Endline Evaluation of USDA Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement Grant (LRP-442-2019- 011-00) for WFP School Feeding in Cambodia
Endline Evaluation of USDA Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement Grant (LRP-442-2019- 011-00) for WFP School Feeding in Cambodia
This report presents the findings from the endline evaluation of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement (LRP) programme for World Food Programme (WFP) School Feeding activities in Cambodia, covering the period 01 November 2019 to 30 September 2023 (with a no-cost extension agreed through September 2024). The evaluation included both accountability and learning components with a prioritization of learning, and covered five evaluation criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability. The latter focused on the handover and transition process to the national home-grown school feeding programme (NHGSFP). The LRP was a pilot project to support strengthening national and local systems for local procurement of food commodities for schools within the larger Home Grown School Feeding framework. The LRP focused on enhancing local procurement processes for school feeding programmes by transitioning from imported in-kind food assistance to locally-purchased commodities. The project aimed to build local procurement capacities within schools and at sub-national levels, promote women's participation in procurement processes, and strengthen linkages between procurement and local agricultural production, particularly involving smallholder farmers. The project also addressed challenges related to market aggregation for suppliers, the integration of local procurement with agricultural development, and the sustainability of procurement systems after schools had transitioned from WFP support. The suppliers, farmers, and school personnel are the effective beneficiaries of the project interventions although ultimately these interventions are intended to cascade down to affect the quality of the meals eaten by school children and contribute to associated health and education outcomes for children