The evaluation was commissioned by the WFP Office of Evaluation to provide evidence for accountability and learning; and to inform the design of the next CSP in Cambodia.
It covers WFP activities implemented from 2018 to September 2022.
The evaluation concluded that:
- Overall, the evaluation finds that WFP’s strategic direction was appropriate and aligned well with Cambodia’s national development priorities. The CSP provided a suitable strategic framework, but its siloed structure hindered cross-fertilization across strategic outcomes.
- WFP's school feeding programme has continued to gain momentum and WFP was able to demonstrate adaptive capacity during emergencies – helping solidify its role as a leading partner in shock-responsive social protection. WFP worked effectively to strengthen resilience at the commune and national levels as been progressively implementing disaster risk reduction activities.
- WFP’s work in food security and nutrition exceeded expectations, but there are opportunities to maximize linkages between stand-alone nutrition interventions and nutrition interaction / mainstreaming.
- Shifting upstream to support government systems across the portfolio faced challenges, partially due to being driven by corporate direction rather than suitability for the country context. Meaningful corporate indicators were also lacking to fully assess the sustainability of achievements.
- WFP has significantly strengthened partnerships with Government counterparts and is well-positioned for ensuring the sustainability of results, in particular the transition towards a government-owned home-grown school feeding programme.
- Building on progress, there is an opportunity for WFP to adopt a more sophisticated integration of gender, inclusion, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and accountability to affected populations in future programming.
