In 2018, two years before it won a Peace Prize,[3] the World Food Programme was ranked worst of 40 largest aid agencies on the QuODA scale (decent proxies for aid quality).
Quoting form the linked page (from the website of The Center for Global Development):
QuODA’s 24 aid effectiveness indicators are listed below and we’ve published a detailed methodology along with the data.
I suppose that the claim in the parent comment that the WFP “was ranked worst of 40 largest aid agencies” is based on that “data” spreadsheet. But notice that 27 of those 40 “aid agencies” are not aid agencies but rather countries (e.g. Australia, United States). So this is already a big red flag. For each agency/country, the spreadsheet provides 7 indicators that are grouped under the title “Maximising Efficiency”. One of those indicators is called “ME4” according to which the WFP performed 3rd worst among all 40 agencies/countries. Quoting from the “detailed methodology” PDF (removing footnote references):
Indicator ME4: High Country Programmable Aid Share
[...] The [OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC)], recognizing the need for a metric that reflects the amount of aid that is received and recorded by partner country governments, constructed a measure called country programmable aid. CPA is a measure of development assistance that excludes funding that does not flow to partner countries (e.g. donor administrative costs and imputed student costs), unpredictable flows (e.g. humanitarian assistance), and transfers that are not discussed between donors and partner countries (e.g. food assistance). [...]
So if I understand correctly, the the QuODA scale seems to “punish” agencies that spend money on food assistance directly (rather than giving the money to the host state), and therefore does not seem like a good scale for evaluating the World Food Programme. (To be clear, I’m not overall familiar with QuODA scale; I’m just reporting what seems to me like a very big red flag).
A 2008 study found that UN agencies were by far the least efficient agencies, with the WFP disbursing just $30,000 per employee, where the average was $1,000,000.
Maybe the WFP employs many locals in low-GPD-per-capita states as part of their efforts to distribute food and the salaries are not a large % of WFP’s budget? (I don’t know whether that is the case; I’m just pointing out that that metric does not seem useful here.)
The second metric is aid per employee I think, so salaries don’t come into it(?) Distributing food is labour intensive, but so is UNICEF’s work and parts of WHO.
The rest of my evidence is informal (various development economists I’ve spoken to with horror stories) and I’d be pleased to be wrong.
Quoting form the linked page (from the website of The Center for Global Development):
I suppose that the claim in the parent comment that the WFP “was ranked worst of 40 largest aid agencies” is based on that “data” spreadsheet. But notice that 27 of those 40 “aid agencies” are not aid agencies but rather countries (e.g. Australia, United States). So this is already a big red flag. For each agency/country, the spreadsheet provides 7 indicators that are grouped under the title “Maximising Efficiency”. One of those indicators is called “ME4” according to which the WFP performed 3rd worst among all 40 agencies/countries. Quoting from the “detailed methodology” PDF (removing footnote references):
So if I understand correctly, the the QuODA scale seems to “punish” agencies that spend money on food assistance directly (rather than giving the money to the host state), and therefore does not seem like a good scale for evaluating the World Food Programme. (To be clear, I’m not overall familiar with QuODA scale; I’m just reporting what seems to me like a very big red flag).
Maybe the WFP employs many locals in low-GPD-per-capita states as part of their efforts to distribute food and the salaries are not a large % of WFP’s budget? (I don’t know whether that is the case; I’m just pointing out that that metric does not seem useful here.)
Appreciate this.
The second metric is aid per employee I think, so salaries don’t come into it(?) Distributing food is labour intensive, but so is UNICEF’s work and parts of WHO.
The rest of my evidence is informal (various development economists I’ve spoken to with horror stories) and I’d be pleased to be wrong.