Success Stories
The stories below are taken from the School Feeding experience in 2006 and 2007. They are all peculiar and demonstrate how effective the FFE work can be.
1. Burkina Faso: Supporting Education for All initiative
2. Cape Verde: Transferring a Success Programme To Government
3. Ghana: Linking pre school and primary school children
4. Nicaragua: Promoting community participation in the rural areas
5. Niger: WFP school canteens: a world of difference for nomadic children in Niger
6. Ecuador: helping Government to implement FFE.
7. Honduras: Handing over WFP FFE and developing a National FFE programme
8. Mongolia: Collaboration in a country where there is no WFP FFE
9. Madagascar: Designing a national FFE programme
10. Malawi: Framing FFE within PRSP and Developing Government capacity
1. Burkina Faso: Supporting Education for All initiative
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country and one of the poorest in the world, being ranked 174th out of 177 countries in the 2006 UNDP Human Development Index. 86 percent of the population lives in rural areas, and almost half of all rural inhabitants are food-insecure. The gross school enrolment rate is 52 percent. The prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies is extremely high, 92 percent of children under 5, and 50 percent of women are anemic. On any given day in Burkina Faso, only three out of ten primary school children attend school. With long distances to walk to school, and insufficient food leaving them tired and hungry with a limited attention span, 70 percent of children do not regularly attend their classes. Girls are less likely than boys to attend school: they are expected to work, contribute to family chores, or are sometimes forced to get married prematurely. The four provinces of the Sahel, which are prone to natural disasters, comprise the most food insecure regions with the highest prevalence of acute malnutrition. Incorporating lessons learned from the pilot Food for Education activities in Burkina Faso, WFP began providing assistance to over 400 primary schools in January 2006. The challenge is enormous. Continued interventions to promote Education for All are and will be required to ensure a long-term impact and WFP is committed to contributing now to Burkina Faso's future. The combination of school feeding and take home rations are a strong incentive to send, and keep, children in school. By adopting a community-based approach, which seeks to involve parents and teachers in resource management and advocacy for girls' attendance, WFP is contributing to the sustainability of these projects through supporting community ownership. Throughout 2006 children began returning to school, attracted by the school feeding support offered by WFP. Hundreds of girls, who used to stay at home, now attend classes regularly and they will be joined by more friends in the years to come.
2. Cape Verde: Transferring a Success Programme To Government
Cape Verde is an archipelago of 10 islands, approximately 450 km off the coast of Senegal, with a population of just over 450,000. With a gross national product (GNP) per capita of US$ 1,930 in 2005, Cape Verde is distinguished in sub-Saharan Africa by its performances in growth and human development. The rate of absolute poverty fell from 49 percent in 1989 to 36.7 percent in 2002. Cape Verde is classified as a food-deficit country. Even in years of good rainfall, the country's cereal (maize) production meets less than 20 percent of the population's needs. Droughts are recurrent and the country lacks natural resources. On the political front, Cape Verde is a well-established functioning democracy that has made impressive political and legal reforms and entrenched the rule of law. Having emerged from a one-party political system, the country has held four democratic general elections since 1991, with the most recent election taking place in February 2006. WFP has supported school feeding in Cape Verde since 1979. As a result, the country currently has one of the highest primary school enrolment rates in Africa.. Significant progress has been made in Cape Verde since basic education became available throughout the country in 1991. But many children would stop going to school if no meal was provided as poverty and food insecurity are not restricted to specific areas but are a nationwide concern. It is quite clear that, in order to achieve higher attendance, school meals need to continue to be sustainable for some time to come. The government has therefore decided to continue the school feeding programme when WFP gradually phases out its assistance during the coming years. The success of this will depend mainly on what parental and government support is available for the school feeding project. WFP works with the government to assist it in taking over. In 2006 efforts were concentrated on capacity-building and providing support to the Government in establishing new partnerships with the Government of Brazil and through initiatives such as the Sahel Alliance for Education.
3. Ghana: Linking pre school and primary school children
Ghana is classified as a low-income, food-deficit country. Its economy revolves around subsistence agriculture which employs 60 percent of the workforce. In recent years, Ghana has made significant progress in meeting macro-economic targets. In the 2006 UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) Ghana is ranked 136th out of 177 countries. Forty-five percent of the population still live on less than US$1 a day. In the capital, the incidence of poverty is only two percent, while it ranges from 70 to 90 percent in the three northern regions. Food insecurity persists, particularly during the lean season from March to September. The national primary school gross enrolment ratio rose from 79.6 percent in 2000-2001 to 86.4 percent in 2004-2005. Schoolchildren in Ghana, especially girls, tend to drop out of school in the upper primary or to do not enrol, 78.7 % of girls are attending to school in the northern region (2004-2005). Ghana has hosted refugees from the West Africa sub-region since the early 1990s. Civil unrest in Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia in 2002, and electoral turmoil in Togo in 2005, resulted in a flood of refugees, most of whom are still in Ghana. Ghana currently hosts refugees from 12 different African countries. The Savelugu community health and nutrition education centre has seen many of its children go on to the Savelugu English/Arabic primary school. Planning strategically, Mallam Osman located the school near the nutrition centre with the objective of absorbing its pre-school children into primary class one. In 1996, the English/Arabic school he had dreamed of was established and has been enrolling children from the nutrition/pre-school centre ever since. Half of the 30 children currently in primary class one attended the nutrition/pre-school centre. The centre has encouraged many parents in the neighbourhood to enrol their children in formal education. "I have three children in primary and junior secondary school. It is only because of the WFP-assisted feeding centre and the English/Arabic school nearby that my husband was encouraged to enrol the children in school," says Hajia Adams. The WFP-assisted health and nutrition centre has brought other benefits. Regular pre- and post-natal counselling has improved the women's health and nutritional knowledge and practices. Additionally, because children stay at the centre for the most of the day, their mothers have time to engage in other productive activities. A women's group has been formed and is engaged in the extraction of shea butter which generates income to support activities at the centre and improve livelihoods generally.
4. Nicaragua: Promoting community participation in the rural areas
Nicaragua is classified as a low-income food-deficit country (LIFDC) and ranks 112th in UNDP's Human Development Index (2006). Nicaragua remains the second poorest country in the Latin America and Caribbean region. According to the World Bank, the incidence of poverty throughout the country is of 48.8 percent and reaches particularly high levels in rural areas. A large portion of the Nicaraguan population has limited access to basic services, low education levels and poor health. In spite of the efforts of the Ministry of Health to improve health indicators, according to ENDESA 2001 (National Survey on Home Livelihoods), indicators on infant and maternal mortality remain high; 45.2 deaths per 1,000 live births and 106 deaths per 100,000 live births, respectively. Vulnerability to recurrent natural hazards, external shocks and subsequent government response remain challenges in Nicaragua. In 2005 and 2006, major crop losses due to a rat infestation worsened the household food security for thousands of families throughout the country. The combination of poverty, inadequate social services, socio-political instability and natural disasters negatively affects Nicaragua´s food security situation. The national average on chronic malnutrition for school-age children is 27 percent, while rural areas reach up to 58.52 percent. The largest WFP program is currently School Feeding: in 2006, an estimated 28 percent out of the total of children enrolled in public schools were assisted by WFP. School feeding assistance focuses on rural areas, where the population has an average of less than 2 years of schooling. The challenge of reaching rural schoolchildren implied the design of innovative and efficient implementation and distribution strategies. Part of the school feeding implementation strategy included promoting community participation by creating School Feeding Committees that participate at the community level in the delivery, distribution, storage and preparation of the children’s daily school meals thus focusing in stressing the sustainability of the Programme.
5. Niger: WFP school canteens: a world of difference for nomadic children in Niger
“Before WFP started food for education activities at our school, all the children left school at lunch time to go home and eat. As many children live more than 5 km away from the school, we were not able to return for the afternoon classes. With WFP, all the children eat well, we can play together and even spend the night at the dormitories in the school” said Illiassou Katayan, a nomad boy from Telemcès in the Tahoua region in NIger, when he was asked to describe the drawing he made for the WFP drawing competition. In total, 1,500 children from 26 schools across Niger participated in the WFP drawing competition, which was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. This year’s theme was: The difference WFP food for education makes to my life. Private companies based in Niger donated prizes for the competition such as mobile phones, backpacks, dictionaries, t-shirts, pens and footballs. And it was not only the winners that received prizes, all participating schools received something. The five winners of the competition had the chance to travel to Niger’s capital, Niamey, for the award ceremony. For all of them, it was the first time to leave their region and they were very impressed by the things they encountered in the capital: the cars, the shops and the buildings. But what impressed them most was the ceremony with the presence of Government officials and the media…all organized in their honour! Other aspects of food for education programmes: There are three aspects of food for education programmes in which WFP can provide valuable advice and technical assistance to Governments: (i) policy framework; (ii) implementation; and (iii) civil society ownership and empowerment. The following are some examples of WFP’s work in this area:
6. Ecuador: helping Government to implement FFE.
WFP has been working in Ecuador since 1987 by providing food to school age children. Between 1995 and 1999 the Government’s first school feeding programme was established in which the food was provided by the Government and WFP, 80 percent and 20 percent respectively. Under this model, WFP implements the school feeding programme on behalf of the Government of Ecuador and mainly with Government funds (80 percent). Under an MOU with the Government, WFP is responsible for the procurement, storage, handling and delivery of the food, while the Government is responsible for the distribution of the food at school level and certain monitoring and evaluation tasks. There are several technical assistance activities aimed at slowly increasing the capacity of the Government to take over the project in its totality. In 2006, WFP worked at the policy and implementation levels by increasing the capacity of the Government in targeting issues using VAM, improving accountability of procurement mechanisms and better M&E systems.
7. Honduras: Handing over WFP FFE and developing a National FFE programme
In 2006, the National Congress approved the School Feeding Bill, making school feeding a mandatory intervention in the country. WFP has actively supported the policy process in the country in order to help to develop the institutional frameworks needed to support the sustainability of the programme. On the implementation side, the programme is designed according to WFP procedures and technical specifications including the design of the food ration, procurement aspects and logistics. The Government is responsible for the coordination and monitoring of the programme at the field level. WFP continues to provide technical assistance and training on all aspects of project management to the Government so that capacity to fully implement it is built over time. Honduras also provides another example of a nationally funded food for education. In 2005 the Government increased funding of the programme by 40 percent, therefore signalling the importance given to the intervention at a national level. In 2007 the Government is expected to cover 87 percent of the operation.
8. Mongolia: Collaboration in a country where there is no WFP FFE
Following a high level meeting between the Executive Director of UNICEF and the President of Mongolia in late 2005, the Government of Mongolia formally requested WFP and UNICEF to provide technical support for the design of a nationwide school feeding programme. This particular case is an example of how WFP can provide valuable technical support to a country that is interested in developing food for education programmes despite the fact that WFP has no direct presence in Mongolia, A technical mission to Mongolia comprised of senior regional staff of WFP and UNICEF was conducted in March 2006. The mission provided technical recommendations geared towards enabling the smooth introduction of the school feeding project in Mongolia. Recommendations related to the selection of the food basket, logistical and procurement considerations and budgetary requirements of the project were provided. As a follow up of this mission, a study visit of the Government of Mongolia to Thailand was facilitated in early 2007 by WFP’s regional office in Asia in order to explore existing food for education models. As a result of the visit to Thailand, the Government of Mongolia will implement a pilot project that will test activities in schools with an integrated approach designed to combine school health and nutrition activities with food security and livelihood promotion activities. The country plans to start implementing a nation wide school feeding programme, WFP and UNICEF are ready to provide further technical support and guidance at the request of the Government.
9. Madagascar: Designing a national FFE programme
In late 2005 the Government of Madagascar requested WFP to support its initiative to develop a National School Feeding Strategy (NSFS). Since then the WFP country office, supported by the school feeding unit, together with UNICEF and the World Bank has been working with the Government in defining the elements of the Strategy: targeting of school feeding, selection of appropriate food rations, procurement, costing, identification of funding sources, implementation system and monitoring and evaluation. The final Strategy document is expected to be approved during 2007. School feeding is now a part of the country’s education sector plan and poverty reduction strategy. This support to the policy process has also yielded results on the implementation side in Madagascar. By institutionalizing the programme through the NSFS, the Government has been able to mobilize additional resources through the Education for All Fast Track Initiative and has asked WFP for assistance in scaling up the current school feeding programme with these additional funds. Thus, WFP in Madagascar is getting ready to manage a school feeding programme twice the size of the one being implemented at the moment, on behalf of the government and with Government funds. In doing this, WFP will gradually transfer its management know-how to government counterparts so that the programme can eventually be run independently.
10. Malawi: Framing FFE within PRSP and Developing Government capacity
School feeding has been a priority for the Government of Malawi since the 1990’s but because of lack of budgetary resources and weak institutional capacity to implement the programme, the Government relies on WFP and GTZ since 1999 to provide food to school children in food insecure areas of the country. However, recently with the drafting of the country’s new poverty reduction strategy and the Ministry of Education’s new ten-year development plan, the issue of increasing access to education and improving the health and nutrition of school age children has caught the attention of donors and Government officials alike. In order to establish the right strategies to achieve the goals set out in the PRS and in the sector plan, WFP, together with other key partners, has supported the Ministry of Education in the drafting of the School Health and Nutrition Strategy, which will guide implementation of activities in schools, including school feeding. During 2007 the country office will concentrate on initiating dialogue with the Government at all levels regarding the design and implementation of a national school feeding programme. The country office is expected to provide significant technical assistance to the Government in this respect and is now actively mobilizing resources for this effort.