Evaluation of the Agency's Work in the Area of Nuclear Applications for Animal Production and Health
VetEffecT has conducted an evaluation of the Animal Production and Health Section (APH) of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture (NAFA), Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications (NA) of the IAEA. In collaboration with the IAEA Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) , APH operations were evaluated. The APH operations include research in international research networks on laboratory diagnosis of animal diseases using nuclear or nuclear derived techniques; managing the VETLAB network; and veterinary laboratory capacity building in animal disease prevention and control training for Member States.
The subject of the evaluation were the APH activities for the IAEA Subprogramme 2.1.2 - Sustainable Intensification of Livestock Production Systems, and in particular to: (i) assess the performance and results of the APH operations in recent years; and (ii) generate findings and recommendations for the Member States and the Agency’s management for future operations.
The services provided were:
- Evaluation design: setup of the evaluation framework with indicators, and evaluation questions;
- Document collection and desk review: to answer the key evaluation questions, a mix of data collection methods were employed, including an evaluation literature review and an in-depth desk review of operations;
- In-house interviews and consultations: semi-structured interviews with key officials at Agency Headquarters in Vienna;
- Country visits: The evaluation team conducted field missions to Botswana and Tunesia and prepared country studies, presented as working papers, to illustrate the identified results and the theory of change (from operations to results);
- Workshops: To realize the value of learning, client engagement and consensus building are considered as key enablers for an evaluation. In this regard, a consultative and participatory approach is to be employed during the evaluation process, including organisation of a workshops to present draft findings to stakeholders, with a view to enhancing understanding of the performance and identified results, and eventually, producing useful findings and recommendations to contribute to the Agency’s future strategy and operations in the evaluated area;
- Drafting of an evaluation report in English.
