An independent internal watchdog of the U.S. government has found that Feed the Future, the country’s flagship global food security initiative, fails to properly use data to monitor how projects promote agriculture, resilience, and nutrition and that it needs to improve reporting processes.
Findings: The U.S. Agency for International Development, which runs the program, does collect data, as do its partner agencies. But the Government Accountability Office found that they have not set initiative-wide goals, and Feed the Future indicators fall short.
“Specifically, only three of 40 performance indicators both (1) were clearly linked to the initiative's overarching goal and (2) had measurable targets,” GAO said in a report released Tuesday.
USAID officials said it was difficult to set performance goals and targets because Feed the Future is such a broad initiative, according to the report. GAO discounted that argument, saying that it has provided strategies to help agencies effectively monitor performance.
Why it matters: The data disconnect and shortcomings result in a lack of proper assessment or the ability to adjust Feed the Future programs. While USAID has released reports saying the initiative has decreased poverty and stunted growth, the data doesn’t back up those assertions.
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Recommendations: The report made eight recommendations for how USAID and its partner agencies can improve data quality and better evaluate the performance of Feed the Future programs. Among them is a directive to establish quantifiable and measurable performance goals, along with targets for performance indicators to assess progress.
Feed the Future’s reports should describe how data can be used to assess progress, the limitations of indicator data, and what actions USAID will take to address unmet targets, GAO wrote.
GAO also recommended that the USAID administrator create and implement a process for sharing annual scorecard assessments with missions and partner agencies.