World Food Programme

Evaluation Function

The WFP Office of Evaluation (OEV) is mandated to conduct evaluations to provide accountability for performance and results and learning to inform policy discussions and strategic choices of decision-makers, including the Board, WFP senior and operation management, and other stakeholders. The OEV evaluation policy was first published in 2003 and was updated in 2008, after an independent peer review. A second peer review of WFP's evaluation function was carried out in 2013 and concluded in 2014. . This recent peer review followed the standards agreed by the Joint DAC/UNEG Task Force on Peer Reviews. As a result of the peer review 2013-14 findings and WFP management’s response to its recommendations, the evaluation policy 2008 is in the process of being updated, for presentation to the WFP Executive Board for their consideration and approval in November 2015. The new policy will be accompanied by an evaluation charter enshrining the mandate and augmented role and responsibilities of the WFP Office of Evaluation, including for reporting on and oversight of the decentralized evaluation function; an evaluation strategy for implementing the policy across WFP; and development of a framework for demand-led decentralized evaluations. OEV conducts strategic, policy, country portfolio, regional portfolio, impact and operations evaluations, and prepares an Annual Evaluation Report which synthesizes evaluation findings from the year. In addition to this core evaluation work programme and as outlined above, OEV has also commenced implementation of a reorganized work plan and internal management to support delivery of its extended mandate, including its oversight and enabling role in decentralized evaluation, and its support to learning from and use of evaluations.

In 2014, OEV had ten evaluation officers, including the Director, and a total of 13 staff overall. The overall total budget for evaluation in 2014 was USD 8.39. This figure includes the additional allocation of USD 2 million for the continuation of a new series of operations evaluations, launched in 2013.

Promoting a culture of evaluation in-house

WFP approved a new Monitoring and Self-Evaluation Strategy in 2012. OEV is initiating its collaboration, , as implementation of the strategy is rolled out, by contributing to training modules on evaluation, standard setting in associated guidance, and periodic post-hoc quality assurance of decentralized evaluations.

In 2014, OEV strengthened its inputs to WFP’s project and policy planning. Summaries of evidence and recommendations from relevant evaluations were provided for 89 percent of the project documents and country strategies reviewed under WFP’s new strategic programme review process.  Wherever possible, OEV builds stakeholder engagement and learning opportunities into the evaluation process. All of OEV’s evaluations and associated products are accessible in the valuation library on WFP’s website and on the intranet.

Snapshot

• Evaluation Policy:
• WFP Evaluation Policy (2016-2021)
• Priorities:
  • Finalization and approval of new Evaluation Policy 2016-21
  • Development of WFP’s evaluation function beyond OEV, while maintaining high quality of central evaluations led by OEVHuman Resources:

• Director: F (professional evaluator)
• Evaluators: Total 9 ; M=2, F=7 
• Support staff: Total 3 (2 F)
• Decentralized evaluation staff: Not available

• Evaluations produced per year by the central unit and by decentralized units

• 27 evaluations in 2014 conducted at the central level.

• Key resource:

• WFP Evaluation website
• Annual Evaluation work plan, 2014-2016

Independence

• Independence is an integral element of the current OEV evaluation policy 2008. The policy presents a detailed description of independence including structural, institutional and behavioural independence. Structurally, OEV is independent from WFP management functions and the OEV Director reports directly to the Executive Director. The OEV Director also has full authority in controlling the evaluation budget, approving and publication of all evaluation reports. The Executive Board approves the evaluation work plan proposed directly by the OEV Director.

Agenda Setting & Evaluation Planning

OEV is responsible for preparing a three-year rolling work programme and annual budget and presenting it to the Executive Board for approval.The work programme plan includes types, topics and coverage of evaluation and the resources required. The plan is made available online. 

Stakeholder involvement and promoting national evaluation capacity development

OEV's quality assurance guidelines encourage stakeholder involvement throughout the evaluation process. For example, key internal and external stakeholders participate in the evaluation preparation process. Stakeholders are consulted during the inception phase to consolidate the ToR. Stakeholders are given an opportunity to comment on report drafts. Evaluation teams include national evaluators wherever appropriate and for the past 2 years there has been gender balance overall in consultant evaluation teams hired.

Quality Assurance

OEV has a comprehensive quality assurance (QA) system with guidelines to support quality of evaluation at all stages. The QA system covers specific types of evaluations including strategic, policy, country portfolio, regional portfolio impact and operations evaluations. These documents were developed on the basis of guidance and standards published by UNEG, Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance (ALNAP), and OECD DAC Network on Development Evaluation.

Use of Evaluation

Summary evaluation reports are presented to the Executive Board along with WFP Executive Director's Management Response and are also published online. The matrix includes a detailed response to each recommendation. Implementation of the recommendations are designated to relevant parts of the organization and follow-up is monitored by WFP's Performance Management Division, reported annually to the Executive Board.

Evaluation reports are published and widely disseminated both internally and externally. Lessons from evaluations are systematically extracted and communicated through information briefs, abstracts, press releases, workshops, meetings with senior management and annual evaluation reports. Syntheses of evaluations conducted in series are also conducted.

In 2014, OEV strengthened its inputs to WFP’s project and policy planning. Summaries of evidence and recommendations from relevant evaluations were provided for 89 percent of the project documents and country strategies reviewed under WFP’s new strategic programme review process.

Joint Evaluation

OEV is committed to working jointly and conducting joint evaluations with partners wherever appropriate and feasible. In 2014 OEV concluded the Joint Evaluation of Food Security Cluster Coordination in Humanitarian Action with FAO. OEV also contributes to system-wide arrangements for evaluation and inter-agency humanitarian evaluation. In 2014 OEV participated in three joint inter-agency humanitarian evaluations (IAHEs) of Level 3 emergency responses in the Philippines, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. IAHEs aim to build evaluation partnerships and shared analysis of coordinated humanitarian responses as part of the Transformative Agenda. Through its participation in the IAHE Steering Committee OEV also supports a multi-agency coordinated accountability and lesson learning initiative on the response to the Syrian crisis.