Objective of the partners’ Food Security Learning Framework
Development partners working in the area of food security have joined together in an effort to harmonize and align monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities and agendas for evidence-based learning. As part of that harmonization and alignment effort, partners are developing a collaborative Food Security Learning Framework (FSLF). The Framework includes eight dimensions under which the majority of our programming falls and to which all partners can contribute. This learning document outlines key questions related to the effectiveness of different approaches in promoting food security and critical knowledge gaps for which evidence and answers are lacking. The Framework prioritizes questions that, when answered, could contribute the most to efforts to improve food security programming around the world. The partnership recognizes that a lack of evidence is not the only obstacle to improved development planning and implementation; decision makers must ground their decisions related to policies and investments on evidence to ensure that their organizations promote the best possible development practices known to the sector.Building a solid evidence base is the first step to developing a system and culture in which investment and policy decisions are based on objective facts related to what works and what does not.
A number of M&E methodologies will contribute to build evidence for the Framework.Impact evaluations are a key tool for learning and providing rigorous examination of the attributable impacts and causal pathways of development programmes and approaches. Both experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluations will be two of the most important methods supporting FSLF, and partners have pledged to promote the use of these tools to the extent possible. At the same time, other methods such as impact monitoring, performance and process evaluations, forms of economic analysis and economic modelling will contribute to the evidence base and answers to questions outlined in the Framework below.Annex I presents a full typology of the methods that will provide evidence toward the Framework and gives standard definitions agreed upon by partners. To provide greater potential for alignment and collaboration, the Framework also maps out common indicators that partners can apply to allow for comparison and aggregation among M&E efforts. Those indicators are included under each of the relevant themes outlined below.
The Food Security Learning Framework serves a highly important strategic function. It outlines a set of priority themes and questions for which partners agree to focus and align resources. Building on the Framework, partners will develop practical steps to align their own M&E systems and explore options for joint M&E activities between partners, especially impact evaluation. Through FSLF, partners will build on and contribute to the body of knowledge on food security to improve the design and management of interventions in the agriculture, economic growth and nutrition sectors.