1. The 2005 Programme Evaluation Report is presented in a new format as agreed by the Programme Committee at its Ninety-fourth Session in September 2005. It was found that the previous format resulted in replication of detail from reports already discussed in the Governing Bodies (Programme Committee and Council) and available to members on the FAO website1. If this model had been maintained, this PER would, for example, have included extended summaries of the Evaluation of FAO’s Decentralization and of the Independent Review of TCP, two documents widely discussed by members. On the other hand, the institutional arrangements for evaluation in FAO, its coverage and the methods used, have not been summarised in any Governing Body document, nor are they available in a comprehensive and easily readable form to other stakeholders. Similarly, there is no information on the total evaluation output of the Organization, including that undertaken for extra-budgetary programmes, and on future evaluation plans agreed by the Programme Committee.
2. This Programme Evaluation Report thus has a new orientation, intended to be both easier to read and more informative at the level of overall governance and management decision making. The report consists of three main sections:
3. The Independent External Evaluation of FAO (IEE), planned to take place in 2006-07, is addressed in the Report to the Council of the Inter-Sessional Working Group (ISWG) for the IEE3. This report provides the proposed terms of reference for the evaluation which, if approved by the Council, is to be undertaken by a fully independent external team.
1 Available on the FAO website at both the evaluation site and the Programme Committee and Council sites.
2 http://www.fao.org/pbe/pbee/
3 CL 129/10 web reference http://www.fao.org/pbe/pbee/en/219/index.html