Overall Program Assessment - Agriculture Forestry and Fishing Research at NIOSH - page 46

engage important segments of the AFF workforce, especially non-English speaking
workers, or the large numbers who lack authorization for U.S. employment.
Special efforts are clearly needed to reach and engage workers in settings that
they feel comfortable in, and the AFF Program staff in general has yet to show in-
clination to initiate direct worker involvement. The notion that simply “hearing”
what stakeholders and their representatives have to say about workforce needs is
sufficient for input is wrong. A more meaningful way to engage stakeholders would
be to directly include them in ongoing discussions of designing and implementing
AFF research.
Consistency of Production Inputs with Program Goals and Objectives
Considerable resources are being directed toward achieving the goals of the
AFF Program. It is difficult to assess the adequacy of production inputs given the
lack of detail regarding the distribution of Ag Center funding and how it is directed
toward program goals. The management structure of NIOSH seems to limit the
role of AFF Program personnel in directing resources, managing projects, and
evaluating progress toward measurable objectives. The lack of a formal strategic
planning process with stated aims and measurable objectives exacerbates the prob-
lem of management structure and hampers program evaluation. If the role of the
AFF Program management is only to compile and manage information, there are
substantial shortcomings in the current process for compiling, categorizing, cod-
ing, and sorting through the large quantity of information related to the activities,
outputs, and outcomes of the various projects.
Activities
Promotion of Activities: Quantity and Quality
The committee found no evidence that inputs were squandered or devoted
to activities unrelated to the defined program goals. A more difficult and more
important question is whether the limited resources were allocated in a way that
would maximize the impact on the highest-priority subjects for the program. The
general nature of the program goals and the lack of a more formal strategic plan-
ning process with measurable objectives make it difficult to determine how well
the inputs were used.
Adequate surveillance data are important for achieving an effective AFF Pro-
gram, and there are recognized problems with the available sources of surveillance
data for AFF populations; the inputs might not be adequate. On the basis of budget
information provided in the evidence package (Figures 2-9 and 2-10 in NIOSH,