Enabling Performance Measurement and Improvement in Agriculture

The Challenge

USDA and its resources have historically been less accessible to specific, underserved segments of the American population, resulting in their underrepresentation in farming and ranching activities. The objective of the 2501 Program is to demonstrate USDA’s commitment to ensuring equitable participation and access by awarding grants to local organizations that support these underserved groups and amplify USDA outreach efforts. Constraints in tools and frameworks, capacity, headcount, and training hindered the Program from effectively and efficiently measuring performance against its mission.

The Solution

Through USDA’s Office of Budget & Program Analysis, Tower Strategy was contracted to provide a comprehensive set of tools and frameworks to support performance measurement and subsequent evaluation for the 2501 Program. To address key OIG recommendations made to the program and to satisfy Congressional reporting requirements placed on the program, Tower Strategy began by evaluating the Program’s current functional requirements and activities to define the major categories of metrics for the Program to evaluate its historical performance. Using that categorization, we then developed a logic model that clearly connected the Program’s activities with the outcomes and impact it intended to have on the communities it served. Having gained approval on that model, we then identified a set of 43 metrics, nested within the logic model structure itself and designed the data collection and data analysis procedures needed for the program to begin and sustain its performance measurement efforts. Knowing that the program would not be able to begin measurement of each metric immediately (due to internal and external constraints), we further segmented its performance measurement activities into those which should be initiated short, medium, and long-term. 

Impact

The work produced by Tower Strategy Group directly resulted in the 2501 Program ensuring it can meet its reporting requirements while also directly addressing key OIG recommendations. In addition, that work supported the business case for transitioning the program from USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement (OPPE) to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), a research and education-oriented agency with a substantially larger budget and with greater functional experience and capacity in managing similar programs. This has elevated the importance of the 2501 Program’s work, provided greater access to funding, secured follow-on evaluation work for the Program, enabled access to a broader network of agricultural stakeholders, and ensured longer-term program sustainability.