Are we going the extra mile?’

 WPF, 22 Oct 2020

Andrea Cook, head of Evaluation at the World Food Programme, talks to Peyvand Khorsandi about the power of evidence

Andrea Cook: Essentially, talking to lots of people, looking at lots of different sources of evidence to enable us to answer questions such as, “Is WFP doing the right things; in the right way; are we delivering the results that we set out to achieve?” And we’re doing that in an independent, unbiased way — we’re an independent Office of Evaluation.

PK: What does independent mean?

AC: It means I don’t take my orders from WFP management. I present our reports directly to the Executive Board.

This allows us to present a degree of credibility to our Executive Board and to our partners and donors. This means that we’re not just communicating the good stuff but offering a balanced and impartial assessment of how well WFP is doing as an organization. We can look into critical issues such as could WFP do things for less cost; and how can WFP really go that extra mile to meet the needs of the people who are the most vulnerable.

PK: It strikes me that evaluation people are the kind of people who never lose their socks. Would that be correct?

In full: https://insight.wfp.org/are-we-going-the-extra-mile-fcc066593fa9