Impact of Malawi's School Meals Program on Primary Education

Abstract

Initially launched as a pilot program in 1996 by the World Food Program (WFP) at the request of the Government of Malawi (GoM), the School Meals Program (SMP) reached approximately 642,000 primary school children by 2011. According to the WFP, the objectives of the SMP are: 1) reduce drop out rates; 2) promote regular attendance; 3) increase enrollment; and 4) improve children’s ability to concentrate and learn, through food provision (WFP, 2010). Given these aims, this paper aims to determine if Malawi’s SMP affects the primary enrollment rate or attendance as measured as an impact on temporary withdraws. By applying a propensity score matching (PSM) model to the Third Integrated Household Survey data from 2010-2011, the estimation of the impacts will aim to mitigate selection bias using historic enrollment and other covariates, which include WFP selection criteria and theory-based community and political characteristics. Using three different matching techniques, the model predicts that the SMP has no impact on primary enrollment and a statistically insignificant, but positive impact on attendance, here measured as a decrease in temporary withdraws. Explanations for these atypical results include the presence of exclusion errors, which were found in the pilot evaluation, model misspecification, and the lack of social desirability bias in my measures. Further research is needed to determine the extent to which previous results have been biased by Hawthorne effects or social desirability bias. Given the potential of the temporary withdraws for highlighting a positive impact of the program, further studies should include this measure as a potential outcome of any SMP program, especially in agrarian economies.