Improving early grade literacy through sustainable school meals programmes

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The World Food Programme (WFP) has been a leader in school feeding for more than six decades. In 2022, WFP directly supplied school meals to 20 million children in 59 countries and provided technical assistance to support government school feeding programmes in an additional 14 countries. Evidence confirms that school feeding is an important intervention to promote education, particularly in low-resource contexts with high food insecurity. School meals act as an incentive for children to enrol in and attend school, and children who are well fed are more effective learners than those who are hungry (WFP 2022). Through the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Programme, WFP and partners combine school meals with water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH), nutrition, and educational quality activities as part of a comprehensive approach to improve literacy for early grade readers. There is consensus that government and community capacity is essential to support the transition to national ownership. The McGovern-Dole programme results framework highlights this through its “foundational results."
While it is clear that school meals are an important component of literacy interventions in high-needs contexts, less is known about how to transition school meals programmes to government control while sustaining results. In 2016, the World Bank, WFP, and the Partnership for Child Development developed a manual for the Systems Approach for Better Education Results – School Feeding (SABER-SF) assessment, which evaluates government readiness to successfully operate school feeding programmes based on five key pillars: policy frameworks, financial capacity, institutional capacity and coordination, design and implementation, and community roles (World Bank 2016). Increasing government commitment, capacity, and financing mechanisms for large-scale school feeding programmes, however, can be challenging, particularly in low and middle-income countries where governments face resource constraints and competing priorities. Different government organizational structures and other contextual factors present unique challenges for operating a government-led school feeding programme.
In this panel, representatives from four WFP Country Offices present challenges and lessons learned from McGovern-Dole projects at various stages of transition to government ownership. WFP will offer advice based on findings from three activity evaluations conducted by external teams and one survey, which inform the achievement of the SABER-SF criteria in diverse national contexts. As these McGovern-Dole projects have transitioned a significant portion of schools to government control, findings from the evaluations give insights into how education results have changed after handover and why. Understanding sustainability and successful strategies for transitioning to government ownership is not only a challenge for school feeding programmes, but for all donor-funded education initiatives. Therefore, this panel discussion is broadly applicable to CIES members.
In Kenya, where WFP has supported school meals since 1980, all schools under the McGovern-Dole project were transitioned to the Government of Kenya’s National School Meals Programme in 2018. The endline evaluation of the final round of USDA funding (2016-2022) used a quasi-experimental design to compare outcomes among WFP schools, schools handed over to the Government of Kenya, and comparison schools with no intervention. Through quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews and focus groups, evaluators found the WFP project improved educational outcomes: enrolment, attendance, completion rates, and literacy scores were sustained after handover. Among lessons learned was the need to strengthen monitoring systems of the national programme.
The endline evaluation of the Lao PDR McGovern-Dole project (2017-2023) occurred in a context where government financial investment in school feeding covered a smaller portion of meal costs than in Kenya. Instead, the national programme relied on large community contributions to sustain the school meal after handover, increasing the financial burden on families. This theory-based, mixed-methods evaluation found gaps in the sustainability of results due to the high expectations for contributions from communities and other factors, despite evidence of increased community ownership. The evaluation team used a quasi-experimental design to compare education and health outcomes across comparison and intervention schools, some of which were transitioned to government control in 2021.
The McGovern-Dole endline evaluation in Nepal (2017-2022) shares lessons for transition in a decentralized government model. While the national Government of Nepal produces school meals regulatory framework, district and municipal governments are responsible for school feeding implementation and management. The endline evaluation recommended changes to secure long-term funding for the national programme and identified key factors affecting results after transition. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare two programme arms; (1) school meals and WASH interventions and (2) school meals, WASH, and Early Grade Reading interventions; with comparison schools that received no intervention until they were adopted under the National School Meals Programme in 2021. Results of the evaluation were shared with the government of Nepal during interactive stakeholder workshops using the EvaluVision approach to support stakeholder buy-in and implementation of results.
In Rwanda, WFP shares the experience of conducting a school feeding survey in partnership with the Government of Rwanda, and how the findings have been used to strengthen the nascent national school feeding programme. A nationally representative sample of 416 schools in 30 districts was randomly selected and surveyed regarding infrastructure, awareness and use of operational guidelines, procurement processes, and other preconditions for school feeding. In this session, WFP will share findings from the survey in addition to insights on effective approaches for collaborating with governments on monitoring and evaluation exercises, which are important for implementing successful programmes.
This panel is relevant to the CIES Global Literacy Special Interest Group as it discusses the sustainability of multi-faceted interventions to improve early grade literacy by incentivizing school attendance, improving the health of the learner, and improving literacy instruction. Literacy outcomes discussed were measured using the UWEZO learner’s assessment tool (Kenya), Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) (Lao PDR) and the national EGRA developed by Nepal’s Educational Review Office (Nepal).

Sub Unit

• Global Literacy SIG

Chair

• Anna Lyn Hamilton, World Food Programme

Individual Presentations

• Evaluating the sustainability of school meals in Kenya after transition to government management - Robert ACKATIA-ARMAH, UNWFP

• School feeding as a vehicle towards better literacy and improved nutrition - Rumbidzayi Machiridza, UN World Food Programme

• Enabling host Government to successfully expand and manage national homegrown school meals in Nepal. - kanta Kumari khanal, UN World Food Programme

• Surveying the school feeding landscape with the Government of Rwanda - Thotogelo Veronica Lentsoane, United Nations World Food Programme

Discussant

• David Williams, USDA