This country programme evaluation assesses the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in South Sudan over the period 2016–2023, one of FAO’s largest and most complex country programmes globally.
Conducted by the FAO Office of Evaluation, the evaluation aimed to generate evidence-based lessons for programme improvement and to support accountability to FAO’s governing bodies, national counterparts and resource partners.
The evaluation concludes that FAO is well positioned to play a more strategic role across the humanitarian–development–peace nexus in South Sudan, given its technical mandate, field presence and partnerships. It recommends accelerating the shift toward resilience and cash-based approaches; mainstreaming conflict sensitivity; strengthening needs-based targeting; developing longer-term partnerships; better leveraging FAO’s corporate technical expertise; and using monitoring and evaluation more systematically to support learning and programme adaptation.
The evaluation makes six recommendations: i) accelerate the move towards resilience programming and cash-based approaches, since the protracted nature of the crisis calls for a long-term engagement in building resilience; ii) mainstream conflict-sensitivity across the entire portfolio; iii) clearly document and socialize FAO’s approach to, implementation of, and reporting on needs-based targeting to reach marginalized and underserved communities; iv) develop long-term partnerships aligned with the strategic direction of the programme and partners’ comparative advantages; v) leverage FAO’s expertise in the subregion, region and headquarters more systematically to strengthen the technical quality of the country programme; and vi) use the M&E function to support learning and adaptive management, inject dynamism into the programme, and make it more responsive to people’s needs.
