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Sustainable School Feeding: Lifting School Children out of the Hunger Trap

CONCEPT NOTE

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BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE Every six seconds, one child dies from hunger and related diseases. Currently 66 million children continue to attend school hungry each day. High food and fuel prices, and economic slowdown combined with chronic poverty and food shortages, compounded by the shocks of droughts, floods and storms and conflicts have pushed more families into the poverty trap. School feeding provides an effective safety net to poor families in times of crises. School feeding increases household income, freeing up resources for productive investments. School feeding offers an incentive for households to send their children to school and invest in education. Education breaks the poverty trap. It is now apparent that the way forward is to assist national governments in making a transition to sustainable school feeding. (see figure 1). Sustainable school feeding programmes are nationally owned, nationally led, locally sourced. Sustainable school programmes have eight quality standards: Strategy for sustainability, National policy frameworks, stable funding and budgeting, Needs-based, cost-effective quality programme design, Strong institutional arrangement for implementation, monitoring, and accountability, Strategy for local production and sourcing, Strong partnership and inter-sector coordination, and Community participation and ownership. What is new? The new elements are all about sustainability of school feeding as a productive safety net:

� Sustainable SF (owned and resourced by governments) requires not only implementation capacity but also national policy/strategies linked with poverty alleviation, human development, education, etc, and financial framework to ensure stable funding.

� SF is being used as a productive safety net with [long-term] returns, not only in education but also in poverty alleviation and human development. WFP and BCG have developed a tool to measure the "investment" level in a cost/benefit analysis. The tool is useful for policy dialogue with governments.

� Using school feeding as a safety net opens the door to new national and global funding sources (other than Ministry of Education) such as PRS, social protection, FTI, and the recently established WB’s Rapid Social Response Fund.

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� Enforcing 8 quality standards for sustainability generated from 45 years of experience. All projects should aspire the quality standards.

� There is a need for a transition strategy on sustainability to support the government in its process to nationally own, resource and implement SF. WFP projects need to be formulated according to the government’s transition stage as part of the hand-over process (no more open-ended externally supported programs).

� WFP handover strategy is not about handing over operations but supporting the government transition strategy. Experience show that the transition process could take more than 20 years and governments need support to shorten that period.

� Sustainable school feeding requires strategic partnerships at global and country level [WB is a key one].

� A package of analytical tools have been developed that would help improve the quality, efficiency and coordination of sustainable school feeding.

Case studies have shown that the transition process to sustainable school feeding could take more than 20 years. This period entails large investments to develop capacities in tools like assessments, analysis, targeting, strategy development, coordination, performance measurement and accountability, information management, among others, to make school feeding effective, cost efficient and sustainable. Therefore, there is a need to help countries shorten this time by developing a set of tools that would be easily adapted to contexts, and provide the expertise to develop countries’ capacities to use them. OBJECTIVES Through the sustainable school feeding initiative, WFP aims to enable governments achieve the following objectives:

1. improved school feeding quality through increased effectiveness and efficiency of implementation;

2. wider school feeding coverage of hungry children, especially girls; and

3. effective capacity for school feeding as a productive safety net to fight hunger and build human capital.

In order to reach that, WFP needs to achieve the following objectives at interim:

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(i) increased capacity to support national transition to sustainable school feeding;

(ii) increased governments capacity to deliver high quality and sustainable school feeding; and

(iii) increased global knowledge base and best practices in mainstreaming school feeding as safety nets in national policies, financial frameworks and institutional capacities.

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY AND ACTIVITIES

Drawing from a larger priority list, up to ten countries will be chosen to pilot the new approach within the sustainable school feeding initiative, to receive extensive support and test the process, based on strong government interest and strong collaboration between WFP and the WB at the country levels. The process at global, corporate, and country level will include four stages. (Please see figures 2 to 5) Stage 1: Respond to Demand/Enable At the global/corporate level, this stage sets a number of elements necessary to enable the implementation:

� Research agenda set � Quality Standards � Pilot countries selected � Analytical and assessment tools developed � Global partnerships established (agreement with the World

Bank; agreement with other partners as needed) � Pilot Management Unit (PMU) established � Reporting and accountability framework established

A set of analytical and assessment tools will be developed:

1. Needs/gap analysis 2. Investment case 3. Cost analyses 4. SF 8 quality standards assessment 5. Mapping stakeholder and coordination mechanisms 6. Stakeholders workshop 7. SF modality options analysis

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These tools will be tested and implemented at country level under stage 2. In Stage 1, at the country level, a series of high-level consultations with the ministry or institution in charge of the national development strategy will be convened as necessary to determine the clarify the role of school feeding and how it contributes to and fits in the strategy. The respond to demand/enable-in stage is paramount to ensure leadership, ownership, and commitment of the government. Stage 2: Assess & build knowledge At the global/corporate level, analytical and assessment tools and methodologies will be refined and their findings, as well as lessons learned and best practice, will be documented to build the global knowledge base. The research agenda will be developed further with partners, research scope identified and terms of reference for each research items developed. At the country level, stage 2 will apply the analytical tools and assess the government’s capacity against the 8 quality standards. Findings will be used in a stakeholder workshop (jointly organized with the WB) to identify a road map for transition and enhance coordination. Stage 3: Appraise & Design At the global/corporate level, stage 3 will consist of two elements: undertake studies on the research agenda; consultations among the pilot countries on challenges, lessons, and best practices. At the country level, stage 3 aims at incorporating the results of the stakeholder workshop, the pre-workshop analyses and assessments as well as carry out further assessments in the process of project design, such as SF modality options analysis. The objectives of this stage ate to: � Develop an overall country transition strategy for sustainable

school feeding; � Provide technical assistance to governments, in cooperation

with the World Bank, to analyse and design or redesign national sustainable school feeding programme;

� Incorporate capacity development activities and technical support to governments in WFP’s school feeding programme;

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� Align the programme design with duration of donor assistance, and the harmonization process of development cooperation, and identify national, donor and global funding sources;

� Develop a strategy for local procurement, as well as links to local production;

� Identify and collate best practices for community participation and ownership on needs, vulnerability analysis and implementation.

The activities will be complemented with country study learning field visits and south-south cooperation to build knowledge of existing best practice. Stage 4: Launch & Implement At the global/corporate level, this final stage will take stock of all the outputs and outcomes of the implementation process to mainstream these into the global knowledge base. This will involve:

� Mainstreaming findings of the research agenda; � Sharing the research and knowledge with governments,

donors and development partners; � Developing a training package to support programme

implementation; � Training WFP staff corporately on the new sustainable school

feeding programmes and the new analytical and assessment tools;

� Organizing a global learning event to share global best practices and developing global knowledge base;

� Updating the operational manuals; � Undertaking a strategic evaluation exercise.

At the country level, the final stage of the implementation of the new approach aims at monitoring and supporting the implementation of a new generation school feeding programmes. Activities will involve: � Monitoring implementation of new programmes; � Back-stopping country offices and national governments piloting

the new generation programmes and monitoring and adjusting programmes as needed.

In addition to the intensive support given to the pilot countries, other country offices will also need assistance to align their school feeding projects with the new policy and standards. In particular, those COs that are in the planning stage of a new project cycle will require attention and the School Feeding Programme Division

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(OMXD) and RBx will continue to play the lead supporting role, incorporating lessons learned from the pilot countries to the extent possible. Eventually, all WFP country offices that have school feeding programmes will be introduced to the new approach. WFP aims to roll-out the new approach wherever possible to ensure that all lessons learned and best practices are implemented in WFP’s and government-owned school feeding programmes. Timing will depend on context and opportunities to mainstream the efforts into existing WFP structures and initiatives. DEVELOPING AND SHARING A GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE BASE The initiative will address this through the following activities: 1. Fill knowledge gaps that would enhance policy dialogue with

governments and donors on applying school feeding as a productive safety net in national hunger reduction strategies.

2. Design and improve the development of tools for the new approach (cost/efficiency; cost-effectiveness, SF models option analysis, investment case, gap/needs assessment).

3. Enable global knowledge building and sharing to serve the purpose of evidence-based programming and capacity development for governments.

The research agenda is designed to support the development and refinement of tools to assess, design, monitor and evaluate school feeding programmes and to build WFP capacity and knowledge. The research will take place throughout the four stages of the new approach. The research agenda is work-in-progress and the following subjects are presently on the table:

� Analytical study on cost effectiveness of school feeding; � Analytical study/comparison of school feeding versus other

safety nets; � Analytical study on successful cases of transitions of

countries; � Impact study of school feeding on value transfer, nutrition,

gender.

DELIVARABLES Through this initiative and drawing on existing resources, passion and commitment, by 2012 WFP and partners will have:

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� supported countries in developing a transition strategy for sustainable school feeding, including planning, policy, funding and institutional architectures;

� developed tools and processes necessary to support national governments in analyzing, designing, appraising, implementing and managing sustainable school feeding programmes; and

� shared research and built on the global knowledge base and best practices to achieve sustainable school feeding.

PARTNERSHIPS The new approach for sustainable school feeding is at the centre of the recently established partnership between WFP and the World Bank (WB) which builds on the comparative advantages of both organizations: WFP expertise on design, implementation and logistics of school feeding, WB education and health team experience in policy dialogue and financing, and WFP and WB Social Protection team experience in vulnerability mapping and targeting. The partnership foresees full participation from the respective WFP and World Bank country offices and strong coordination between WFP, and the World Bank and national governments. The initiative will draw on other partners such as the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) and the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF). As part of its pro-bono work, BCG will cooperate with WFP on the development of analytical tools required for the implementation of the new approach to school feeding. Sustainable school feeding programmes will link to PCD’s initiative on Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) and the GCNF Global School Feeding Forums. (Please see figure 6 for major roles of each partner) ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ARRANGEMENT WFP’s school feeding Core Team (OEDP/OMXD), the Interdivisional Internal Advisory Team and an External Advisory Team of partners, stakeholders and donors (to be established) will help steer and guide the implementation of the new approach. A Pilot Management Unit will be tasked with implementation, in close consultation with the programme support division.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION The assessment of school feeding projects against the 8 quality standards and that of the government’s transition to owning, resourcing and implementing school feeding will be guided by the

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set of indicators. The assessment findings will form the baseline against which the progress made will be measured. The Project Management Unit will produce quarterly reports on the activities, progress and challenges. A road map for each pilot country will be produced following the stakeholders’ workshop, formulating a transition strategy towards sustainable school feeding with clear objectives and milestones. Country Offices will report on the progress of the transition strategy. (Please see figures 2- 5) A consultation is planned to share experience on best practices and challenges among the pilot countries. The experience will help mainstream the new approach throughout WFP and into national governments. A strategic evaluation is planned during the third year to measure the level of success and sustainability of the initiative and to identify lessons learned and best practices and to guide the roll out. Outside of this funding proposal, WFP intends to undertake a strategic evaluation on school feeding in 2011 that would address issues on impact, effectiveness, relevance and the role of school feeding in varying contexts.

RISK MANAGEMENT The main risks were identified and mitigation plan prepared. The risks included: high cost of school feeding; limited knowledge of using school feeding as a productive safety net; coordination and institutional ownership among stakeholders becomes challenging; resources for sustainable school feeding and capacity development; impact on human resources in terms of skills and time. SUSTAINABILITY

WFP will work with the World Bank and other partners to support national governments to mainstream school feeding policies and to create the required financial and institutional capacities and procedures, including monitoring and evaluation. The initiative will develop and pass on tools and training to national governments. WFP and counterpart staff will gain additional experience to design, appraise, implement, and manage sustainable school feeding programmes.

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FIGURE 1:The transition of schoolfeeding

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IncreasedWFP capacity

to supporttransition

Increasedgovernments

capacity todeliver SF

Figure 2 Logical framework of activities and objectivesA virtuous cycle will reinforce WFP know-how and improve overall programme deployment

Set newQuality

standards

Buildtools andresearch

Build globalpartnership

Assesscountry SFQuality vsstandards

Build evidencebased

knowledge onSF potential in

country

Reinforceglobal

knowledgebase,

informationsharing and

bestpractices

DesignQuality SFprogramme

Getgovernments

and keystakeholders

involved

Improved SFQuality

Wider SFCoverage

Effectivecapacity for

schoolfeeding

Reducehungeramongschoolchildren sothat it is notan obstacleto their

development

1.Respond toDemand/Enable

1.Respond toDemand/Enable

2.Assess &Buildknowledge

2.Assess &Buildknowledge

3.Appraise& design

3.Appraise& design

4.Launch& Implement

4.Launch& Implement

Validateexpectedoutcomes

through research

Virtuous Cycle

Mainstreamfindings

Train staffTraining

PackagesUpdate SFhandbook

MonitorImplementationBackstop andcoaching in

country

Objectives GoalObjectives GoalWFP's proposal

objectivesWFP's proposal

objectives

IncreasedWFP capacity

to developgovernments

know-how

Sustainable school feeding Goal andobjectivesActivities

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Figure 3a: Expected deliverables at each step of the process

1. Respond toDemand/Enable

1. Respond toDemand/Enable

2. Assess& Build knowledge

2. Assess& Build knowledge 3. Appraise & Design3. Appraise & Design 4. Launch & Implement4. Launch & Implement

Research agenda setQuality StandardsPilot Countries selectedTools Developed

1. Needs/Gap analysis2. Investment case3. Cost analyses4. SF 8 quality standards

assessment5. Mapping stakeholders &

coordination mechanisms6. Stakeholders workshop7. SF modality options

analysisGlobal partnerships• World Bank agreement• Other partners

agreements as needed

Research• Partners identified• Research scope and TOR

Tools and methodologies foranalyses and assessmentsupdated and refined

Stage

Research• Undertake studies

Consultations withpilot countries onchallenges andlessons

Research• Mainstream findings• Research publications• Sharing research

Training package tosupport programmeimplementation

Corporate training ofWFP staff

Updated and translatedSF handbook and ProjectGuidance Manual

Global /Corporate

Levelactivities

deliverables

Capacity developmentGlobal best practice sharing

Develop global knowledge base

Performance reports on activities and accountability(status vs. time plan and budget, potential issues, achievements, next steps)

Global Learning Events

South-south cooperation

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Stage

CountryLevel

activitiesdeliverables

1. Respond toDemand/Enable

1. Respond toDemand/Enable

2. Assess& Build knowledge

2. Assess& Build knowledge 3. Appraise & Design3. Appraise & Design 4. Launch & Implement4. Launch & Implement

High-level Consultations• Buy-in• SF role in national

development strategyclarified

Partnerships at countrylevel

• World Bank Agreements• Agreements with other

partners as needed

Analyses and assessmentsat country level

1. Needs/Gap analysis2. Investment case3. Cost analyses4. SF 8 quality standards

assessment5. Mapping stakeholders

& coordinationmechanisms

6. Stakeholdersworkshop

Workshop• Materials ready and

tailored by country• Workshop implemented• Ownership at

government levelenhanced

• Strengthenedcoordination mechanism

• Roadmap for transitionto sustainable SF

• Alternatives SF modelsidentified

Design of country SFprogramme

• Overall countrytransition strategy forsustainable SF

7. SF modality optionsanalysis

• Technical assistance togovernments to designnational SF programme

• WFP and/orGovernment SFprogrammes designedin line with overallcountry strategy forsustainable SF and 8quality standards

Country study field visits

South-south cooperation

Mou signed by governmentand main stakeholders

Monitorimplementation of newprogrammes

Programme managerstrained

Backstop andcoaching in country

3b: Expected Deliverables at each step of the process

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Figure 4:Time ScheduleWith specific activities at Corporate and Country level

3-4 months 3-6 months 6-8 months 20-24 months

SH Workshop

1.Respond todemand/Enable

2. AssessBuild Knowledge

3. AppraiseDesign

4.LaunchImplement

Set global partnerships

Select Pilot Countries

Develop tools

Set research agenda

Get buy-in from localgovernments

Partnershipagreements at countrylevel

Target countriesselected and bought in

Tools & research ready

Countries Go/NoGo

Assessments and analysesusing tools at country levelBuild knowledge on schoolfeeding in countryAlign all involvedStakeholders (SH)on required action planKey analyses andassessments readyLocal Governmentsand Partners engagedWorkshop outcomesRoadmap and next steps

Country transitionstrategy defined andapproved bygovernment, WFP, keystakeholdersDesign/ redesign newWFP and governmentSchool feeding (SF)programmes & budget�School feeding countrysupport programmedefined and approved byWFP and key partners

Programme sign-off

�Fund new SF countryprogramme

�Train project managers

�Launch, Implement newSF country programme

�Monitor & report

�Activities funded &launched�Project KeyPerformance indicatorsevolution�Programme kick-off

Corporatelevel

Countrylevel

Keydeliverables

Milestones

Update tools & methodologies

Share best practiceDevelop content and forum for global knowledge base

Undertaken research

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Apr

2009 2010Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb JunMar May

Figure 5a: First project milestones – Corporate level

1.Respond toDemand/Enable

3. Appraise &Design

2. Assess &Build

knowledge

4. Launch &Implement

Project flow

• Pilot COsselected

• Toolsdeveloped

• Set researchagenda

• Partnershipsfinalized (MoU)

• Funds secured• Tools finalized

• Researchundertakenbought-in

• WS planned

• Tools updated• Best practice

shared• Content and

forum forGlobalKnowledgeBase

• Update call with WB

• Progress reports

• First assessmentsand analyses onCOs launched

• Researchpartnersidentified

• Researchscope andTORdeveloped

Respond toDemand/Enable Assess & Build knowledge

• GlobalLearningEvent

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Assess & Buildknowledge

4 5 6 7 8 91 2 3

Figure 5b: First project milestones – Country level

1. Respond toDemand/Enable

3.AppraiseDesign

2. Assess &Buildknowledge

4. Launch andImplement

Project flow

• Needs / gapanalysis

• Investmentcase

• Conf call with Corp-

• Progress reports

Months from launch date in the Country

• Roadmap fortransition

• Cost analyses• SF quality standard

assessment(Governmentcapacityassessment)

• Overall transitioncountry strategydesigned

• Technicalassistance toGovernment

• New SFprogrammesdesigned

• Workshop • Detailed plan ofactivities signed-off

• Buy-in fromgovernment

• SF roleclarified

Respond toDemand/Enable Appraise & Design

• World BankAgreementsat countrylevel

• Otherpartners

• Monitor• Train• Backstop and

coaching

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•Publish & shareknowledge•Lessons learnedabout process(WFP/WB/PCD)

Impact studies (WB/PCD/IFPRI/WFP)Analytical studies (WB/PCD/IFPRI/WFP)

Learning

•Modality options(WFP/WB)•VAM (WFP)•Logistics (WFP)•Procurement (WFP)

•Cost-containment (WFP/BCG)•Market access/extension(PCD)•Training (PCD/WFP)•Quality StandardsAssessment (WB/WFP)•Stakeholder mapping•Stakeholder workshop

Governmentinstitutionalcapacity

Release funding(WB)

Preparation offinancing documents(WB)

Analysis of Gov’t financialcapacity (WB)Analysis of Min. of Agriculturecapacity (PCD)

•WB/WFP CountryConcept notes•Agreements withother partners asneeded

Governmentfinancialcapacity

MOU signed bygovernment and mainstakeholders

Overall countrytransition strategy forsustainable SF(WFP/WB/Gov’t)

•Needs/Gap Analysis (WFP),Poverty mapping (WB), Agric.Assess. (PCD)•Investment case (WFP/BCG);Invest. case for HGSF (PCD)•Social safety net analysisincluding HGSF ((WB)

•WB/WFP CountryConcept notes•Agreements withother partners asneeded

Policydialogue/framework forschool feeding

Respond toDemand/Enable

Assess & BuildKnowledge

Appraise &Design

Launch &Implement

Joint research (WB/WFP/PCD)

Assessing costs (WFP/WB)

Technical capacity (WFP)

Policy/Financing dialogue (WB)

Figure 6: Partners- Major Roles