Antonella D’Aprile: Evaluation creates a safe space for listening
Representative and Country Director for WFP Mozambique unpacks how evaluation helps build trust and engage communities, governments and donors.
In 2022, a country strategic plan evaluation was completed in Mozambique. How was it relevant for the country office and the region?
The evaluation looked at what the Mozambique country office did between 2017 and 2021, and recognized our agility in emergency response. But it also emphasized the need to break down silos and work more collectively across functional areas, especially to advance long-term resilience on climate and nutrition. While we already knew this, hearing it from an external team helped crystallize the design of our next country strategic plan.
It reiterated the value of a bottom-up approach to understanding root causes. We often speak about this in WFP, but the evaluation pushed us to listen more — to communities, the government, donors, and partners. This process really sharpened our thinking on how to contribute more meaningfully to food and nutrition security in Mozambique.
And because the evaluation process includes consultation and reflection, it created a safe space to speak openly — not just about what we did well, but also about areas for improvement. This honesty helped rebuild trust, and it shaped how we designed the next country strategic plan in a more inclusive way.
Are there any decentralized evaluations that stand out?
Absolutely. The gender transformative and nutrition sensitive (GTNS) programme evaluation was a real gamechanger. It showed, with clear evidence, what has worked and what hasn’t. On the one hand, it validated the approach and led to stronger engagement with the donor and government for a second phase. On the other, it made us realize we needed more granular, community-led design.
For example, not all families in the same area face the same challenges. Some communities emphasized the need for irrigation schemes in drier zones; others proposed community micro-enterprises to prepare nutrient-rich porridge for children under two. These solutions came from the ground and proved feasible, and we have now integrated them into the next phase, GTNS 2.0.
Have you had any personal “aha” moments from evaluations?
Yes, what has really stayed with me, is the realization that we are talking about people and their lived experiences. Evaluation helps us listen — to women, men, youth — and understand how they experience our programmes.
That insight is powerful. It pushes us to adapt and make our work more meaningful. Evaluation isn’t just about high-level results; it’s about people’s realities.
How can we increase evaluation use at country and regional level?
It depends on how you use the evaluation. There is an added value if you share it with the government, donors, and internal teams, so that it’s not just a document on paper sitting on a shelf. Evaluations are useful if you do advocacy after it’s been finalised, at regional level. So it’s important that we invest time in socializing the results and recommendations.
Mozambique received a gender evaluation award recently. What’s the secret to fostering a culture of evaluation?
First, evaluation must be seen as everyone’s responsibility, it’s not just the role of specific functional areas. In Mozambique, we try to open spaces for different teams to engage: finance, admin, supply chain, and more. We host regular brown bag sessions where teams share experiences. After we won the Gender Responsive Evaluation Excellence Award, we used it as an opportunity for collective reflection and learning.
We treat evaluations and awards as team efforts. That helps spark curiosity and ownership across the office. It also shows the practical benefits: the GTNS evaluation, for instance, helped secure funding for the second phase in Shemba, in central Mozambique.
So in your view, could evaluation be used as a tool for donor engagement and fundraising?
Yes definitely, governments — including those with fragile systems — and donors are increasingly asking for efficiency and for us to highlight the value proposition of our work. When we showcase this with evidence, we improve our programme design and implementation, making donors feel more comfortable to invest in WFP or in our partners.
Evaluations can complement funding efforts if they clearly show what worked, what didn’t, and how we’re learning from it. When I engage with donors or governments, I often use evaluation findings and recommendations.
We probably need to get better at extracting key messages from evaluation reports: make them simple, visual, engaging. There’s room to be creative and use these insights not only for advocacy but also for resource mobilization.
