Impact of the qali warma school feeding program on chronic child malnutrition

Abstract

This article provides evidence of the impact of the Qali Warma school feeding program on anemia and chronic malnutrition in children between 3 and 5 years of age in Peru. Drawing on data from the 2014 to 2017 Peruvian Demographic and Health Survey, empirical results were obtained through a quantitative two-step evaluation. First, entropy balancing and machine learning techniques were used to achieve a comparable control group that allowed for robust estimates. Then, employing regressions, the program’s effect on the variables of interest were estimated. The results indicate that Qali Warma has no effect on anemia or on chronic malnutrition in the age range studied.