1. Evaluation of FAO’s Regional and
Sub-Regional Offices for Africa
Presentation to the
28th Africa Regional Conference, Tunis
Maxine Olson, Team Leader
Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United
Nations
Office of Evaluation
25 March 2014

2. Purpose of the Evaluation
To Assess:
• the extent to which the intended
decentralization measures have been put in
place
• the change in the ability of FAO to deliver
country level results, and the performance of
the DOs in contributing to these results
FAO Office of Evaluation

3. Evaluation Findings - overall
Modification in Structures and Authorities
• Two new subregional offices were established, but
there was no significant change in resources or
personnel numbers since 2005
• Substantial authority transfer occurred only in
2010 in management of the FAOR network,
human resource management and procurement.
Resources for these new functions were slow in
coming.
FAO Office of Evaluation

4. Evaluation Findings – FAO core areas of work
Changes in FAOs work:
• Encouraging progress in some areas such as
priority setting (CPFs), partnership development
and resource mobilization
• Improvements need to be made in program
design, implementation and technical support
delivery
FAO Office of Evaluation

5. Evaluation Findings – Types of DOs
Regional Office
4 Sub-regional Offices
3 Sub-regional Emergency Response Offices
47 Country Offices
FAO Office of Evaluation

6. Evaluation Conclusions – Country offices
• Country Offices are the face of FAO to the
Member States
• Have benefitted the least by
decentralization:
- still have low levels of authority
- few resources
• Do not always receive needed support
from other DOs
FAO Office of Evaluation

7. Evaluation Conclusions – Sub-regional offices
• Small staff and many vacancies
• Strong focus on priority setting, less on
technical support
• Among the programmes, more focus on
subregional programmes
• Separate, well resourced emergency response
offices
FAO Office of Evaluation

8. Evaluation Conclusions – Sub-regional offices
• Not enough focus on supporting Country
programmes
• Partnerships with Regional Economic
Commissions have been scattered, often
times very general and under-resourced
FAO Office of Evaluation

9. Evaluation Conclusions – Regional office
• Resources to RAF to carry out the delegated
functions were slow in coming from
Headquarters
• High vacancy rates in transferred posts. In an
attempt to cope, responsibility was further
delegated to Sub-regional Offices for Country
Office oversight
FAO Office of Evaluation

10. Evaluation Conclusions – Regional office
• Regional technical team serving as “back up” to
the sub-regional teams
• Relatively little analysis of emerging trends and
limited support to strategic policy advice and
the contribution of agriculture to overall
economic development and employment
FAO Office of Evaluation

11. Evaluation Conclusions
• In short—
Need to adjust functions among the
Decentralized Offices, in order to serve the
countries better
FAO Office of Evaluation

12. Recommendations - 1
More focus on the Country Level:
• Increase authority of the FAO
Representatives, especially technical to be able
to work faster
• Empower the FAO Representatives to lead all
work at the country level including country
components of sub-regional, regional and
global projects
FAO Office of Evaluation

13. Recommendations - 2
• Establish short term action plans within CPF
frame, based on actual resource availability
and organize for results
• Use these national plans to set the work
agenda of the Sub-regional and Regional
Offices for Country Office support
• Streamline programme and technical clearance
processes
FAO Office of Evaluation

14. Recommendations at Sub-regional level
• Regroup and strengthen multi-disciplinary teams to
increase critical mass and greater specialization
among team members
• Focus on supporting country level work.
• Periodically adjust skill set
• Develop approach to draw on other FAO expertise,
including national personnel
• Establish a Management Board by FAO
Representatives for Multi-Disciplinary Teams’ work
FAO Office of Evaluation

15. Recommendations at regional level
RAF should provide greater support to Country
Offices in:
• Resource mobilization
• Communication and public information
• Results based management, M&E
“Train and Trust”
FAO Office of Evaluation

16. Recommendations for Regional Office
High level support to Countries:
• Increase capacity for analysis and upstream
dialogue to strengthen FAO's role as a thought-
leader in the region
• Strengthen support to Regional Conference
FAO Office of Evaluation

17. What they say
• “FAO is our closest partner”(Governments)
• “FAO is our best partner” (Resource Partners)
• “FAO is an essential member of our team” (United
Nations Country Teams)
• “But we need FAO to do more, better.” (Everyone)
Further decentralization and empowerment of DOs is
fundamental for this to happen
FAO Office of Evaluation

18. Thank you
FAO Office of Evaluation