Mid-term evaluation of the project “Forest and Farm Facility – Climate resilient landscapes and improved livelihoods” – Phase II

Book excerpt: The second phase of the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) aims at supporting forest and farm producers and their organizations (FFPOs) to enable climate-resilient landscapes and improved livelihoods, through the approval of small grants for producers organizations, training and exchanges, and the documentation and dissemination of good practices. The mid-term evaluation highlights the uniqueness of the FFF and its potential to influence global forestry narratives and practices, beyond the sum of its achievements in core countries, and recognizes that the FFF is broadening FAO’s corporate narrative and global positioning on forestry and its interface with agriculture, livelihoods and the environment. The FFF is highly relevant to national contexts with its outcomes well-matching national policies, and to FFPOs priorities and needs; it has effectively applied adaptive management from the onset of Phase II; and it has also contributed to strengthened and expanded partnerships among FFPOs and APEX organizations. The programme achieved satisfactory to highly satisfactory progress towards three of its four outcomes with limited resources, demonstrating high levels of cost-effectiveness. The monitoring and learning system is highly organized and well-coordinated around letters of agreement tracking, but it could improve with the inclusion of an internal results-based monitoring and evaluation system to track the evolution of longer-term results beyond the letter of agreement grant cycle. The FFF is responsive to gender in all countries and to indigenous producer organizations, while the strategy to include youth could be improved.