Charing a roundtable on the Mid-Term Evaluation of the WFP Strategic Plan 2022-2025, held on Monday and Tuesday in Rome, Balla called on the WFP to strengthen its follow-up and assessment policies, to ensure compliance with anti-fraud standards and humanitarian principles in its partnerships, as part of the development of its new strategy.

Balla stressed the importance of "ensuring rigorous follow-up to the recommendations resulting from the evaluation of WFP's strategic plans, especially the summary evaluation of cooperating partners."

He also called for "substantial contributions" to the process of drawing up the new strategy for next year.

Concerning the summary evaluation of WFP's collaboration with cooperating partners, he stressed the importance of reliable data analysis and transparency in addressing the risks identified in the management of partners.

Balla dwelt on "concerns linked to fraudulent practices by some partners compromising the integrity of evaluation mechanisms," stressing the need to adopt "strict and immediate corrective anti-fraud measures" in the event of fraudulent practices.