About the evaluation
- The Office of Audit and Evaluation at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada conducted an evaluation of the Local Food Infrastructure Fund (LFIF) to assess its relevance, design, delivery, efficiency and effectiveness.
- Program activities for fiscal year 2019-20 to 2022-23 were evaluated using multiple lines of evidence: a review of documents, files and literature; an environmental scan; analysis of secondary and administrative data; interviews with internal and external stakeholders; and case studies.
What we found
Local Food Infrastructure Fund summary
- LFIF falls under the Food Policy for Canada and is associated with AAFC’s domestic and international markets core responsibility.
- Launched in 2019, the LFIF is considered a new social policy program.
- The Program provides funding to organizations to purchase food-related infrastructure.
- The evaluation covers $32 million in AAFC grants and contributions.
Relevance
- The LFIF is aligned with federal and departmental priorities and the Food Policy for Canada; however, there was limited evidence demonstrating that the Program is aligned with its associated AAFC core responsibility, domestic and international markets.
- The Program is relevant insofar as it partially fills a gap in food security infrastructure funding while also duplicating some aspects of existing programs.
Design and delivery
- The Program’s design is effective in supporting community food security outcomes rather than the stated ultimate outcome of reduced household food insecurity.
- Suitable indicators are used to understand the Program’s effects from the perspective of recipients; however, performance assessment is limited by a lack of external validation and indicators regarding nutrition and Gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus).
Performance
- The Program made progress towards achieving its immediate and intermediate outcomes. Limited to no evidence demonstrated progress towards the ultimate outcome of reduced household food insecurity.
- Overall, the Program successfully reached its target groups and accessibility for Indigenous communities improved; however, potential recipients lack awareness of the Program leading to varying degrees of participation among LFIF’s target groups.
- Overall, the Program is administered efficiently.
Recommendations
Recommendation 1: The Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch, in consultation with the Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Management Branch, define AAFC’s role with supporting food security to inform potential changes to the Department’s core responsibilities.
Recommendation 2: The Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs Branch adjust the Program’s ultimate outcome to better reflect its community food security design.
Recommendation 3: The Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs Branch address opportunities to validate and improve program performance data to understand: achievement of community food security outcomes; differentiated impacts on target groups (GBA Plus); and cost-efficiency.
Recommendation 4: The Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs Branch examine past design changes and outreach activities to inform future efforts to increase access for the Program’s priority populations.
Management response
Management agrees with the evaluation recommendations and has developed an action plan to address them by March 2024.