Bangladesh, School Feeding USDA McGovern Dole Grant 2017-2020: end-term evaluation

This decentralized endline evaluation was commissioned by the WFP Bangladesh Country Office and covers the USDA McGovern Dole 2017-2020 grant.   It was carried out in 2020 and finalized in 2021.

The endline evaluation was commissioned under the requirements of the USDA grant and serves several critical purposes intended for accountability and learning. The aim of the evaluation is to assess the achievement on project results, explore the strength of the exit strategy with a focus on achieving program sustainability and compare the end-term values with the baseline and mid-term values, through the lens of relevance, efficiency, impact, effectiveness and sustainability. For the end-term evaluation, while equal weightages on each of the OECD-DAC criteria have been given, the focus has been on impact and sustainability

The evaluation covers the USDA McGovern-Dole FY-17 project was expected to benefit 47,689 schoolchildren of Grades I-V in 146 schools by providing approximately 9.3 million micro-nutrient fortified biscuits per year and supporting complimentary education interventions in two upazilas (Ukhiya and Kutubdia) of Cox’s Bazar. The project was also expected to aid the formulation and operationalization of the first National School Meal Policy (NSMP) and help mainstream Government of Bangladesh’s National School Feeding in Poverty Prone Areas Programme (NSFPPA) into the Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP IV)

Key evaluation findings:

Relevance

• Findings suggest that the programme is well aligned with the national government’s priorities, policies and strategies.
• The pandemic gave rise to new challenges, especially with regard to food insecurity and poor food consumption. In this context, SFP’s implementation strategy including i) distribution of fortified biscuits, ii) awareness generation on cooking and consumption of nutritious food and iii) promotion of vegetable gardens contributes to the relevance of the programme as it aims to address challenges of hunger, food insecurity and poor food consumption.
• In the challenging context of the pandemic, WFP’s adaptation of its implementation strategy to emphasise on promoting health and hygiene practices, capacity building of teachers and SMC members, include more home visits, door-to-door distribution of biscuits and use of digital platforms to enable last mile delivery was responsive to the changing context and evolving needs of the community.

Effectiveness

• The evaluation findings indicate that the existence of classroom libraries for each grade and the building the capacity of book captains has led to developing and encouraging reading habits, resulting in an improvement in the reading and comprehension skills of students, as reported by parents and teachers.
• In addition to establishing classroom libraries, interventions such as Read Play Festival and Supplementary Reading Material (SRM) period have also been found to be effective in promoting reading and comprehension abilities. These efforts have also been instrumental in making students and parents aspire towards greater educational outcomes.
• Further, with regard to improving attentiveness of students, discussions with teachers revealed that biscuit distribution has been a key enabler to ensure the same as it reduced distractions caused by hunger.
• WFP’s efforts to promote improved nutrition and health included establishing vegetable gardens, training Little Agriculturalists and sensitizing teachers through various capacity building activities. The endterm findings indicate that 67 percent of the schools in Ukhiya and 58 percent in Kutubdia have vegetable gardens.

Efficiency

• Efficiency of processes in a programme is paramount to its success. One of the key components of the SFP that required considerable coordination was the biscuit distribution component. Findings from the end-term also suggest that all sampled schools in Ukhiya and Kutubdia received biscuits on a daily basis, till before closure of schools due to COVID-19. It was also reported that there were barely ever any instances of stock out during the grant period.
• Further, timely response to the programme needs, measures taken to ensure smooth implementation of biscuit distribution activities during and pre-COVID-19 along with WFP and its implementing partners’ proactive engagement with the government, school administration and the community reflects the efficiency in processes.
• Furthermore, capacity building activities with the relevant officials at GoB took place as per plan in a timely manner, showcasing efficiency if the programme. This was also reflected in the discussions held with GoB representatives, who reported that the activities took place in a seamless and coordinated manner.

 Impact

• Despite facing challenges in implementation in the last year of the programme, the programme exceeded its targets on various indicators such as improved learning abilities (fluency and comprehension), enrolment and attendance of students.
• With regard to improving the health and nutrition outcomes, there has been an increase in the adoption of health and hygiene practices in the sample intervention schools and a noteworthy improvement in the number of functional and usable toilets, number of separate toilets for boys and girls and demonstration of handwashing practices amongst parents.
• The success of the programme and the impact of the engagement created through it, is evident given the ownership showcased by the community in terms of providing support to the implementing partners to ensure continuity of the programme interventions, be it door-to-door biscuit distribution, encouraging students to maintain reading habits or participating in various programme activities.

Sustainability  

• As a result of the ongoing engagement of WFP with regard to providing technical assistance to GoB and continued advocacy efforts, the National School Meal Policy was approved by GoB, with an allocation of USD $19.5 million towards the implementation of the same.
• The anticipated approval of "Primary School Meal Project (PSMP)" in April 2021 that envisions to cover all primary school children with a government budget of approximately USD 2.34 billion for 2021-2026, provides further evidence of the success of the programme that resulted in encouraging the government’s commitment and willingness to take ownership of the programme.
• WFP’s work with the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) to ensure that health and nutrition information is mainstreamed into grade-level science curricula in pre-primary grades through grade 5 further provides evidence for GoB recognizing the need for prioritizing and mainstreaming nutrition, ensuring sustainability of the SFP interventions.

Impact of COVID-19.

• The challenging period of implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic, sought with uncertainties, was met with re-alignment in the programme’s activities, to ensure that the needs of the students and communities were met in a responsive manner. The programme also attempted to address the changing needs of beneficiaries that emerged as a result of the pandemic, while carrying out its regular activities. Wherever feasible, a shift to remote modalities and direct support to students’ homes to deliver the programme activities was made. WFP along with GoB and implementing partners, collectively worked towards minimizing disruption to students’ learning and nutrition.

Key recommendations from the evaluation:

• Since the School Meal Policy has been approved, WFP should now provide technical assistance to MoPME and DPE in operationalization and coordination of activities under NSMP. It should also provide technical assistance to MoPME in establishing a Research and Development (R&D) Centre that can conduct research on applied nutrition in the local context.
• There is a need for increased engagement and advocacy for mainstreaming of new techniques and methods within the existing curriculum prescribed by GoB and adoption of these techniques at scale. Towards this, WFP should consider dissemination of evidence on benefits of adoption of new teaching techniques generated End-Term Evaluation of WFP School-Feeding USDA Mc Govern Dole Grant for FY 2017-2020 vi through this programme at the national level (MoPME, DPE), thereby making a case for consideration by GoB.
• WFP also needs to now enhance focus on improving resilience of the communities in addressing inequalities with regard to (i) access to learning opportunities; (ii) food and nutritional security and responding to crisis such as COVID-19, natural calamities. Creation of digital versions of libraries along with ensuring access to devices and internet as well as exploring ways to promote home gardening can be the first steps
• WFP should consider developing a menu for nutritious food in schools that states nutritional information and serving sizes to promote healthy meals. In addition, it should also scale up the efforts on training of cooks and include aspects such as disinfecting dishes, cookware and utensils, maintaining cleanliness in kitchen, managing waste and storing perishable and non-perishable commodities. This would help sustaining the efforts of the SFP and ensure success of the implementation of NSMP.