Global Food Security: Improved Monitoring Framework Needed to Assess and Report on Feed the Future's Performance
Global food security is an urgent problem, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feed the Future, a U.S. government global food security initiative led by the U.S. Agency for International Development, aims to reduce global hunger, malnutrition, and poverty.
USAID and its 11 federal partner agencies collect data to monitor how Feed the Future is working. But they don't have performance goals to analyze how the initiative is achieving its overall strategic mission.
We recommended that USAID and its partner agencies improve how they assess and report on the Feed the Future initiative by addressing this issue and others.
Participants in a Feed the Future technical assistance program inspect cacao pods in San Martin, Peru.
What GAO Found
Feed the Future (FTF), a U.S. government–wide global food security initiative coordinated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), collects data to monitor how FTF projects promote agriculture, resilience, and nutrition (see photos). However, USAID and its FTF partner agencies are limited in their ability to use performance data to assess the initiative's progress because they have not set FTF-wide performance goals and few FTF indicators fully meet two key attributes of successful performance indicators. Specifically, only three of 40 performance indicators both (1) were clearly linked to the initiative's overarching goal and (2) had measurable targets. FTF has targets for its overarching goal of reducing poverty and child stunting; however, the FTF agencies cannot determine how the results of FTF's projects contribute to this overarching goal. USAID officials said it is difficult to set FTF-wide performance goals and targets because of the initiative's breadth. However, prior GAO work provides strategies to help the agencies conduct meaningful FTF-wide performance monitoring.
Examples of Feed the Future's Agriculture, Resilience, and Nutrition Projects
USAID'S 2017–2020 public reports on FTF include some information on FTF's projects, but contain unclear and unsupported statements on its progress. USAID followed two of four leading practices on performance reporting by including baseline or trend data and discussing data limitations in the FTF reports. However, the reports did not describe how the performance data align with and can be used to assess progress toward FTF's objectives—another leading practice. Further, the reports did not outline performance targets so readers could compare the performance data against these targets, also a leading practice. Lastly, although the reports stated that FTF has led to estimated decreases in poverty and stunting, FTF data do not support these statements on FTF's impact. As a result, FTF's public reports do not communicate a clear picture of the initiative's progress toward achieving its objectives.
As required by law, USAID developed a process to assess countries' potential to graduate from being an FTF target country, but USAID has not fully followed this process. USAID developed annual scorecards to assess the countries; however, due to a bureau restructuring and the COVID-19 pandemic, USAID has not shared the 2019 or 2020 scorecards with its missions or the FTF partner agencies. USAID also has not worked with these entities to complete required annual reviews of the graduation assessment process itself. As a result, USAID has limited the partners' engagement in, and the usefulness of, this process.
Why GAO Did This Study
The United Nations reported that nearly 690 million people in the world were undernourished as of 2019, and estimated that food insecurity could worsen due to COVID-19. In response to the Global Food Security Act of 2016, FTF agencies monitor and report the progress of their global food security assistance and developed a process to graduate FTF target countries from the initiative.
GAO was asked to review U.S. global food security assistance. This report evaluates, among other things, USAID's monitoring and public reporting of FTF's progress and assessment of countries' potential to graduate from FTF. GAO reviewed FTF documents and data, and interviewed representatives of USAID, FTF partner agencies, and other stakeholders, including implementing partners from four sample countries selected based on factors such as geographic diversity and amount of food security funding.
Recommendations
GAO is making eight recommendations that USAID work with the FTF partner agencies to improve how they assess and report on FTF performance, including establishing performance goals, ensuring that performance indicators follow leading practices, improving the clarity of public progress reports, sharing annual graduation scorecards, and completing required reviews of the graduation assessment process. USAID generally agreed with all eight recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. Agency for International Development |
Priority Rec.
The Administrator of USAID, in consultation with FTF partner agencies, should establish quantifiable and measurable performance goals for the initiative to assess progress toward FTF's strategic objectives and overarching goal. (Recommendation 1) |
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. In November 2021, USAID established two performance goals for FTF in the State-USAID Joint Strategic Plan. USAID plans for the remaining FTF performance goals to reflect average population-based outcomes achieved across the zones of Influence in FTF target countries. In March 2022, USAID was in the process of collecting evidence to quantify these targets based on FTF Phase Two zone of influence baseline reports, with 3 of at least 20 of those planned reports completed at that time. As of February 2023, USAID expected to complete the remaining FTF Phase Two zone of influence baseline reports and establish performance goals by May 31, 2023. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.
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| U.S. Agency for International Development | The Administrator of USAID, in consultation with FTF partner agencies, should (1) evaluate and revise, as necessary, which indicators should be required as applicable as performance indicators across the initiative to include only those that are used for FTF-wide performance monitoring; and (2) clearly and specifically explain the linkage of those FTF-wide indicators to the initiative's performance goals and strategic objectives. (Recommendation 2) |
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. In March 2022, USAID began a process to revise the FTF performance indicators, which it expected to complete by August 2022. As of February 2023, USAID extended its planned date for revising the FTF performance indicators to May 31, 2023. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.
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| U.S. Agency for International Development |
Priority Rec.
The Administrator of USAID, in consultation with FTF partner agencies, should establish FTF-wide targets for FTF-wide performance indicators required as applicable across the initiative. (Recommendation 3) |
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. As noted in the status of recommendation 1, USAID has set two performance goals, which have targets as part of those goals. USAID also plans to set additional performance goals, with targets, in response to recommendation 1. As of February 2023, USAID had no further plans to create performance targets for its other performance indicators that FTF requires as applicable across the initiative. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.
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| U.S. Agency for International Development | The Administrator of USAID should describe in the Progress Snapshot and Strategy Implementation reports how performance data included in those reports align with and can be used to assess progress toward FTF's performance goals and strategic objectives. (Recommendation 4) |
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. As of February 2023, USAID had not yet taken steps to implement this recommendation, but had set a target completion date of December 2023. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.
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| U.S. Agency for International Development | The Administrator of USAID should, in the Progress Snapshot and Strategy Implementation reports, (1) include performance targets for all performance indicators included in the reports so these data can be used to meaningfully demonstrate progress or performance gaps, and (2) discuss planned actions for unmet performance targets. (Recommendation 5) |
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. As of February 2023, USAID had not yet taken steps to implement this recommendation, but had set a target completion date of December 2023. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.
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| U.S. Agency for International Development | The Administrator of USAID should clearly state in the Progress Snapshot and Strategy Implementation reports the limitations of FTF impact indicator data, such as data on poverty and stunting. (Recommendation 6) |
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. Further, in August 2021, USAID indicated it had taken initial steps to implement this recommendation by instituting an additional step in the clearance process for FTF public reports. For example, staff in the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security Office of Policy, Analysis and Engagement, Analysis and Learning Division reviewed the fiscal year (FY) 2021 public report to determine whether it accurately conveyed FTF impact indicator data and made suggestions to improve its accuracy, such as to state these data were estimates. However, the final FY2021 implementation report does not state limitations of the impact indicator data, including that changes in the areas where FTF works cannot be attributed to FTF activities. In addition, the updated Global Food Security Strategy for FY2022-2026 took a positive step in describing how FTF will track changes in its impact indicators, but will not set targets for them because changes in these indicators cannot be directly attributed to FTF's activities. However, when reporting on the results of these impact indicator data, the Strategy does not discuss the aforementioned limitations of FTF impact indicator data. As of February 2023, USAID has taken no further steps to implement this recommendation. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this review process and any other steps it may take to implement this recommendation to improve the clarity of FTF public reports.
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| U.S. Agency for International Development | The Administrator of USAID should develop and implement a process through which USAID regularly shares its annual graduation scorecard assessments with its target country missions and the FTF partner agencies. (Recommendation 7) |
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. As of February 2023, USAID, in consultation with its FTF partner agencies, planned to revisit the annual graduation scorecard assessment by April 30, 2023. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.
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| U.S. Agency for International Development | The Administrator of USAID, in consultation with USAID missions in FTF target countries and FTF partner agencies, should review the graduation scorecard assessment process with the frequency that the FTF graduation policy outlines to ensure that the indicators included and the assessment process used provide valid information for assessing target countries' readiness to graduate, and that there is a common understanding about what graduation from the initiative will mean. (Recommendation 8) |
In its response to our report, USAID agreed with this recommendation. As of February 2023, USAID planned to revise the FTF graduation policy; review the process to update the indicators and scorecard; and establish a regular, annual evaluation process by April 30, 2023. We will continue to monitor USAID's implementation of this recommendation and provide updated information on its progress.
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