How we help feed a hungry world: Evaluating our food assistance programs

One of World Vision’s most vital partners is the World Food Programme (WFP). For more than 30 years, the World Vision Partnership has been one of WFP’s largest international non-governmental partners, providing food assistance, particularly in fragile contexts, and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience.

The food assistance portfolio consists of five programming types:

• Integrated school feeding programs provide school meals for children.
• General food distribution provides in-kind food assistance to the general population.
• Food or cash for assets provide food or cash for job training or community projects.
• Cash or voucher transfers provide unconditional cash assistance or vouchers redeemable for food items to the general population.
• Targeted vulnerable group feeding provides nutrient supplements or other ready-to-use supplementary foods to those at risk of moderate acute malnutrition.

To analyze the effectiveness of World Vision Canada’s food assistance portfolio in partnership with WFP, we engaged an external analytics firm to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of 163 projects across 22 countries, from 2019 to 2021. The cost-benefit analysis revealed that, overall, investments in our food assistance projects have been a cost-effective use of Canadian funds.

We learned that the projects generated over $756 million in benefits for participants with a positive benefit-cost ratio of 1.97. This means that for every dollar invested, participants receive $1.97 in benefits. The portfolio also saved the lives of an estimated 10,841 children—nearly 10 lives per day over a three-year period.

For a more detailed look at the food assistance portfolio and its results, please see the executive summary, Food Assistance Programming: Cost-Benefit Analysis.

If you require access to the accessible version of this summary, please contact us at 1-866-595-5550.