The Plus One Serve of Vegetables by 2030 Program has a bold goal: lift average daily vegetable consumption by one serve per Australian. Getting there requires broad action that mobilises setting-based behaviour change R&D initiatives into a broader national movement. The Program’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework ensures the cumulative value of Program delivery can be tracked and reported to tell the story of impact and legacy if proven behaviour change initiatives are scaled nationally.
R&D Coordination and National Action
The Program’s foundational focus area is centred on the coordination of a pipeline of R&D: aligning settings-based research projects across Early Learning, Primary Schools, Secondary and Tertiary Education, Home, and Retail with the broader program objectives. The Program team works to develop a research pipeline with the support of the National Program Steering Committee (NPSC) for delivery through Hort Innovation and supporting partners. These projects generate the evidence base — testing what interventions most effectively increase vegetable consumption behaviour in each setting, and whether they can be implemented at scale in the real world by suitable partners.
An additional and evolving focus of the Plus One Serve Program is the delivery of National Action that seeks to mobilise the broader ecosystem. This includes developing settings action plans, consumer communications, the Pledge for More Veg movement, and building the implementation pathways needed to take proven interventions to national scale. It also includes stakeholder engagement with retailers, government agencies and commercial partners, in recognition that these are the institutions which will be key to achieving legacy and impact.
Both foundational R&D and broader national action are essential to the Program, with the contribution of each being tracked and measured through the M&E Framework’s Program Logic tool.
A Logic That Maps the Full Journey
Program Logic is a planning tool that maps the causal chain from inputs and activities through to outputs, intermediate outcomes, and end-of-program outcomes. It sits at the heart of the Plus One Serve M&E Framework by defining “how change occurs” through the Program. This means every activity, whether it’s coordinating the R&D pipeline, stakeholder engagement or running a stakeholder communications campaign, connects to a clear line of accountability for what it’s expected to contribute to realising change and achieving the Program’s goals.
From Logic to Measurement
The Monitoring Plan translates the Program Logic into specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), data sources, and reporting responsibilities. R&D-specific KPIs include things like the number of research projects delivered in each priority setting and assessments of individual projects that reviews their acceptability, demand, practicality, and implementation feasibility.
Reflecting the Program’s broader National Action, outcomes are focused on an increased capacity to implement demand creation programs; vegetable grower sentiment and confidence; the number of commercial or public partners involved in pilot interventions; and evidence of independently resourced initiatives arising from Program engagement — for example, partners integrating Plus One Serve messaging into their own ESG reporting or strategic plans. Securing stakeholder commitment to implement behaviour change initiatives informed by R&D, formal partnership agreements in place for scale-up, and pathways identified for sustained investment beyond 2030 are examples of other areas showing the focus on sustained legacy and impact.
Evidence-Driven Decisions
The NPSC also uses M&E evidence to manage a formal Stage-Gate process — making Go/No-Go calls on R&D projects at key milestones based on feasibility findings. This keeps Hort Innovation’s investment directed towards interventions with the strongest pathway to scale.
What Success Looks Like
Success for the Program isn’t simply whether a measurable consumer vegetable intake increase of one serve per day across priority settings has been achieved. Rather, the M&E Framework also ensures that the value generated through program for stakeholders – such as research providers, commercial partners, government and vegetable growers – is understood by assessing factors such as the effectiveness, relevance and legacy of the Plus One Program delivery model.
Put simply, the M&E Framework ensures that Plus One Serve isn’t just coordinating good research — it’s building the partnerships and momentum needed to make a lasting difference to how Australians eat.