World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

 The Annual Evaluation Report for 2011 focuses on lessons arising from implementation to date of WFP’s Strategic Plan 2008-2013. It covers 16 evaluations on: strategic themes in the transition from ‘food aid to food assistance’, such as partnerships and how Country Offices adapt to change; school feeding and WFP support to agricultural small holders and markets; and WFP’s strategic positioning and performance in Haiti, Kenya, Rwanda and Yemen; and others.

 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 report presents the key findings, conclusions and recommendations of the WFP Kenya country portfolio evaluation.

The first in a series of evaluations of the impact of school meals concludes that meals have helped boys and girls get into and through primary school and even on to secondary school. But the school meal is not enough to reverse the negative trend in drop-out rates as the students approach puberty, especially for girls in rural areas. Enhancing the cross-sector collaboration between agencies is necessary to maximise the gains of school meals. The Government of Kenya has taken important steps in this direction and WFP is in a key position to support this further.

The first in a series of evaluations of the impact of school meals concludes that meals have helped boys and girls get into and through primary school and even on to secondary school. But the school meal is not enough to reverse the negative trend in drop-out rates as the students approach puberty, especially for girls in rural areas.  Enhancing the cross-sector collaboration between agencies is necessary to maximise the gains of school meals. The Government of Kenya has taken important steps in this direction and WFP is in a key position to support this further.

In 2009, WFP and the Boston Consulting Group conducted a study which assessed the monetary costs and economic benefits of providing school meals. The study, based on data from Lao PDR and Kenya, and global academic and empirical evidence, incorporated all main recognized outcomes of school meals: nutrition/health, educational benefits, and value transfer (added household income).

Commitment to School Meals Programmes in Kenya is high: the programme is rooted in the policy framework, there is a strong cooperation between WFP and the Ministry of Education, and the government has recently launched a Home-Grown School Feeding initiative to start a handover process.