This very good and fantastic experience. Knowledge shared shall surely be used in future evaluations of this nature as the new normal demands. Bravo FAO Team Italy. Would be great to share some of the case study questions.
Thanks Christine for raising such an important issue. For me there should be a complete change in the whole dynamics of agricultural funding. Donor agencies, gov'ts, NGOs and other CSOs should now focus more on program-based funding instead of funding-based programming!!! In this way, effective problem diagnosis could be made with full participation of all key stakeholders the results of which will inform future program interventions relevant to the different development contexts and funding solicited based on the identified relevant program interventions. This will enhance commitment, ownership, participation/involvement and ultimate sustainability and impact of the desired interventions.
I entirely agree with you!!! In fact Food Security - using who's lens or measurement??? This can really be contestable. It is high time we pay heed to large extent to the context of our local communities or indigenous people and their perceptions and understandings related to food security issues. We have carried away by scientific beliefs for too long now and we have not made much headway. It is high time we include local communities/indigenous people in our discourses on food security and poverty issues to inform policy since they are the most affected when it comes to such issues. They have been living and struggling for centuries with food security and poverty issues and thus are in much a better position to deep dive into these issues with more realistic information and confidence.
I wish to bring forward a few insights to this important discussion. Perhaps we may first need to analyze the question - "what can evaluations do in terms of capacity development?" For me, I am seeing it from 2 angles:
1. Could we develop capacity through evaluations?
2. Could evaluations help in capacity development?
This might focus on who is involved in evaluations, how are they prepared, what can they go through, what lessons have they learned, how are they prepared to feed such lessons into future programs?
This might actually look at how evaluations could be better designed to develop capacities of all actors, so that they are able to identify key weaknesses/challenges (in terms of delivery capacity) in a project or program setting and proffer suggestions/new ideas/solutions for redress of course considering sustainability, accountability and other aspects of programming.
Kebba Ngumbo Sima
Theme Director MERC Sasakawa Africa AssociationLooks quite useful but yet to be fully tested. Keep sharing such valuable tools for M&E work.
Cheers