The evaluation was commissioned by the WFP Office of Evaluation to provide evaluative evidence for accountability and learning to inform the design of the next country strategic plan (CSP) for Benin.
The evaluation covered all WFP activities implemented between January 2018 and June 2022 under a transitional Interim Country Strategic Plan (Jan 2018-June 2019) and the CSP.
It assessed WFP’s strategic positioning, its effectiveness in contributing to strategic outcomes, the efficiency of CSP implementation and factors explaining WFP’s performance.
The evaluation concluded that:
- WFP successfully implemented the national integrated school feeding programme, though opportunities for strengthening government capacities were missed posing risks for sustainability. The almost exclusive orientation of the CSP towards school feeding has created an imbalance and affected WFP’s ability to define its role in addressing the root causes of food and nutrition insecurity in Benin, affecting a significant and growing proportion of the population.
- The lack of a strategy for addressing cross-cutting issues led to their insufficient consideration in activities, and to unsatisfactory results. For instance, WFP did not manage to reduce the gender gap in school enrollment nor to set up a formal community feedback mechanism. Due to the strong focus on the implementation and scale-up of the school feeding programme, opportunities for strengthening national capacities were missed, and the transfer of responsibilities to national entities was limited, putting the sustainability of the programme at risk.
