1. Introduction
These Terms of Reference (TOR) are for a decentralised evaluation1 series on WFP school feeding in emergencies and protracted crises (hereafter Emergency School Feeding, ESF) and is commissioned by the School Feeding Service (OSF) in WFP’s headquarters.
The evaluation series encompasses four country-specific activity evaluations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lebanon, Niger and Syria and a global synthesis report developed based on the four country evaluations.
The four Country Offices (CO) have adopted interesting ESF approaches adapted to context as explained in the country-specific annexes. Core ESF programme features are summarised in Table
Collectively, in 2017, the ESF programmes in the four countries reached around 900,000 internally displaced, returnee, refugee and host community children, which represents a considerable share of WFP’s total ESF beneficiaries.
The evaluation series is made possible as part of a multi-year Canadian operational contribution to WFP that supports ESF activities in the four countries, along with this evaluation series. The multi-year contribution provides a unique opportunity for WFP to invest in the quality of ESF programming while at the same time generating evidence that has a significance for WFP beyond these four countries.
The aim of the evaluation series and its timing is designed to inform an updated version of WFP’s School Feeding (SF) policy that will be developed in 2020-21, along with technical guidance on ESF, as well as Country Strategic Plans (CSP) and ESF programme design and implementation in the four WFP Country Offices concerned. The evaluation should cover WFP ESF programming during 2015-2019 (with country-specific variation as outlined in respective section).
The evaluation series is intended to provide evidence that can inform WFP’s strategy for scaling up and enhancing the quality of ESF programming. It is also intended to make a contribution to the global SF evidence base, where there is limited evidence from crisis settings. It will also meet a strategic information need for WFP, partners in the health and education sectors and donors with a growing interest in ESF as a way to address multiple vulnerabilities of children amidst protracted crises.
The selection of emergencies subject to this evaluation is purposive as the four countries benefit from the Canada contribution to WFP so this is not a sector or thematic evaluation but rather a series of case studies focusing on ESF.
The four countries face complex and protracted crisis including displacement, leading to a rise in food insecurity, and challenging humanitarian agencies to do more with increasingly limited resources. The countries represent different regions, use a range of meals, snacks and cash-based transfer modalities.
WFP’s implementation of ESF is not limited to these four countries. During 2018, WFP implemented ESF activities in more than 50 percent of its active level 2 and level 3 emergencies including Sahel, South Sudan, and Yemen thanks to contributions from several donors including but not limited to (in alphabetical order) Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), European Union (EU), Norway and USAID.