Foreign Agricultural Service, United States Department of Agriculture La s McGovern-Dole Project o BAS LINE EVALUATION OctoberE 2018 USDA McGOVERN-DOLE FY17 BASELINE STUDY IN LAOS Final Report Program: McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Childhood Nutrition Agreement Number: FFE-439-2017-/022-00 Funding Year: Fiscal Year 2017 Project Duration: 2017-2021 Implemented by: World Food Programme Evaluation Authored by: NRMC Bhaskar Goswami Malay Das Ankita Singh Prapti Barooah DISCLAIMER: This publication was produced at the request of the United States Department of Agriculture. It was prepared independently by NRMC. The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Department of Agriculture or the United States Government. based decisionbased making - Decentralized Evaluation Decentralized evidence evaluation for USDA Mc-GOVERN DOLE FY17 BASELINE STUDY IN LAO PDR [FY 17-21] Final Report October 2018 WFP Country Office Lao PDR Mr. Utomo Tjipto, WFP Lao PDR Evaluation Manager Prepared by Team Leader: Bhaskar Goswami Team Member: Malay Das, Ankita Singh, Prapti Barooah Acknowledgements The NRMC evaluation team wishes to acknowledge the guidance, support and cooperation received from all the participants in the evaluation. NRMC takes this opportunity to extend sincere thanks to the distinguished Government officials at the Ministries, provincial level and district level for their time and precious inputs. The NRMC Evaluation Team expresses its gratitude to Ada Ihenachor and Tracy Johnson from USDA for their valuable suggestions and guidance for the evaluation. We would like to thank the members of RBB, Felicity Chard and Yumiko Kanemitsu, for sharing their useful insights. Their suggestions have immensely helped in enhancing the design of the evaluation. We would also like to thank the staff of international development agencies (The World Bank, UNICEF, UNFPA, Australian DFAT, Plan International, Big Brother Mouse, SNV, and GIZ) who kindly took the time to meet us and give us their views on the school feeding programme in Lao PDR. NRMC wishes to sincerely acknowledge the support and guidance received from the staff of the WFP Lao PDR Country Office, for assisting with the planning of and facilitating the evaluation mission, and for supplying documentation, especially to Sarah Gordon Gibson, Nanna Skau, Utomo Tjipto, Yangxia Lee, Serena Mithbaokar, Air Sensomphone, Khizar Ashraf, Outhai Sihalath, Phetsamone Southalack, Kevin Howley, Thai Thao, and the WFP staff from the Pakse and LuangNamtha sub-offices. We are grateful to the team from Geo-Sys for their partnership with the NRMC evaluation team throughout the period of evaluation, particularly for their untiring efforts for data collection. Last but not the least, the evaluation team wishes to acknowledge the cooperation received from all informants, including school children, school head, teachers, parents, cooks, storekeepers and VEDC members, during the primary survey. Disclaimer The opinions expressed in this report are those of the Evaluation Team, and do not necessarily reflect those of the World Food Programme. Responsibility for the opinions expressed in this report rests solely with the authors. Publication of this document does not imply endorsement by WFP of the opinions expressed. The designation employed and the presentation of material in maps do no imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WFP concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers. USDA Mc-Govern Dole FY 17 Baseline Study in Lao PDR Draft Report Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of Acronyms Executive Summary 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Overview of the Study Subject ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Context ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3. Study Methodology and Limitations .......................................................................................................... 5 2. Study Findings ................................................................................................................................ 10 2.1. Key baseline findings ....................................................................................................................................... 10 2.2. Relevance of MGD SFP FY17 in Lao PDR ............................................................................................... 13 2.3. Effectiveness of MGD-SFP FY17 ................................................................................................................. 15 2.4. Sustainability of MGD-SFP FY17 ................................................................................................................ 25 2.5. Theory of Change for MGD-SFP FY17 ..................................................................................................... 29 3. Conclusions and Recommendations ........................................................................................ 37 3.1. Overall Assessment/Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 37 3.2. Lessons Learned ................................................................................................................................................ 40 3.3. Recommendations ............................................................................................................................................ 41 Annexes .................................................................................................................................................... 44 Annex A Scope of Work for Baseline Study .................................................................................................. 44 Annex B Stakeholders and Report Users ....................................................................................................... 46 Annex C Map of the Intervention Area .......................................................................................................... 49 Annex D WFP SFP 2017-21coverage ............................................................................................................... 50 Annex E Project-Level Results Framework of WFP-Laos PDR MGD FY17-21 .......................... 51 Annex F Programme Objectives, Outcomes and Activities .................................................................. 54 Annex G Performance Indicator Targets for MGD-FY17 Program ................................................... 56 Annex H Funding for WFP School Feeding Programme......................................................................... 62 Annex I Programme Graduation Timeline .................................................................................................. 64 Annex J Role of WFP's partners in MGD SFP ................................................................................................... 65 Annex K Status of Poverty, Nutrition and Education in Lao PDR, 2012 ........................................ 67 Annex L Profile of Programme Provinces ..................................................................................................... 70 i USDA Mc-Govern Dole FY 17 Baseline Study in Lao PDR Draft Report Annex M ODA Assistance to Lao PDR ............................................................................................................... 74 Annex N Evaluation Mission Schedule ............................................................................................................ 77 Annex O Statistical Matching Technique........................................................................................................ 84 Annex P Key Baseline Questions and Evaluation Matrix ...................................................................... 86 Annex Q Documents Gathered ............................................................................................................................ 99 Annex R Sample Size Covered by Provinces and Respondent Category .................................... 103 Annex S List of Sample Schools ....................................................................................................................... 105 Annex T Data Analysis Methods ...................................................................................................................... 109 Annex U Baseline Values of Key Indicators ............................................................................................... 111 Annex V Baseline Values of Other Key Performance Indicators .................................................... 121 Annex W Indicator wise Findings .................................................................................................................... 131 Annex X Other Performance Indicators ...................................................................................................... 149 Annex Y Theory of Change ................................................................................................................................. 151 List of Tables Table 1: