40. Evaluations for consideration by the Governing Bodies: During the 2004-05 biennium, the following major evaluations were presented to the Governing Bodies through the Programme Committee. For each of these evaluations the full report is available on the FAO evaluation website14, together with the management response to the evaluation and the reactions of the Programme Committee.
41. Evaluations of cross-organizational strategies, as defined in the FAO Strategic Framework, and of means of action and institutional arrangements of the Organization, have covered:
42. Programme evaluations providing an integrated analysis of the normative and technical cooperation work (with separate internal annexes on TCP projects covered and recently, also on the individual programme entities):
43. Evaluations examining the totality of FAO’s work in particular countries were summarised for the Governing Bodies in “Synthesis of Findings of Two Internal Evaluations of Work at Country Level: FAO Response to the Continuing Crisis in Southern Africa and FAO Post-Conflict Programme in Afghanistan”15.
44. Auto-evaluation: The auto-evaluations completed in 2004 were summarised and presented to the Programme Committee for information16. In future, summary information on auto evaluation will be provided as part of the Programme Implementation Report.
45. Global evaluations of individual trust fund programmes with FAO: For other evaluations conducted in the Organization, summaries are made available on the FAO evaluation website and the reports are provided in full for the funders, beneficiary countries and for FAO’s own use. They are also selectively made available to other interested parties on request. Global evaluations of trust funded programmes have been varied. During the biennium, evaluations were undertaken of:
46. Evaluations in cooperation with other agencies: High priority is given to UN system evaluation and the Evaluation Service is contributing to a study of the potential for collaborative and joint evaluation at country level. For the evaluation of the Tsunami response, the Service is working with a number of agencies17 on the evaluation of needs assessment and targeting of responses. Also for the Tsunami emergency, the Service is undertaking a real-time evaluation of FAO’s response, including missions by specialist teams and beneficiary assessments. This evaluation is being coordinated with that of other agencies through ALNAP18.
47. A table summarising the 29 project evaluations undertaken by independent missions during 2004-05 is provided as Annex 1.
48. The Evaluation Service is charged with facilitating the Independent External Evaluation of FAO (which at the time of writing was to be submitted for approval to the Hundred and Twenty-ninth Session of the Council). If requested by the independent evaluation core team, it is envisaged that staff will be assigned to provide the needed facilitation in each of the areas covered, i.e.: the technical work of FAO; management and organization; governance; and FAO’s role in the multilateral system. The Service will also provide the secretariat to the Council Committee overseeing the evaluation. This may have some impact on the remaining programme of work which includes:
1. Evaluation of FAO’s Decentralization
2. Independent Review of the Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP)
3. Evaluation of the Cross-organizational Strategy on Communicating FAO's Messages
4. Evaluation of the Cross-organizational Strategy on Broadening Partnerships and Alliances
5. Evaluation of FAO Activities in Crop Production
6. Evaluation of FAO Activities in Fisheries Exploitation and Utilization
7. Evaluation of Livestock Production, Policy and Information
14 http://www.fao.org/pbe/pbee/en/index.html
15 http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/008/j2953e.htm
16 http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/009/J4913e/j4913e00.htm
17 Multi-donor funded and managed jointly by FAO, Swiss Cooperation and WHO.
18 Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action.