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The evaluation was commissioned to inform Phase III implementation and support the transition to full government ownership of the National School Feeding Programme (NSFP), with a dual purpose of accountability and learning. The decentralized baseline evaluation was carried out in 2025, with midterm and endline evaluations planned for 2027 and 2029 respectively.

Phase III of the McGovern-Dole grant provides USD 28 million over five years, aiming to improve literacy in school-age children, increase the use of health and dietary practices, and strengthen the effectiveness of food assistance through national systems and local procurement. An overarching objective is to build government capacity at national, district and school levels to manage and sustain the NSFP.

The programme supports the direct implementation of school meals, WASH, health and nutrition, education and infrastructure activities in 72 pre- and primary schools across five districts¡ªthree continuing from previous phases (Burera, Kayonza, Gasabo) and two newly added (Ngororero, Nyamasheke). Primary data collection for the baseline included school surveys, Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRA), student surveys, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and document review.

Key conclusions:

• The programme is highly relevant to Rwanda¡¯s education, nutrition, and social protection priorities, and addresses critical gaps in policy coherence, district coordination, and community engagement.
• The FY24 design reflects strong alignment with national strategies and district imihigo, and promotes sustainability through institutional capacity building and policy advocacy, including support for a school feeding law.
• Literacy benchmarks have improved since the previous phase, with baseline reading comprehension already meeting life-of-project targets, prompting recommended upward adjustments.
• Challenges persist in food safety, smallholder engagement, and gender equity, particularly for women farmers. While complementary activities address social norms, they do not specifically target women smallholders.
• Monitoring systems are in place but require strengthened partner onboarding, clearer M&E roles, and improved knowledge management to support adaptive learning.
• The joint timing of the FY20 endline and FY24 baseline created efficiencies but limited the ability to inform qualitative inquiry with quantitative results. Earlier sequencing is recommended for future evaluations.

Recommendations were operational (such as improve district-level community mobilization, refine procurement models to benefit smallholders, strengthen food safety benchmarks and refresher training, and enhance partner M&E onboarding) and strategic (such as institutionalize SABER for national capacity measurement, integrate school feeding indicators into district performance contracts, and expand gender-responsive programming for smallholder farmers).