In 2015, WFP’s Executive Board approved a new Evaluation Policy which brought both centralised and decentralised evaluations under the responsibility of WFP’s Independent Office of Evaluation (OEV).
The new policy
The new Evaluation Policy represents a shift from evaluation being primarily the responsibility of the OEV, to being integrated across the organisation. OEV has developed centralised and decentralised quality assurance systems – (D)EQAS – which guide quality during the evaluation process. However, the new Evaluation Policy and Strategy also requires the OEV to conduct a post-hoc quality assessment (PHQA) of both centralised and decentralised evaluations.
With a growing demand for evidence on the results of WFP’s policies and programmes, centralised and decentralised evaluations play an important role in telling the story of what WFP’s investments are achieving. They are central for WFP to be able to learn effectively from its interventions and to demonstrate accountability to a wide range of audiences, both external and internal. Decentralised evaluation is, however, an evolving function across WFP, with guidance and standards only recently put in place.
As such, WFP wanted to design a single integrated PHQA system that meets the needs of all types of evaluations in WFP, centralised and decentralised. Integrating such a system into WFP’s evaluative processes and products will ensure that the quality of all evaluations commissioned by WFP is publicly accounted for, and that evaluation quality and use is incentivised at all levels within the organisation. It will also enable OEV to review, on a regular basis, the quality standards of its evaluations, which are likely to be highly variable among centralised and decentralised evaluations.
Our role
Itad has been selected by the WFP to design and implement this new, integrated PHQA system over a four and a half year period. The Itad team has prepared the PHQA template, which they will then use to deliver up to 50 evaluation reports annually. In addition, they will provide an annual report to WFP which summarises PHQA assessment findings across centralised and decentralised reports, highlights comparability across quality criteria; and provides recommendations for how to strengthen the quality of WFP’s centralised and decentralised evaluations.
Image © Heat. Photo Credit: Ben Grey (CC BY-SA 2.0)
