Wrapping Up 2024: Key insights from three thematic evaluations shaping FAO’s work
As 2024 draws to a close, the FAO Office of Evaluation reflects on the pivotal role of evaluations in advancing FAO's mission.
This year, three thematic evaluations were presented to the Programme Committee: the Evaluation of FAO’s One Health Approach, the Evaluation of FAO’s Work on Food Loss and Waste Reduction and the Evaluation of FAO’s Cash and Voucher Assistance. These evaluations provide a roadmap for future action, offering critical lessons to strengthen food security, promote sustainable food systems, and safeguard global health.
Cash and Voucher Assistance
The evaluation highlighted FAO’s growing recognition of cash-based interventions as flexible tools for programming, particularly in social protection and in combination with livelihood interventions. Approaches like Cash+ (unconditional cash with complementary activities) leverage FAO’s technical expertise to build resilience and support the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. However, FAO lacks a clear corporate strategy on how its various cash-voucher assistance (CVA) modalities can contribute to specific outcomes. The evaluation found that unconditional cash transfers and cash-for-work effectively support food and basic needs. The effectiveness of Cash+ approaches has been mixed and depends heavily on the relevance, quality, and timeliness of the accompanying agricultural inputs or training. Vouchers and seed fairs have been effective in encouraging the adoption of improved agricultural practices and supporting market development. The duration, size, timeliness, and frequency of cash and voucher transfers are critical factors influencing the effectiveness in achieving results. An important driver was the availability of adequate, predictable, and flexible financing. The evaluation also found that targets are set for the inclusion of women as CVA beneficiaries, albeit unevenly, and that gender empowerment is rarely an explicit objective. A strengthened enabling environment is required to support FAO’s optimal use of CVA.
FAO’s Work on Food Loss and Waste Reduction
The evaluation found that FAO has positioned itself as a key player in promoting sustainable agrifood systems, leveraging its technical expertise and its role as the custodian agency for SDG sub-indicator 12.3.1.a, the Food Loss Index (FLI). While FAO historically focused on post-harvest losses, the Strategic Framework 2022-31 has expanded efforts to address food loss and waste (FLW) across the entire value chains, including at retail and consumer levels. This shift aligns well with the agrifood systems approach and evolving priorities of Members. FAO’s high-quality publications related to FLW are an area of strength. The State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) 2019 report on this area of work represented a significant milestone as it defined terminology, analyzed the trade-offs between the economic, social and environmental impact, set the ground for a food system approach to reducing FLW, and provided the first estimates for the new FLI. Despite these advances, this sub-indicator remains the one least reported on by Members. This area of work is starved of both donor funding and FAO personnel. The field programme linked to BN4 represents less than one percent of FAO’s field project resources. While recognizing the progress achieved, the evaluation underscores the need for a more innovative and integrated approach that pays greater attention to contextual factors, particularly socio-economic and environmental considerations.
FAO’s Programme Priority Area on One Health
The evaluation highlighted FAO's active role in the evolution of One Health over the last 20 years. FAO has worked closely with partners (such as the members of the Quadripartite, namely the World Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the United Nations Environment Programme) and participated in key initiatives to develop an approach accepted worldwide. Partners stressed FAO’s technical capacities and presence at the country level as standout comparative advantages. FAO has proven able to maintain long-term partnerships albeit with a limited number of donors. This dependence is a risk, especially in country programmes whose majority share of One Health funds depend on one donor. Country-level funding opportunities are emerging, especially those supported by the Pandemic Fund. Historically, FAO’s work in One Health has been significantly shaped by projects of the animal health sector although this has evolved. A highlight of FAO’s promotion of a One Health approach has been the work on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial use, which has involved collaboration between multiple sectors. The inclusion of a specific Programme Priority Area – Better Production 3 (BP3) “One Health” – in the Strategic Framework represents an important step in the evolution and mainstreaming of One Health within FAO. Implementing One Health has been challenging, especially at national and subnational levels, as it requires context-specific, interdisciplinary and long-term institutional support. , locating One Health as a “better production” Programme Priority Area potentially risks retaining a narrow focus on well-established areas (zoonoses, pandemic preparedness, transboundary animal disease, AMR) and thus might limit One Health’s scope or potential to harness and mobilize multidisciplinary capacities, knowledge and skills within FAO.