Evaluation report of the PL-480 Title II program in India

480 Title II food distribution program in India. Evaluation covers FY 79 and is based on interviews with personnel from AID/W, USAID/I, and the four PVO's which are implementing the program and on visits to l40 program sites in nine Indian states. A total of $106 million worth of food was distributed during the year and benefitted 16 million people. The PVO's project implementation has been excellent; however, a lack of prior definition of goals and purposes has led to upper-level interference in PVO performance. The Maternal/Child Health (MCH) program is ineffective because of ration sharing, substitution, use of inappropriate foods, and poor targeting. However, the food is a potential incentive for receiving other health benefits if the latter are available. The Food for Work (FFW) program varies widely in its results, being successful if food is used as an incentive for community cooperation but ineffective if food is granted without requiring a contribution of labor or resources. The School Feeding (SF) program, which aimed more at increasing enrollment than improving nutrition, is on target. It is recommended that priorities among the MCH, FFW, and SF be eliminated for greater flexibility in food allocation; upper-level managers refrain from altering lower-level decisions, while requiring a minimum of reporting; PVO's be encouraged to develop alternative programming methods for Title II commodities; data collection efforts be separated into on-going program monitoring and periodic evaluation of purpose and goal achievement with geographically stratified random samplings of programs in each major category; and that mutual respect be fostered between PVO's and USAID/I. More specific recommendations are, inter alia, to: increase efforts to reach children under three with low-bulk, high-nutrition food; improve environmental sanitation; involve communities in planning and selection of beneficiaries; determine food needs and resources in advance of each subproject; provide special training for those responsible for the Mid-Day Meals program and include vitamin supplements in the program; and aid current client schools while promoting, depending on local participation, new schools in less advanced areas.