of school garden programmes which combine food production as an input to school feeding with teaching school children about agriculture, nutrition and other related subjects.