WFP’s engagement in middle-income countries (2019–2024): Evaluation synthesis

Despite representing the majority of WFP’s operational contexts, MICs accounted for only 34 percent of its total funding over the period 2019–2024. The synthesis concludes that: 

• The category of MICs is too broad to inform programming effectively. However, upper-middle-income countries share characteristics that make them particularly distinct within this broader group; 
• The absence of a clear rationale for WFP’s engagement in such settings has constrained its strategic positioning;  
• WFP could better articulate its strategies and programme offer particularly in MICs hosting refugees and internally displaced persons, and assisting irregular migrants; in MICs where it does not target direct beneficiaries; and in MICs transitioning out of crisis.  

The main elements of strengths identified in the evaluations are: 

• WFP's increasingly diversified role and programme offer in MICs, while maintaining consolidated service delivery and emergency response functions; 
• WFP’s adaptive capacity to respond to government requests and pivot towards crisis response.  

Evidence of key contributions by WFP in MICs was found in: strengthened food security and nutrition systems; expanded social protection during crises; improved policy frameworks; enhanced disaster preparedness; gender-inclusive economic opportunities; and improved social cohesion and refugee integration into national systems.  

Challenges and missed opportunities in MICs were noted in: 

• Navigating uncertain financing prospects when countries move from low to middle-income status; 
• Moving ‘upstream’ from small-scale, single initiatives and adopting a coherent approach to programming and partnerships, considering the vulnerability to piecemeal donor funding;  
• Capturing and conveying WFP’s added value and contributions to national systems and capacities.