Evaluation of Tajikistan WFP Country Strategic Plan 2019-2024

The evaluation was commissioned by the independent Office of Evaluation to provide evaluative evidence for accountability and learning to inform the design of the next WFP country strategic plan (CSP) in Tajikistan. It covers WFP activities implemented between 2018 and September 2021 to assess continuity from the previous programme cycle.

The evaluation was conducted between June 2021 and April 2022 to assess WFP’s strategic positioning and role and the extent to which WFP has made the strategic shift expected by the CSP; WFP’s contributions to strategic outcomes; efficiency and factors that explain WFP performance.

It concluded that:

• The strategic direction of the CSP towards enabling national and subnational institutions to design and deliver on their social protection, food security and nutrition priorities was highly relevant.
• Responsiveness of WFP to the needs of the most vulnerable population groups was broadly appropriate, however, more attention should be given to consultations with affected populations.
• WFP’s strength and added value remain in the direct implementation of activities of which school feeding has promising sustainability prospects while the sustainability potential for nutrition and resilience building areas remains moderate.
• Good progress has been made in capacity strengthening for the school meals programme including in the policy domain, while in nutrition and resilience building, WFP’s ability to deliver country capacity strengthening interventions beyond the individual level is only emerging
• Finally, the implementation of activities was affected by funding shortages and delays, a staff skillset that did not reflect the growing capacity strengthening role of WFP, turnover of staff, and shortingcomings in the intervention logic.