Evaluation of WFP’s Policy on Country Strategic Plans

2023
WFP, Global

A Mokoro team, led by Muriel Visser, undertook this important global strategic evaluation for the World Food Programme (WFP), assessing the quality and results of WFP’s policy on Country Strategic Plans (CSP), along with the factors that enabled or hindered progress.

The CSP policy seeks to improve the quality and coherence of WFP assistance and its introduction in 2016 marked a substantial shift in the organization’s approach to programme planning, oversight and approval by establishing an integrated strategic and programmatic instrument that covers the entire portfolio of WFP work in a country for a period of up to five years.

The evaluation covered the period from 2017 to 2022 and intended to support both accountability and learning. A theory-based, participatory, mixed-methods approach was taken, with the methodology drawing heavily on a large, systematic document review. Other data collection methods included: secondary quantitative data analysis; a global e-survey of country offices and regional bureaux; illustrative examples of change, which brought an in-depth understanding of specific issues in eleven countries through document review and select key informant interviews; country, regional and global interviews; a comparison study with two United Nations agencies (UNHCR and UNICEF); thematic roundtable discussions focusing on themes that resulted from the e-survey results; and a final sense-making workshop to consolidate and validate findings.