Liberia Empowerment Through Attendance, Reading, and Nutrition (LEARN II) Baseline Evaluation

Liberia Empowerment Through Attendance, Reading, and Nutrition (LEARN) II is a 5-year program (2021–2026), funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program (McGovern-Dole). Save the Children (SC) is leading the implementation of LEARN II in partnership with SC Liberia, Mercy Corps (MC), and government partners, including the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), and the Ministry of Health. LEARN II is a follow-on to the LEARN project, a 5-year project set to end in September 2022.1 LEARN II will build and expand on the work done during LEARN across the same four counties: Grand Bassa, Grand Gedeh, Rivercess, and River Gee. In addition to LEARN’s base package of school feeding services and school health and nutrition (SHN) champions, LEARN II will expand the use of the literacy boost, school health club, and school garden activities. Additionally, LEARN II will introduce the use of local and regional procurement (LRP) commodities to complement those donated by USDA. LEARN II will aim to serve 265,830 direct beneficiaries, including 85,129 pre-primary and primary school children in 234 schools.

LEARN II program activities are designed to achieve USDA’s two strategic objectives: (a) improve the literacy of school-age children by enhancing the quality of instruction and increasing student attentiveness and attendance through provision of school meals procured from local communities and (b) increase the use of health and dietary practices by enhancing knowledge of health and hygiene best practices, upgrading sanitation facilities, and improving food safety and storage systems.

SC selected the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to design and conduct the project and impact evaluations of the LEARN II project from 2022 to 2026. The baseline evaluation, which is the focus of this report, provides a detailed description of LEARN II target beneficiaries, highlights differences across counties, and sets benchmarks to enable future evaluations to address evaluation questions related to program relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.