Ongoing Major Evaluations

The Programme Committee at its session in March 2011, received the Evaluation of FAO’s Regional Office for the Near East. The Committee recommended that such evaluations should be conducted in other regions. Thus, FAO Office of Evaluation in 2012 carried out and completed a similar evaluation for Europe and Central Asia, and started the same exercise for Africa. The two other regions, Asia and Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean, have started in early 2013, to be completed by early 2014. The Organization’s new impetus towards decentralization to better respond to Member Countries’ needs poses particular challenges to FAO’s current delivery model in the region and sub-regions. These evaluations aim at providing FAO Management and Member Countries with an evidence-based independent assessment of the progress made by the Organization in implementing the corporate decisions to decentralize its functions and roles to the region. They will focus on the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the decentralization process and will formulate recommendations to improve the corporate performance and function in the regions, as appropriate. The evaluations will include all work by FAO and all actions taken to implement the decentralization policy and process in the regions since 2004. The Evaluations are expected to be finalized by January 2014 and discussed by the Programme Committee at its session in May 2014.

In September 2012, prompted by both FAO management and resource partners, OED launched the evaluation of FAO’s interventions in Somalia since 2007. It will examine the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and connectedness of FAO’s interventions in Somalia, including in particular FAO’s role in coordinating food security responses and efforts on capacity development. Specific attention will also be paid to the country’s original strategic planning frameworks and tools, including the new FAO, WFP and UNICEF joint Resilience Strategy 2012-2020. A multidisciplinary team, supported and integrated by OED, will carry out the evaluation in the period November- December 2012. The final report is expected for March 2013. For further details please contact the evaluation manager: aurelie.larmoyer@fao.org.

Over the past two decades, FAO has been undertaking a progressive process of decentralization aimed at strengthening the capacity of FAO’s decentralized structures in order to maximize the Organization’s impact at country level. At its 108th session in October 2011, the FAO Programme Committee gave a high priority to the evaluation of FAO’s decentralized structures with a particular emphasis on how the work of the regional and sub-regional structures is integrated within FAO and with the activities of other UN organizations. As the third in the series, FAO’s Office of Evaluation (OED) is undertaking an evaluation of FAO’s decentralized structures in Africa for presentation to the Programme Committee in October 2013. The main purpose of the evaluation is to provide FAO’s governing bodies and the Secretariat with an independent and evidence-based assessment of the capacity of decentralized offices at regional and sub-regional levels to efficiently and effectively provide services to member states, through an analysis of the role, functions and work undertaken by these decentralized structures. This includes an assessment of the capacity of the decentralized structures to assume responsibilities and perform functions and will necessarily involve looking at upstream (HQ/SSC) and downstream (Country Office) levels as they also serve as essential links for the provision of services to member countries.

In January 2012, at the request of the Programme Committee, OED launched the evaluation of FAO’s work and role in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). The evaluation covers the period 2006-2011 and the work by all units identified within FAO that are responsible for contributing to DRR; it also considers ongoing and planned commitments in order to provide forward looking recommendations. The evaluation examines the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of FAO’s role and work in DRR in both Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia. The evaluation pays specific attention to both the field programme in selected countries and to the production and utilization of FAO’s normative work in DRR. The evaluation is carried out by an independent multidisciplinary team led by Fundación DARA and supported and integrated by OED. The final report is expected for March 2013. For further details please contact the evaluation manager Luc.Dubreuil@fao.org.

In 2010, OED carried out a first evaluation of a Regional and Sub-regional Office in the Near East and North Africa region. The Programme Committee, after reviewing it at its session in March 2011, recommended that such evaluations should be conducted in other regions. The FAO Europe and Central Asia region includes 53 Member Countries and one Member Organization. While there is only one fully-fledged FAO Representation in the region, over the past eight years FAO provided direct to 30Member States in the form of national projects. The Organization’s new impetus towards decentralization to better respond to Member Countries’ needs poses particular challenges to FAO’s current delivery model in the region and sub-regions. In light of the above, in October 2011 the Programme Committee considered that the Evaluation of Regional and Sub-regional Offices for Europe and Central Asia should receive high priority in 2012. The Evaluation aims at providing FAO Management and Member Countries with an evidence-based independent assessment of the progress made by the Organization in implementing the corporate decisions to decentralize its functions and roles to the region. It will focus on the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the decentralization process and will formulate recommendations to improve the corporate performance and function in the region, as appropriate. The Evaluation will include all work by FAO and all actions taken to implement the decentralization policy and process in the region since 2004. The Evaluation is planned to be completed by December 2012 and discussed by the Programme Committee at its session in March 2013.

The Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) was unanimously adopted by FAO Member States on 31 October 1995. The Code and its related International Plans of Action (IPOA) are voluntary instruments widely recognised by governments and NGOs as the global standard for the sustainable development and management of fisheries and aquaculture, and as a basis for reviewing and adopting national fisheries legislation. In adopting the CCRF, FAO members also requested an inter-regional programme of external assistance to upgrade capabilities of developing countries to facilitate compliance with their obligations under the Code. One of FAO’s Impact Focus Areas for 2010-2014 supports the promotion of responsible fisheries and aquaculture sector management at the global, regional and national levels. The work includes mostly capacity development activities in support of the implementation of the CCRF, Compliance Agreement and associated International Plans of Actions. FAO’s Global Partnership for Responsible Fisheries (FishCode) has also received substantial financial support from donors in recent years, which has not been independently evaluated. In this context, FAO Programme Committee in April 2010 selected FAO’s support to the implementation of the CCRF as one of the priority areas for evaluation in 2011. This evaluation will assess the work by FAO in the period 2004-2011, funded through Regular Budget and Voluntary resources, in support of its Member Countries’ efforts to implement and comply with the broad range of guidance contained in the Code. The Evaluation is expected to be finalized by May 2012 and discussed at the Programme Committee at its session in October 2012.

In recent years, the role of forests in global responses to the challenges of sustainable natural resources management, bio-energy development and natural disaster mitigation has been given considerable attention by the international community. As part of the Independent External Evaluation of FAO, an assessment of FAO’s forestry programme was undertaken, covering the period up to 2006. On the basis of this work, a number of broad recommendations related to FAO’s strategic stance in Forestry were put forth. The IEE recommended the conduct of “a strategic review of its work in Forestry […] with a focus on desired outcomes to be achieved as the result of FAO’s work in Forestry”, which resulted in the new FAO Strategy for Forests and Forestry, published in 2010, to guide actions for the following 10 years. The IEE further noted in fact that “No external evaluation of this work has taken place in recent years”. The Forestry Department has also received substantial financial support from donors in recent years which have not been the subject of evaluation. For these reasons and the international attention on the role of forestry on global issues, the Programme Committee gave priority to the conduct of a comprehensive evaluation of FAO’s role and work in forestry. The evaluation of FAO’s role and work in forestry will aim at providing evidence-based analysis of recent and current approach’s strengths and shortcomings, including the appropriateness of the strategies underpinning the work of FAO in forestry, achievements with regard to objectives, including issues such as partnerships and linkages with other sectors, and considerations of sustainability.

Evaluation générale du programme de coopération de la FAO dans le domaine du développement et de la réponse aux urgences sur la période 2005-2010.

Secure tenure and access to land and other natural resources has been a long-standing area of FAO concern. Much of FAO’s work has focused on analysis, policy, legislation and practical approaches related to land reform, land consolidation, land registration and cadastre, leasing, customary and communal land tenure, rural property taxation and the administration of public sector land. More recently, the scope of work has broadened to include governance (including corruption), gender, indigenous groups and minorities, the environment, participation of civil society and the decentralization of public services. Given FAO’s Vision, Goals and Objectives, the evaluation is expected to advise on priorities that should be pursued by FAO in this area, taking into account strong and weak points of work carried out by FAO in recent years and activities of other actors in this area. It will assess the implications in terms of how Tenure, Rights and Access work should be focused and organized within the FAO, identify the constraints that need to be addressed and, if changes are desirable, how these be addressed. The evaluation report is expected to be finalized by September 2011 and the report and management response will be reviewed by the Programme Committee at its May 2012 session.

Policy is one of the eight “Core Functions” that FAO has identified as cross-cutting approaches that underpin its work in achieving its Strategic Objectives. The main purpose of the evaluation is to assess the capacity, role and comparative advantage of FAO in providing policy support to the global community in the areas of its mandate. It will evaluate the extent to which FAO has addressed this Core Function (and policy-related elements in the other Core Functions) in its work at global, regional and national levels, and consider the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact of FAO’s policy work in the period since the last evaluation of FAO’s Policy Assistance work in 2001. It will also assess FAO’s internal structure and mechanisms for carrying out its policy functions and its mechanisms for communicating policy outputs both internally and externally. The evaluation is expected to be finalized in August 2011 and the report and management response will be reviewed by the Programme Committee at its May 2012 session.

While nutrition is part of FAO’s mandate, its place and role in the Organization’s overall activities have varied and evolved, reflecting the priority given to this area of work. In recent years, the resources for nutrition have declined. Nonetheless, an intensive programme of work has been maintained and thin resources spread over a broad range of activities. The Independent External Evaluation of FAO did examine the work of FAO in nutrition and made recommendations on priorities of work, including identification of areas that due to the engagement of other international actors should be of lesser priority. However, the IEE with its broad overall mandate did not study in great detail FAO’s nutrition-related work. With the exception of its work on the Codex Alimentarius and food safety, the work of FAO in nutrition has not yet been evaluated thoroughly. With today’s renewed fight against hunger and the prominence of nutrition issues in the international agenda, it is opportune to better understand and clarify FAO’s role and work in nutrition. The evaluation report is expected to be finalized in June 2011 and the report and management response will be reviewed by the Programme Committee at its October 2011 session.

In 1989, for the first time FAO formally integrated in its work the recommendations emanating from international conferences for the advancement of women, including the 1985 Nairobi-Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women. This was achieved by preparing the first of four successive plans of action: the first two plans aimed at the ‘Integration of Women in Development’, while the latter two re-focused their attention on Gender and Development, following the mandate of the Beijing Platform for Action to ensure that a gender perspective is reflected in all policies and programmes. In 2009, as a follow up to one of the recommendations by the Independent External Evaluation of FAO, FAO’s new Strategic Framework included Strategic Objective K, ‘Gender equity in access to resources, goods, services and decision-making in the rural areas’. The evaluation is complementary to a Gender Audit carried out in 2010. The Audit focused on the institutional analysis of gender mainstreaming in FAO at the launch of the new Strategic Framework with SO K, including staffing, procedures for gender mainstreaming and organizational capacity for gender analysis and mainstreaming. The Evaluation focuses on the past performance of FAO in mainstreaming gender in its technical work (field and normative), including the Gender Plan of Action and work carried out by the Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division. The evaluation is expected to be finalized in May 2011 and the report and management response will be reviewed by the Programme Committee at its October 2011 session.