Global Food Security: Improved Monitoring Framework Needed to Assess and Report on Feed the Future's Performance
Fast Facts
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.
Highlights
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 and implemented corrective actions to address it. In March 2022, USAID published two performance goals for FTF in the State-USAID Joint Strategic Plan and later created an additional performance goal, all with quantifiable targets and timeframes. According to USAID officials, USAID selected these three performance goals based on existing performance indicators, the agency's priorities, and their ability to reflect the contributions of FTF partner agencies. USAID has communicated these performance goals to FTF stakeholders and has plans to monitor them to help assess progress toward FTF's strategic objectives and overarching goal. These actions will allow for a better understanding of the initiative's performance by meaningfully monitoring progress toward FTF's strategic objectives and overarching goal.
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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 completed in May 2023. Moreover, USAID finalized five performance indicators that they plan to use for FTF-wide performance monitoring and that are linked to the initiative's performance goals and strategic objectives. In December 2023, USAID provided documentation showing the linkages of the initiative's three performance goals to the associated FTF-wide performance indicators and relevant strategic objectives. The linkages between the finalized FTF-wide performance indicators and strategic objectives will allow USAID to better monitor performance toward FTF's strategic objectives.
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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 and implemented corrective actions to address it. Specifically, USAID created three performance goals and established quantifiable targets for these goals and their associated performance indicators. According to USAID officials, they did not establish FTF-wide targets for other indicators, which they use for activity and country level performance monitoring and contextual reporting at the initiative level. USAID actions address the intent of this recommendations--to develop FTF-wide targets for indicators useful for FTF-wide performance monitoring. By having created FTF-wide targets for the performance indicators it associates with the initiative's performance goals, USAID can better assess progress toward FTF's strategic objectives and overarching goal.
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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 2024, USAID had not yet taken steps to implement this recommendation, but had set a target completion date of September 2024. 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. In December 2023, USAID provided FTF's FY2022 Global Food Security Strategy Implementation report and FY2023 Progress Snapshot report, which included targets for the performance indicators associated with the performance goals that were active during the relevant reporting year (three of five indicators). The report also included planned actions for unmet targets for those select indicators. USAID plans to report on all five of these performance indicators by September 2024. 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 and implemented corrective actions to address it. 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 not directly attribute data changes to FTF. Further, FTF's FY2022 Global Food Security Strategy Implementation report and FY2023 Progress Snapshot report included information on how FTF calculated the impact indicator estimates and that the results cannot be attributed directly to FTF activities based on data limitations. USAID's changes to its FTF reporting will more clearly communicate FTF's progress and challenges to Congress and the public.
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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 concurred with this recommendation and implemented corrective actions to address it. In response to GAO's recommendation, in April 2023, USAID shared with the FTF interagency a proposed update to the FTF Target Country Graduation Policy and Review Process, which included a description of how USAID would involve the FTF interagency and target country missions in the graduation assessment process. This involvement will include annually convening the interagency to review the graduation scorecards and conduct the country graduation process, followed by regional meetings that will also include representatives of the interagency at posts, which would include USAID missions. Also in April 2023, USAID shared that year's graduation scorecards with the FTF interagency. According to USAID, in May 2023, USAID also convened the FTF interagency to review and discuss the updated policy and the graduation scorecards. Also in May 2023, USAID distributed the scorecards to the target country missions and partner agencies and requested their input on the graduation process. USAID then finalized the updated process. These updates to the graduation process will strengthen the graduation process' usefulness and quality by annually sharing its results with these key stakeholders.
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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 concurred with this recommendation and implemented corrective actions to address it. In response to GAO's recommendation, in late 2022, USAID convened a working group to review the target country graduation process. In March 2023, USAID shared with Washington, DC representatives of the FTF interagency a draft document summarizing the characteristics of a FTF graduation-ready country in order to establish a common understanding of what graduation from the initiative will mean, convened a meeting with the FTF interagency to discuss the document, and updated the document based on their feedback. Then, in May 2023, USAID shared the updated document and further information about the metrics used in the graduation assessment process with USAID missions and FTF interagency partners in FTF target countries, also providing them an opportunity for feedback and discussion. Further, according to USAID, the agency communicated to its missions in FTF target countries and its FTF partner agencies that this process will be run on an annual basis. By reviewing the graduation assessment process with these key stakeholders annually, USAID has helped ensure that the FTF interagency has a common understanding of the meaning of graduation, while helping to ensure that this process remains relevant and considered in their decision-making.
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