DevPact designed and conducted annual evaluations for innovators supported under the Water Energy for Food (WE4F) Programme in the DRC, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia
WE4F is a joint international initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the European Union (EU), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Netherlands, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Through WE4F, the Partners aim to expand the scale of innovations that impact the sectors food and water, food, and energy or all three sectors of the nexus (food, water, energy) to increase the sustainability of agricultural food value chains, improving energy and water efficiency as well as to improve climate resilient agriculture in developing countries and emerging markets by the SDGs, with a particular focus on people experiencing poverty and women. WE4F supports 32 innovators which are mid to late-stage, for-profit, and non-profit organizations. These innovators are categorized into three models based on the impact created by their innovations, namely water-energy- food, energy-food, and water-food. The innovators develop an Acceleration Workplan (AWP) to forecast specific environmental, social, economic, financial, and investment targets for three years, according to their business models. On a semi-annual basis, the innovators report their progress against the targets they are assigned both qualitatively and quantitatively. To that end, DevPact was commissioned by Tetratech to design and conduct annual evaluations of innovators in the DRC, Mozambique, South Africa and Mozambique (in 2023 and 2024). In 2024, the survey involved at least 80 interviews per innovator (40 end users and 40 control groups) with farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Zambia, and 60 interviews per end user in South Africa and Mozambique in 2023. For counterfactual purposes, DevPact developed a comparable group of farmers who did not utilize the innovations but shared a similar context in crops produced, incomes, and geography to conduct the assessment. DevPact also developed a gender-sensitive data collection plan that included disaggregating data in all relevant categories, questions related to gendered barriers of access to solutions, and considered data collection gendered risks, limitations, and mitigation actions. The survey covered diverse geographic locations, including South Kivu province of Uvira (Kawiza, Kiliba, Sange, Luvungi, Lubarika territories) in the DRC, Manica and Sofala in Mozambique, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and Limpopo in South Africa and Lusaka, Central and Norther Western provinces in Zambia.
Partners: WEF4
