Rana Sallam - World Food Programme (WFP)
As part of their longstanding collaboration on building evidence base on food security, nutrition, social protection and education, WFP and IFPRI co-hosted a seminar with the objective of sharing knowledge, lessons learned and good practices on the use of evaluation as a tool for policy formulation and capacity strengthening by MENA governments. Panelists from WFP and IFPRI researchers were joined by a representative from “Save the Children” and government officials from the Government of Egypt (i.e. Ministry of Social Solidarity and Ministry of Education) to discuss how evaluation is playing a major factor in improving the quality of implementation and programmatic performance in Egypt and to reflect on how this model could be a blue-print for the broader MENA region.
Harold Alderman, senior IFPRI researcher and author of “The 1.5 Billion People Question: Food, Cash or Vouchers?”, used recent global research findings to illustrate how improvements in education and nutrition, as well as the availability of new social protection instruments have shifted the potential roles of School Meal (SM) programs into new areas and challenges. Their role in stimulating school participation, addressing food insecurity and improving nutritional status is well documented. On the same note, WFP’s Deputy Regional Director, Carlo Scaramella added that SM programs go beyond health, education and nutrition; as they proved to be a tool that can provide immediate benefits; such as building communities, resilience, social inclusion and protection.
“Providing school meals is relatively easy”, Harold said, “most middle income countries do this, but proper implementation cannot be taken for granted”. He consequently demonstrated through evidence, opportunities on how to make school meals more nutrition sensitive, whether by micronutrient fortification of meals, behavioral change or nutrition education.
WFP’s regional evaluation officer, Luca Molinas, stated that findings from SM evaluations conducted between 2013 and 2016 in 9 countries, reported on enrollment, attendance and retention rates which at many times inadequately reflected the achievements of SF interventions, while in some countries the benefits go further beyond these corporate indicators. This reflection is now being taken into consideration in recent evaluations by implementing more innovative methods to measure nutritional impact and educational outcomes of children.
Focusing on Egypt, the seminar proceeded with discussions on the National School Feeding Program (NSFP), and the status of national evaluation capacity and its use within the context of this program. The NSFP represents an essential pillar of social protection and safety net and is considered one of the main tools aiming at achieving Egypt’s Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) 2030 goals, particularly “Zero Hunger” and “Education for All”. The program is targeting more than 10.5 million children in total across Egypt, with the production and supply of SMs resulting from a partnership between the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS), Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, World Food Program as well as some authorized factories, private sector companies and the public service system.
WFP is working closely with the GoE as a key player in the program, reaching over 2.4 million public primary school children and 120 community school children and their families. In addition to providing capacity enhancement to assist the government in its plans to improve the NSFP.
Findings from SABER, an institutional capacity assessment conducted by the government in partnership with WFP in 2015 and a World Bank tool, demonstrated the status of the NSFP in terms of policy, budget, implementation modality, organizational setup and partnership. The GoE, together with WFP, confirmed that course-correction based on evidence from monitoring and assessments is at the highest level of priority and worked closely together to implement the recommendations that resulted from this assessment.
Building on the recommendations from SABER, an M&E assessment was conducted with support from WFP with the aim of developing and enhancing the monitoring system for the NSFP and findings emphasized on the importance of turning it into an electronic online-based system. Other conducted assessments include a supply chain assessment, as well as an assessment of schools’ capacity to store food; demonstrating the storage capacity of over 4000 schools, in which the MoSS succeeded in developing an information infrastructure that allowed for information to be transferred instantaneously from the field to the main computers in the MoSS. As Amani Gamal El dine, Head of Social Protection, WFP Egypt put it, “Monitoring and evaluation is being recognized as an important element for decision making, quality control, and troubleshooting”
More importantly, the GoE has taken the initiative of commissioning an impact evaluation of the NSFP that is still ongoing with a national firm, Baseera. WFP’s contribution to the study to help inform policy making on SMs has been requested by the government as well. The first phase of the assessment is over and the second is expected to be continued during the next academic year. It was contemplated at a point of the NSFP by certain members of the government to switch to cash assistance; however, preliminary findings from this study showed that more than 2/3 of the interviewed parents prefer the continuation of SM distribution to their children over cash-based assistance. This was particularly evident among families in more vulnerable communities. 2/3 of the children didn’t receive breakfast before school, which highlights the importance of snacks/early meals, emphasizing on the timing of the meal for better learning.
Bringing in further insights from other implementing organizations' experience, Michael Abdallah from Save The Children International, presented a variety of interventions that Save The Children is implementing to enhance the nutrition of school-aged children in Assuit, Egypt. These interventions include improving students access to healthy food through the healthy canteen initiative. In addition, sessions on health, hygiene and dietary habits are enhancing the quality of the learning environment at school.
These presentations set the floor for an interactive open discussion, where seminar participants highlighted the role of various social protection instruments to stimulate national school participation, and address food security and nutrition in Egypt.
