WFP Republic of Congo Country Office commissioned the baseline evaluation for the McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition Programme (2017-2022). Data collection took place from the 7 May to 15 June 2018. The McGovern-Dole is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Assistance Service.
The primary purpose of this evaluation was to assess the situation before the commencement of the programme by establishing baseline figures and assessing feasibility/relevance of the yearly targets as outlined in WFP’s Performance Monitoring Plan (PMP). This baseline served as a comparison point to assess changes during mid-term review and final evaluation. The baseline report also served the objective of accountability of the actions and results planned as well as learning and adjustments based on the findings of the evaluation.
Some key findings included:-
- WFP’s Performance Monitoring Plan presents a total of 33 indicators that support M&E activities. Twenty-five of the performance indicators are standard MGD indicators, while the CO has added eight to fit the programme context better.
- Short term (one year) MoUs between WFP and sub-recipient partners prevent the forecasting of targets over the life of the programme.
- Lack of disaggregation of several indicators by type of recipients or activity in order to be specific and measurable across the life of the McGovern Dole programme.
- The programme partners do not seem to have fully integrated the PMP indicators to which they and WFP will be held accountable for programme implementation.
- A robust M&E system which should coordinate the diverse activities and partners involved in the McGovern Dole programme is not yet in place.
- The approach to dietary practices and messaging does not seem to be coordinated between implementing partners and other actors in the country.
Some of the key recommendations were:
- Enhance coordination among the key stakeholders before starting the programme to address the weaknesses in the planning of the programme.
- Modify several indicators by further disaggregation or re-definition to better match the activity they intend to measure.
- Collaborate with the World Bank programme, Projet d'Appui à l'Amélioration du Système Éducatif (PRAASED), for effective monitoring.
- Apply the Congolese Food-Based Dietary Guidelines and have a unified understanding and measurement of activities and indicators linked to nutrition.
- Increase WFP M&E staff capacity for improved monitoring and tracking of the programme activities and performance
- Address women empowerment, protection and gender equality issues in schools and integrate additional indicators that capture gender transformation results.
