Sustainability and phasing out
41. WFP-assisted interventions are expected to be "sustainable" and
not "open-ended". This is usually interpreted to mean that the project
objectives will continue to be met after food aid ends and that the external
assistance, after some time, is replaced with national or local resources.
42. Almost without exception, WFP assistance to health and nutrition
programmes has been planned in an open-ended way, usually for five years the
first time, with the possibility, almost always used by the recipient country,
for additional multi-year expansions. In this way many projects have continued
for long periods.
43. This is justifiable, indeed almost inevitable. While each beneficiary may
need WFP help only for a few months, there will be other children and expectant
mothers needing help in the following years, especially in the poorest
communities. Interventions to tackle early malnutrition are not a "once and
for all" undertaking comparable to a resettlement scheme or a construction
project. Adequate nutrition for these target groups brings important and
enduring benefits for individuals and society as a whole. However, such
programmes may involve high day-to-day running costs, which are usually defined
as recurrent costs even though investment would be a more apt description. A
rigid insistence on early government assumption of these "recurrent
costs" would sometimes mean that a valuable investment would have to be
prematurely terminated.
44. Regular reassessment of the magnitude of critical food needs (the key
indicators were discussed above) must be the basis for determining when
supplementary feeding programmes can be either discontinued or so reduced in
scope that external assistance is no longer necessary. Moreover, there should be
a clear indication of continued government commitment to tackling early
malnutrition (demonstrated through its policy, administrative and financial
support). This should be the subject of regular reviews and assessments of the
country's capacity to gradually assume a higher share of financial and other
support for the feeding programme. The key consideration is not how many years
the programme has been in operation, but whether it continues to be a good
investment, managed as cost-effectively as possible.
- WFP’s
support to supplementary feeding programmes must depend on the dimensions of
need, the recipient country’s own capacities, the government’s
commitment to nutrition and food security and, of course, the actual performance
of any ongoing WFP-assisted programmes.
