The World Food Programme (WFP) supports the Lao Government’s vision of ‘a prosperous country, with a healthy population, free from food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty’.

Between July 2020 and April 2021, IOD PARC conducted an independent evaluation that covered WFP interventions under their Country Strategic Plan for Lao PDR (2017-2021) and assessed their strategic positioning, its contribution to outcomes, the efficiency with which the plan was implemented and the factors explaining WFP’s performance.

The evaluation took a utilisation-focused, consultative approach. The team utilised mixed methods, drawing on monitoring data, document review and semi-structured interviews with over 200 stakeholders at national and local levels. Attention was paid to accountability to affected populations, ethical considerations and gender equality and women’s empowerment. Information was triangulated across the various sources to ensure the validity of the findings. Travel restriction due to the COVID-19 pandemic was partially compensated by a hybrid approach to data collection: part of the team collected data in person, and the other part worked remotely, set within an overall tight team approach.

The evaluation findings, conclusions and recommendations were presented in a series of workshops to WFP and Lao PDR government stakeholders, as well as in a Final Evaluation Report. The evaluation aimed to serve the dual purpose of accountability and learning and informing the preparation of a new country strategic plan.