Lao PDR, USDA MCGovern-Dole School Feeding Programme 2020-2025: Evaluations

The decentralized evaluation was commissioned by the WFP Lao PDR as the endline evaluation of the USDA McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Project (2020-2025) in Lao PDR, and was conducted in 2025. It represents the final stage in the FY20 evaluation series, following the baseline study (2022) and the midterm evaluation (2024). The evaluation serves dual and complementary objectives of accountability to USDA and project beneficiaries, as well as evidence generation and learning for WFP and its partners.

The evaluation covered activities including school feeding, WASH, community development, infrastructure investment, literacy, agriculture support, government capacity strengthening, and health and nutrition activities.

The key findings include:

• Relevance and Coherence:  The FY20 project was strongly aligned with national priorities and WFP strategic objectives, using school feeding to support student attendance, participation, and nutrition, alongside integrated WASH, health, and capacity‑strengthening components. These interventions were considered practical and valued by stakeholders. Community contributions supported ownership but were uneven and, in some cases, placed a burden on poorer households. While the project design aimed to support girls and ethnic minorities, limited use of disaggregated data and insufficient attention to underlying participation barriers constrained progress.
• Efficiency: The project was implemented efficiently overall, delivering school feeding, literacy, and WASH activities largely as planned despite significant external shocks. Strong logistics arrangements, coordination mechanisms, buffer stocks, and increasing cost efficiency helped maintain continuity of delivery. Adaptive management was a notable strength. While WFP worked closely with government counterparts to sustain operations, the transfer of efficiency gains into government systems remains incomplete.
• Effectiveness: The project reached nearly 98,000 students and delivered over 27 million meals. Overall, the FY20 project achieved close to half of its intended results, with progress observed in student attentiveness, regular attendance, learning environments, and aspects of institutional strengthening. Although there was no significant change in the proportion of schools with any water source, access to improved water sources increased among schools with existing water infrastructure. Community mobilization and infrastructure investments supported day‑to‑day delivery and ownership in many schools, though results were uneven. Health and nutrition activities strengthened caregiver practices and introduced fortified staples, while changes in student behaviour were less consistent.
• Impact: The project demonstrated solid progress across learning, health, and nutrition outcomes, including improvements in reading skills, teaching quality, student concentration, and caregiver health and nutrition practices. However, few life‑of‑project targets were fully met, particularly in literacy and student behaviour change. Outcomes were strongly influenced by external factors, including COVID‑19, teacher shortages, inflation, and broader resource constraints. System‑strengthening efforts improved coordination, monitoring, and policy dialogue, while gaps persist in agricultural linkages, financial tracking, and transition to full government ownership.
• Sustainability: The project adopted a pragmatic sustainability approach, delaying transition to the national school feeding programme and prioritizing system strengthening, monitoring, and community capacity development amid constrained government resources and COVID‑19‑related challenges.  The project played a strong catalytic role in building government commitment, policies, and coordination for school feeding. Nevertheless, continued reliance on WFP support raises sustainability concerns. Community contributions were fragile and insufficient to sustain school meals in the absence of external support. While donor funding and community support helped maintain activities, progress in mobilizing broader partner financing remained limited. Local committees (VEDCs) were central to delivery and ownership but were often overstretched and under‑resourced. Strong partnerships—particularly between WFP, government counterparts, and CRS—were critical to effective implementation and laid important foundations for future government ownership.

Key recommendations:

• Develop a comprehensive transition plan for FY24 early in the project. 
• Diversify and stabilize the financing base for Government school feeding
• Strengthen the community contribution model.
• Consolidate WFP’s role as technical accompanier in the transition process.
• Strengthen the role and resourcing of VEDCs.
• Undertake a structured assessment and analysis process for priority parity and inclusion issues.