Global Food Security: USAID Is Improving Coordination but Needs to Require Systematic Assessments of Country-Level Risks (GAO-13-815SP, September 2013), an E-supplement to GAO-13-809
Highlights
This e-publication supplements our report, Global Food Security: USAID Is Improving Coordination but Needs to Require Systematic Assessments of Country-Level Risks (GAO-13-809). The purpose of this e-publication is to provide information from our web-based survey of U.S. representatives implementing Feed the Future (FTF) programs in 19 FTF focus countries. The survey asked their perceptions of the whole-of-government and country-led approaches in the planning and implementation of FTF. The topics included coordination within and between U.S. agencies, coordination with country stakeholders, the mechanism and frequency of coordination, the perceived effectiveness of coordination in accomplishing certain actions, and factors that may have helped or hindered coordination. The web-based survey was administered from May 2012 through August 2012. We surveyed all U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and FTF partner-country representatives identified as key personnel by the agencies, including mission directors, Foreign Service Officers, Foreign Service Nationals, and personal services contractors implementing FTF in 19 countries. Overall, we achieved a weighted response rate of 72 percent, with 342 respondents to our survey.(1) We compared the respondents with nonrespondents on the basis of available demographic data, such as employment status, and did not find any significant differences between the groups. This e-publication presents the survey estimates and 95 percent confidence intervals based on all respondents as well as for USAID and FTF Partners.(2) The number of responses is presented for the Department of State (State), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Peace Corps, and other agencies combined.(3) See the report referenced above for a more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology, as well as a discussion of survey results.
Supplemental Material
Background
This e-publication supplements our report, Global Food Security: USAID Is Improving Coordination but Needs to Require Systematic Assessments of Country-Level Risks (GAO-13-809). The purpose of this e-publication is to provide information from our web-based survey of U.S. representatives implementing Feed the Future (FTF) programs in 19 FTF focus countries. The survey asked their perceptions of the whole-of-government and country-led approaches in the planning and implementation of FTF. The topics included coordination within and between U.S. agencies, coordination with country stakeholders, the mechanism and frequency of coordination, the perceived effectiveness of coordination in accomplishing certain actions, and factors that may have helped or hindered coordination. The web-based survey was administered from May 2012 through August 2012. We surveyed all U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and FTF partner-country representatives identified as key personnel by the agencies, including mission directors, Foreign Service Officers, Foreign Service Nationals, and personal services contractors implementing FTF in 19 countries. Overall, we achieved a weighted response rate of 72 percent, with 342 respondents to our survey.(1) We compared the respondents with nonrespondents on the basis of available demographic data, such as employment status, and did not find any significant differences between the groups. This e-publication presents the survey estimates and 95 percent confidence intervals based on all respondents as well as for USAID and FTF Partners.(2) The number of responses is presented for the Department of State (State), the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Peace Corps, and other agencies combined.(3) See the report referenced above for a more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology, as well as a discussion of survey results.
A copy of the final web survey instrument is reproduced in this e-publication. Survey results are presented in the aggregate form. We do not report open-ended narrative responses. We conducted this performance audit from March 2013 to September 2013 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
(1) We used Response Rate 3 (RR3) as defined by the American Association for Public Opinion Research in Standard Definitions: Final Dispositions of Case Codes and Outcome Rates for Surveys, 7th ed., 2011 to calculate the overall and agency specific response rates. Weighting accounts for the unequal agency sizes and response rates across agencies.
(2) The survey estimates for FTF Partners combine the responses for Department of State (State), Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Commerce (Commerce), Department of the Treasury (Treasury), Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Peace Corps, and the United States African Development Foundation (USADF). There were a few survey respondents from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Defense (DOD), Food for Peace, U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the U.S. Mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which were surveyed and included in the FTF partner results, but are not FTF partners.
(3) The other agencies are CDC, Commerce, DOD, MCC, Treasury, and USADF, as well as a few representatives from Food for Peace, PEPFAR, and the U.S. Mission to ASEAN.
Click on the links below to view the questionnaire and results.
All-agency results
USAID
FTF Partner Agencies
Department of State
Department of Agriculture
Peace Corps
Other Partner Agencies
All-agency results
This section of the e-supplement presents the survey results for all U.S. representatives implementing Feed the Future (FTF) programs in 19 FTF focus countries. Although respondents were asked to provide written comments to open-ended questions, these responses are not provided here. The name of the FTF country in which the representative worked was prefilled into the questionnaire where indicated. We achieved an overall weighted response rate of 72 percent.
Questionnaire Contents
| Page Name | Questionnaire | Results |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | View | View |
| Section 1: Your Feed the Future responsibilities | View | View |
| Section 2: Field-based coordination with in-country representatives from your agency or other U.S. government agencies 2A. Coordination with in-country USAID representatives |
View | View |
| 2B. Coordination with in-country Department of State representatives | View | View |
| 2C. Coordination with in-country Department of Agriculture representatives | View | View |
| 2D. Coordination with in-country Peace Corps representatives | View | View |
| 2E. Coordination with other in-country USG representatives | View | View |
| 2F. Field-based coordination among all USG representatives | View | View |
| Section 3. Coordination with your agency headquarters | View | View |
| Section 4: Consultation with stakeholder groups 4A. Host country government stakeholders |
View | View |
| Section 4B. Non-profit stakeholders | View | View |
| Section 4C. For-profit stakeholders | View | View |
| Section 4D. Donor stakeholders | View | View |
| Section 4E. Stakeholder Consultation and Coordination | View | View |
| Contact information | View | View |
| Submit your responses to GAO | View | View |
| View and print responses | View | View |
(320981)
Copyright
This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. The published product may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without further permission from GAO. However, because this work may contain copyrighted images or other material, permission from the copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this material separately.