EVALUATED BY:KATHARYN ELLENE LINDEMANN
NELLWYN OLSONTIMOTHY EDWARDS
COMPARATIVE FOREIGN POLICYMATTHEW BONHAM
MAXWELL SCHOOL OF CITIZENSHIP AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
FALL 2010
Evaluation of World Food Programme
Country Program in Ghana
Executive Summary
Report focuses of WFP Country Program of Ghana and the Ghana School Feeding Program in particular
The purpose of this evaluation is to analyze the replicability and sustainability of school feeding programs
Report analyzes the GSFP in context of the Ghanaian governmental, economic and agricultural capacities to provide recommendations
Analysis based on report drawn from internal WFP
program and evaluation documents, as well as external
audit reports.
Executive Summary
Case Study and Results In 2005, the Ghanaian government began a national school feeding program (GSFP) Supposed to increase school enrollment rates and agricultural production, while
decreasing rates of malnutrition and hunger CP has been able to meet or exceed its beneficiary output targets, particularly after the
program was fully funded Significantly increased school enrollment rates
Analysis and Recommendations THRs were particularly effective in increasing enrollment rates for girls CP and the GSFP inaccurately judged the local and national capacity to run the
program effectively Designing a competitive contract award system; eliminating the politicization of the
GSFP; redesigning the monitoring and evaluation activities, as well as bolstering the assessment capacity of local and national coordinators; and integrate the investment in agricultural sector development into GSFP programming.
Case Study: Ghana School Feeding Program (GSFP)
Identifying the need for school feeding in Ghana Ghana is set to achieve MDG 1, but has decreasing HDI Ghana is susceptible changes in the economics of the region
loss of export values and commodity prices due to the global financial crisis influx of refugees from other less stable neighboring countries
Ghana has been able to increase its food production over the past twenty years, but food security disparity is high between rural and urban populations
2005 Ghana had a 59% enrollment rate for primary students with low levels in populations of the northern regions of the country and among girls
Case Study: Ghana School Feeding Program (GSFP)
Structure of WFP's CP in Ghana 2006-2010 Expected Outcomes for Ghana CP
Reduce levels of malnutrition among at-risk pregnant and lactating women and children under five; Improve attendance and completion rates among schoolchildren in basic education; Improve national capacity to implement and scale up supplementary feeding and on-site school feeding; and Increase demand for domestic farm produce
Primary Programmatic Themes Supplementary Feeding, Health and Nutrition Education (SFHNE) would target children and mothers with
fortified food, while also increasing nutrition programming and awareness on various levels (regional, district and community)
Support for Basic Education (SBE), focused on providing on-site school meals in primary schools for levels P1-P6, while also providing take-home rations (THRs) for girls from primary to junior secondary school level 3
Analysis of GSFP: Factors for Success
Significant Increase in School Enrollment! 12.8% increase in primary school attendance 23.1% in kindergartens
Analysis of GSFP: Factors for Failures
Issues with program management: corruption, accountability and lack of transparency According to an external audit there is widespread corruption within program management Confusion of Accountability between District Implementation Committee (DIC) and Community
Implementation Committee (CID) 58% of the schools did not use established or credible procurement measures when awarding their
contracts 39% of the districts failing to provide accounting information Monitoring and Evaluation of GSFP not carried out appropriately
Structure and support of local agricultural markets GSFP has not boosted local agricultural productivity within Ghana as it was designed to The GSFP is compromised when agriculture outputs decrease with floods, drought, climate change
Analysis of GSFP: Factors for Failures
Politicization of the GSFP GSFP was created by former president John Kufuor as a Presidential Initiative Ability to be manipulated as a political tool of the government The target areas where the program succeeded seem to align with the areas where the NPP
enjoys support, which may conflict with the areas where more urgent support was needed
Availability and sustainability of funding During the period 2006-2007 the CP was only able to procure 70% of its needed funding Effect of the global economic crisis and the susceptibility of Ghana’s agricultural productivity
combined to limit the purchasing power of the program Ghanaian government has failed to meet its commitments to supporting the GSFP as the hand-
over process took place
Recommendations: Replicability of Program
Local and national government capacity National government and local communities must be prepared for unintended
consequences from School Feeding Program implementation 2006-2008 number of children receiving school feeding increased from 42,232 to
249,848 Increased demand for program services means communities and districts must be
prepared Local Producers
Implementing nations must parallel the implementation of School Feeding with targeted agriculture development
GSFP has sought to partner with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) which promotes the restoration of agricultural growth in Africa
The GSFP successes can only be replicated where national governments are able to support the local agriculture
Recommendations for GSFP
1. Design a competitive contract award system
Invitation
Bidding
Public Disclosur
e
Public Opinion
Increased Accountability
Recommendations for GSFP
2. Eliminate the politicization of the GSFP
• Remove the GSFP from a presidential initiative that to an initiative that exists within a ministerial or parliamentary review
• Doing so will eliminate the GSFP’s variability to political change and increase the accountability of the program.
Recommendations for GSFP
3. Redesigning the monitoring and evaluation activities (M&E), as well as bolstering the assessment capacity of local and national coordinators
Redesign M&E of GSFP
Train staff in simple but effective M&E
Increase incentive for correct implementation
of M&E
OUTCOME: improvement in
M&E and overall
effectiveness of GSFP
Recommendations for GSFP
4. Integrating the investment in agricultural sector development into GSFP programming
Technical guidance
Access to credit
Fertilizer, Seeds etc.
Farmers toolbox
Conclusions
School feeding programs represent a programmatic answer to the question of how to effectively reduce poverty, increase health and economic opportunity
While it successfully achieved or surpassed its targets, particularly in the area of achieving gender parity in enrollment, it also failed in its ability to meet demand on a national scale
Lessons of the GSFP management should serve to highlight the importance of understanding local government and agricultural capacity.
Preventative measures to increase accountability and capacity while
decreasing corruption and politicization within program design is
critical to successful implementation.
The End
Thank you for your attention!Questions?