المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

Evaluation and results-based management are amongst the best-known instruments to strengthen accountability and learning, and ultimately improve policies and practices. 

How are these instruments applied by Ministries of Agriculture, and are officials working in this sector equipped with adequate capacities and resources to carry out the evaluation? This report summarizes the results of a study which aimed to shed some light on these questions.

The role of the Ministry of Agriculture in assessing results for sectoral public policies or programmes varies greatly between countries. Essentially, the M&E units in Ministries of Agriculture are mostly engaged in monitoring, with evaluation being quite rare. This raises the need to support M&E units to fulfill their mandate by playing a role in measuring results and drawing lessons to improve interventions in the sector and contributing to monitoring and evaluation of national policies and strategies, including the SDGs.

The study was carried out over a six-month period through interviews with officers working in M&E units in 23 countries by the FAO Office of Evaluation (OED) in collaboration with EvalForward, a community of practice on evaluation for food security, agriculture, and rural development.

Briefs on the study are available in English, French and Spanish.