World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life – from the womb to two years of age – can lead to irreversible damage to children’s minds and bodies. The World Food Programme in Asia is targeting its food assistance to make sure that children and adults get the right food, at the right time, in the right place.

 The Annual Evaluation Report for 2010 focuses on operational issues arising from evaluations of country portfolios and operations, and impact evaluations of selected school feeding programmes.

The findings reaffirm WFP’s corporate areas of strength in responding to emergencies under the most difficult circumstances and in providing school feeding, as one of the Programme’s flagship programmes. However, impact evaluations of these programmes also showed the importance of implementing school feeding in cooperation with partners who invest in education sector improvements. Areas where largest improvements can be made relate to food-for-work, where funding often is curtailed and thus strategic objectives moved beyond reach, and nutrition where the ambiguous objectives and small size of programmes make it difficult to demonstrate results.

This is the second of a series of evaluations of the impact of WFP school feeding.  In the past ten years WFP school feeding has achieved its aim of supporting primary education by contributing to increased enrolment, attendance and promotion and to reduced drop-out rates in Cambodia. The school feeding programme had marked effects on nutrition and value transfers to households, but the school meals programme and take-home rations affected education, nutrition and value transfer in different ways.  Certain factors limited the positive effects, however.  The Cambodia programme functioned effectively and was well organized, the evaluation presents aspects that could be reinforced to make interventions more effective and sustainable.

This is the second of a series of evaluations of the impact of WFP school feeding.  In the past ten years WFP school feeding has achieved its aim of supporting primary education by contributing to increased enrolment, attendance and promotion and to reduced drop-out rates in Cambodia. The school feeding programme had marked effects on nutrition and value transfers to households, but the school meals programme and take-home rations affected education, nutrition and value transfer in different ways.  Certain factors limited the positive effects, however.  The Cambodia programme functioned effectively and was well organized, the evaluation presents aspects that could be reinforced to make interventions more effective and sustainable.