Executive Summary
1 The American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted an endline evaluation of the first phase of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition (McGovern-Dole) program support in Cote d’Ivoire (2015-2021) implemented by the World Food Program (WFP)/AVSI/Government of Côte d’Ivoire. This evaluation was commissioned by the WFP office in Cote d’Ivoire for the purposes of accountability and learning. The evaluation’s objectives are to assess the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability of the McGovern-Dole program in Côte d’Ivoire and offer actionable steps for program improvement. This report presents the evaluation findings and conclusions.
CONTEXT
2 To improve food security and access to quality education, the Government of Côte d’Ivoire has been implementing a school feeding program in partnership with the WFP since 1989 in priority regions of the country. Beginning in 1998, program implementers asked local communities to contribute to the functioning of the school canteens in order to continue providing students with hot mid-day meals. This sustainability component sought to build capacity of local agricultural groups, the majority of whom are women, and link their production to school canteens. Currently, the school canteens program is being piloted by the Ministry of National Education and Literacy (MENA) through the Directorate of School Canteens which carries out the program activities in the various regional directorates of National Education. The National Agency for Support to Rural Development (ANADER) provides technical support for the agricultural groups contributing food to the school canteens.
3 To continue supporting the school feeding program in Côte d’Ivoire, the WFP has mobilized McGovern-Dole funds from the USDA for the years from 2015 to 2021 (Phase 1) and from 2021 to 2025 (Phase 2). The first phase of the McGovern-Dole program has six components: 1) provision of hot meals to students; 2) take-home rations; 3) deworming of pupils; 4) literacy and reading activities in the form of improved reading materials, teacher trainings, and capacity building; 5) training of canteen managers in the use of health and food practices; and 6) capacity building of farm groups around the canteens in schools. Over the two phases, the WFP will be transitioning responsibility of the program to the Ivorian government and local communities by reducing the number of days they provide to schools and building local capacity to take over. The objectives of the McGovern-Dole school feeding program consist of increasing student enrollment, alleviating short-term hunger through school meals, improving student health and nutrition, improving literacy, and increasing capacity of communities and smallholder farmers to support schools. The program also includes an emphasis on gender equality, which is mainstreamed throughout the activities.
EVALUATION FEATURES
4 The subject of the evaluation at hand is Phase 1 of the McGovern-Dole program in Cote d’Ivoire, covering all seven regions of implementation (Poro, Bagoué, Tchologo, Bounkani, Gontougo, Bafing, and Cavally). AIR conducted a baseline evaluation of Phase 2 of the program concurrently, producing a separate, but complementary report. The expected users for this report are the WFP Country Office and its decision-making partners, the Regional Bureau, WFP Headquarters in Rome, Evaluation Bureau, WFP Executive Board, MENA, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and ANADER, United Nations country team, Steering Committee, Technical Committee, Directorate of School Canteens (DCS), AVSI, the USDA, and other stakeholders. By offering insight into the positive impacts and providing recommendations for program improvement, the evaluation ultimately aims to benefit the targeted schoolchildren and communities.