About the evaluation
- The Office of Audit and Evaluation of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada conducted an evaluation of the Regional Operations Directorate's (ROD) activities to assess relevance, design, delivery and effectiveness.
- Regional sector engagement and development activities and regional intelligence and analysis activities from 2015-16 and 2021-22 were evaluated using multiple lines of evidence including: a document review, case studies and interviews with AAFC staff, provincial, territorial and industry stakeholders.
Regional Operations Directorate activities summary
- Canada's agriculture sector is a complex, multi-jurisdictional sector which maintains an integrated domestic and international supply chain. Within this context, ROD operates 5 regional offices across Canada.
- Through the regional offices, ROD acts as the "boots on the ground and the eyes and ears of the department" across the country to address the needs of the sector across regions and gather regional intelligence to support AAFC policies and programs.
What we found
Relevance
- Strong local networks support ROD's provision of services to regional sector stakeholders; and regional intelligence to AAFC including during emergency management.
- ROD activities respond to AAFC priorities for Domestic and International Markets; and equity, diversity and inclusion of under-represented populations.
Design and delivery
- The lack of an adequate structure to address emergency management and increasing workload undermines ROD's ability to continue prioritizing ongoing activities in support of regional stakeholders and AAFC.
- ROD activities are generally complementary with other programs, although there is potential duplication with Global Affairs Canada and with provincial and territorial governments.
- Gender-Based Analysis Plus considerations are integrated but promotion of official languages outside of national headquarters and the Quebec region is limited. Regional staff lack specialized knowledge and skills to support outreach to Indigenous peoples.
- Performance metrics are limited to numerical counts of outputs. The lack of outcome measures tailored to ROD activities make it difficult to assess ROD impacts and outcomes.
Performance
Outcomes of ROD activities identified for industry stakeholders include business expansion, increased local employment and ongoing support of under-represented groups' participation in the agriculture sector. ROD activities supported optimal use of AAFC program funding and informed several national emergency management efforts.
Recommendations
- Recommendation 1
- The Assistant Deputy Minister, Market and Industry Services Branch, review, identify and clarify core activities to be undertaken by regional offices and ensure that an adequate structure is in place to deliver them.
- Recommendation 2
- The Assistant Deputy Minister, Market and Industry Services Branch, develop appropriate outcome measures for the Regional Operations Directorate Business Plan and accompanying performance indicators.
Management response
Management agrees with the evaluation recommendations and has developed an action plan to address them by implement most actions by March 31, 2024.