Evaluation of World Food Programme Country Program in Ghana

1. Evaluation of World Food Programme Country Program in Ghana Evaluated by: Katharyn Ellene Lindemann Nellwyn Olson Timothy Edwards Comparative Foreign Policy Matthew Bonham Maxwell School of citizenship and public affairs Fall 2010

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. Analysis of GSFP: Factors for Success • Significant Increase in School Enrollment! • 12.8% increase in primary school attendance • 23.1% in kindergartens

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Recommendations for GSFP 1. Design a competitive contract award system

11. 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.

12. Recommendations for GSFP 3. Redesigning the monitoring and evaluation activities (M&E), as well as bolstering the assessment capacity of local and national coordinators

13. Recommendations for GSFP 4. Integrating the investment in agricultural sector development into GSFP programming Farmers toolbox

14. 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.

15. The End Thank you for your attention! Questions?