Project: Costs & Benefits of Investments in Emergency Food Assistance

Limestone Analytics conducted an economic analysis of World Vision Canada’s programming undertaken in partnership with the World Food Programme, which seeks to increase the food security and nutrition of those who need it most. The economic analysis encompassed cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). World Vision Canada’s programming in this area spans six core program models:

• general food distribution,
• cash transfers,
• voucher distribution,
• cash or food for work or assets,
• integrated school feeding, and
• targeted vulnerable group feeding.

To launch the analysis, Limestone prepared a desk review of the six core program models and a complementary literature review focused on food security and nutrition interventions and their impacts. From this, Limestone identified the major expected impacts of these six core program models and developed a methodology to estimate those quantitatively.

A key component of this methodology was an innovative approach linking assistance provision to changes in Food Consumption Scores (FCS) and subsequent changes in nutrition outcomes among program participants. Limestone then constructed spreadsheet-based analytical models to estimate the costs and benefits of World Vision Canada’s investments in 163 implementations of the various program models across 22 countries between 2019 and 2021.

Limestone delivered a final report to synthesize its analysis, highlighting the scope of the investments in partnership with the World Food Programme (more than 8.5 million individuals reached), the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted and cases of mortality averted, and the cumulative and net social benefits of these investments. Limestone’s analysis estimated the net social return on WVC’s food security and nutrition programming at more than $373 million (USD), yielding $1.97 in social benefits for every $1.00 invested.