SCALE Program Report - Quarterly

Implemented by Mercy Corps and Save the Children, the program aims to improve the impact, sustainability, and scalability of FFP's activities in agriculture, natural resource management, and livelihoods. The program focuses on sustainable and climate-sensitive approaches that foster resilient agricultural systems and enhance income opportunities within agricultural systems and off-farm livelihoods. The program's objectives include improving program quality, strengthening the capacity and skills of FFP implementing partners in agriculture, natural resource management, and livelihoods, and improving the level of knowledge and practices across FFP's global portfolio in both emergency and development contexts. The program will achieve these objectives through a range of activities, including staff hire, strategy development, and the establishment of a SCALE technical committee. During the first quarter of the program, objectives and activities focused on program start-up, including staff hire, strategy development, and initiation of the SCALE technical committee. All planned activities and budget expenditure were on target. The program director, Andrea Mottram, was hired in February, and the process for hiring the Collaboration and Learning Specialist and Capacity Strengthening Specialist was initiated. A results framework was developed and presented to various groups and individuals for comment and input. The SCALE technical committee is a group of representatives from FFP implementing organizations that will come together to support SCALE knowledge capture, generation, application, and uptake activities. The aim of this group was discussed at the implementers meeting held in Washington DC, and input was collated from the group on the best use of the committee. Initial reactions from the meeting were supportive of the committee idea, and all attendees expressed interest in joining it. The program has identified priority technical areas, including climate and natural resource management, livestock, post-harvest, markets and finance, agriculture and nutrition, gender in agriculture, emergency, alternative livelihoods and employment, and sustainability and resilience. These areas will be the focus of the program's activities and will be refined every six months in line with planned adaptive program revisions. The program's monitoring and evaluation plan will be finalized by the end of the second quarter. Activities during the first quarter included reviewing the TOPS Indicator Performance Tracking Table (IPTT) and program indicators. The program has also initiated knowledge sharing forums and mechanisms, including the SCALE technical committee, to support knowledge capture, generation, application, and uptake activities. The program has made notable progress in its first quarter, with all planned activities and budget expenditure on target. The program director has been hired, and the process for hiring other staff members has been initiated. The program has also established a SCALE technical committee and has identified priority technical areas. The program's monitoring and evaluation plan will be finalized in the second quarter, and knowledge sharing forums and mechanisms will continue to be developed and implemented.