Global Food Security: Improved Monitoring Framework Needed to Assess and Report on Feed the Future’s Performance
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