Programme Committee

Introduction

1. One basic function of evaluation is to contribute to the enhanced knowledge base of the Organization's work through learning from the experience of programmes and projects. This function is directly relevant to one of the cross-organizational strategies identified in FAO's Strategic Framework, i.e. ensuring excellence through encouragement of organizational learning. The Evaluation Service (PBEE) in PBE has been conscious of the importance of feedback from evaluation. Its efforts in this respect have included a contribution to the corporate efforts in preparing guidelines and staff training, particularly in project design, as well as maintaining and updating an institutional memory on evaluation (the database on field project evaluations since mid-1980s) and periodic issuance of syntheses of project evaluations.

Purpose of the Website

2. The purposes of the Evaluation Website are:

• the launching of the FAO Evaluation Website is intended to expand and enhance feedback from evaluation through the use of advanced information technology;
• to contribute to the learning and improvements by FAO staff and their partners by making available to them key evaluation findings, recommendations, issues and lessons, across FAO's normative programmes and operational activities;
• to serve as an easily accessible source of reference on evaluation-related information, especially for FAO staff at various locations. For example, an FAOR will be able to review the performance and achievements of projects executed by FAO in his/her country of assignment and a technical specialist in a Sub-regional Office could check on strengths and weaknesses of projects undertaken in his/her area of expertise in the region;
• to provide both the internal and external users with systematic evaluation information and data for use in their research on development topics;
• to enhance the transparency of the Organization by disclosing, to the maximum degree feasible in a responsible way, both strengths and weaknesses in FAO programmes and activities; and
• to enhance dialogue between evaluators and FAO programme staff as well as among evaluators in FAO and other agencies.

The Main Contents

3. Regarding the dissemination of evaluation information, the basic policy is to share such information to the maximum extent possible, not only within FAO but also with the interested external audience, consistent with the Organization's rules and procedures on confidentiality of its information and documents. In this regard, there is a need to clarify the status of some information based on evaluation reports of technical cooperation projects involving individual recipient governments and donors. Clearly, individual evaluation reports themselves have been treated, and will continue to be treated, as confidential or restricted documents. While some form of information derived from evaluation reports, such as summaries of individual evaluations, would be usefully disseminated on the Website, it would appear prudent to have the prior agreement of specific governments and donors concerned about the use of such derived information. Thus, in future it is intended to seek agreement of the parties concerned on the possible dissemination of such information as summaries of project evaluation, by inserting a standard clause for this purpose in the project agreements. In the meantime, some historical information based on recent project evaluations, such as their summaries, has been included in the Website as a pilot demonstration.

4. The Website contains initially the following, with the field project evaluation component being the largest:

• field project evaluations with some 300 projects evaluated during 1995-2000, each with textual summary of findings and recommendations (1-2 pages);
• a project evaluation assessment database (including criteria on the relevance and quality of design, adequacy and efficiency of implementation, the output and results, and sustainability), and the capacity to prepare syntheses of selected groups of project evaluations;
• programme and thematic evaluations - 23 selected reviews and evaluations, mostly from the biennial Programme Evaluation Reports;
• methodological guidelines and notes - these include the document on the new evaluation regime (PC 82/4) as well as guidelines for field project evaluations; and
• selected training materials on project design, and monitoring and evaluation.

The Main Features

5. The Website has been designed as both a reference source and a research tool on evaluation information in FAO. Its operational features include the following:

• multiple search functions - free text search is available for programme evaluations and thematic reviews, and the site index permits a quick overview of site contents. A further search function provides access to the project evaluation database, with two levels of options each with a different set of criteria: the first in terms of technical disciplines, thematic areas and functional types; and the second by region, year, funding source and budget size;
• flexible access points - the Site has nine site "entry points", and the main access path takes the visitor through: WHAT is produced (to the content as described above), WHO does it (the staff of the Evaluation Service) and HOW it is done (the methodological materials);
• provisions for a forum - through the Evaluator's Corner, the visitors can provide their comments and contributions on findings, lessons and evaluation methodologies;
• hyperlink facility - hyperlinks are available with twenty other organizations, allowing easy access to their evaluation sites;
• presentation format - all documents are in Word 6.0 format and can be easily downloaded; and
• password - for non-FAO users, the information on individual project evaluations is available without reference to the recipient country or donor concerned, and the latter information will be available only to internal users authorized with a password.

Future Steps

6. The contents of the Website will be progressively expanded and improved through continuous updating, including the possibility of adding those evaluations and in-depth reviews of wide interest that are conducted in FAO but not necessarily by the Evaluation Service. In particular, two actions will be pursued to enhance the utility of this Website. Firstly, it will need to be linked with other related in-house information systems, such as the Standard Frameworks for Project Formulation under development. Secondly, the Evaluation Service will strengthen its work in synthesizing individual evaluations with a view to identifying those issues and lessons that are relevant and significant in areas of FAO's priority concerns.