PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

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CASE STUDY

Example: School Feeding Programme

27% of children in South Africa under five years of age are stunted in terms of nutrition, and many children in South Africa go to school hungry (DBE, 2019). This affects their ability to learn and in turn damages educational outcomes. In this fictional programme, a funder has decided to start a school feeding programme among local primary schools to address this issue. The funder wishes to contract local small businesses to prepare healthy meals for school children. A theory of change has been developed to communicate the programme logic and expected pathways of change.

Theory of Change Narrative

The programme has been established in order to achieve the following long-term impacts:

• Primary school children from disadvantaged areas (in quintiles 1 to 3) experience healthy physical development; and
• These children demonstrate improved educational outcomes.

The primary activities of this programme are to contract small local businesses to cook meals that can be distributed to local primary schools; and connect these businesses with local food suppliers. Consequently, these businesses will prepare meals for schools, ensuring high levels of food safety and hygiene, and deliver them to the schools timeously. These outputs are based on the assumptions that businesses are trained in food safety preparation and that the businesses have an appropriate vehicle for delivery.

As a result of this programme, local businesses will have increased opportunities for livelihood (assuming they are paid timeously and consistently). Furthermore, disadvantaged school children are then able to have access to nutritious meals at school every day (assuming schools are able to adequately store and distribute the meals). In the medium-term, this will lead to children experiencing an improved health and nutritional status, better levels of school attendance, and an increased ability to concentrate in class, assuming that they do not experience other influences that could impact their concentration and learning (for example, a learning disability).

The ToC developed by the programme stakeholders can be seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1:Theory of Change School Feeding Programme.

L[ ]417] 3 Local business database Local food supplier database Assumptions Local businesses contracted to cook meals Local businesses connected to food suppliers Outputs Businesses are trained in health & safety food preparation Local businesses prepare meals safely & hygienically Meals delivered to schools timeously Businesses have delivery vehicle Short-term (1T}l g1 Schools have adequate capacity to store & distribute meals School children have access o nutritious meals everyday Increased opportunities for livelihood among businesses Local businesses are paid timeously M Ll outcomes Children experience improved health and nutritional status Level of child attendance at school are improved School children are able to better concentrate in class Children do not have learning disabilities South African primary school children experience healthy physical development South African primary school demonstrate improved educational outcomes