Feed the Future Learning Agenda

USAID’s Bureau of Food Security will develop Feed the Future’s (FTF) Learning Agenda, which includes key evaluation questions related to the FTF Results Framework. These questions will be addressed through rigorous impact evaluations. The Results Framework maps linkages between program/projects and their intended outcomes as they relate to the overall goal of sustainably reducing global hunger and poverty.  The Results Framework assists in both designing effective programs/projects and measuring progress by providing a structure against which to determine strategies for country-specific programs/projects and by outlining causal pathways toward FTF’s end goal.  

There is evidence to support the causal relationship between planned FTF investments and the impact pathways leading to FTF’s overarching goals.  However, there remains much to learn about which interventions have the greatest impact in a given context, which interventions are most cost effective, and what combination and or sequence of interventions/investments have the greatest impact on the multiple objectives of improving agricultural growth, reducing poverty and reducing malnutrition.  It is also necessary to develop a Learning Agenda to determine related effects of FTF interventions on women’s empowerment, vulnerable populations, farm and off-farm employment for males and females, effects of global climate change and improved natural resource management that sustains livelihoods and resources for future generations.  The FTF Learning Agenda is a set of strategic questions for which the Initiative intends to produce evidence, findings, and answers primarily through impact evaluations and also through other methods, such as performance evaluations and policy analysis.  Through the Learning Agenda, FTF will contribute to the body of knowledge on food security to improve the design and management of interventions in the agriculture and nutrition sectors.