Chad

Final: With support from the Global Food for Education Initiative, the WFP school feeding program fed 123,000 Chadian students in 851 schools in the 2001-2002 school year. Most notably, the program made important improvements in the general school environment in participating schools. Furthermore, during the 2002-2003 school year, 15,606 girls received take-home rations under the WFP initiative.

Midterm: In accordance with the Government of Chad’s educational policy, this project aims to promote the regular attendance of school children—especially girls—and to increase their learning capacity in the short-term and over longer periods. The WFP’s assistance is targeted exclusively to rural and semi-rural public or community schools in five prefectures of the Sahelian zone. The number of beneficiary children averages about 66,000 a year in 500 schools. Of the beneficiary children, around 22,000 are girls. In order to make this program more successful, more parental participation is needed, along with collaboration for better school infrastructure.

Final: Chad has been a staging ground for armed conflicts for most of the past 40 years. In addition, the country is regularly subject to climatic disturbances and natural disasters such as droughts, floods and locust invasions. The inevitable results are crop failures and food crises. These circumstances are aggravated by the fact that access to alternative food sources is limited. Combined with an inadequate road system, food transport is difficult and persistent poverty means that other problems aside, purchasing power is limited.

Enrollment rates in the northern part of the country located in the Sahelian zone were even lower than the national average amounting to less than 30%. In this zone, only 17% of those enrolled were girls. Of the children who enter primary education, less than one third complete the primary education cycle. Illiteracy among women exceeds 95% and ranks as one of the highest illiteracy rates in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The major obstacle to school attendance and learning in this region is chronic food insecurity. Children are asked to contribute to agricultural and household food production by participating in farming activities and caring for livestock. For girls, the hardships are rendered more critical as a result of the gender disparities and subordinate social status. They generally marry early and bear the burden of helping other women with their labors. Traditionally, girls over nine years of age have very limited options and schooling is not often one of them.

Midterm: Chad is a land-locked Sahelian country faced with periodic drought and classified as both a least-developed country and a low-income, food-deficit country. According to the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Human Development Report for 1999, Chad ranks 162 out of 174 countries, with a per capita gross national product (GNP) of $230, an infant mortality rate of 194 per 1,000 (Demographic and Health Survey, 1996-97) and an aggregate household food security index of 64.5. Fifty-four percent of Chad’s population lives below the poverty line.

Poverty and food insecurity limit access to education, and the lack of education hinders development and contributes to malnutrition. Overall school enrollment in 1997-98 was estimated at 52%, with about 65% of boys enrolled and 39% of girls. Dropouts are common, and less than a third of the children enrolled complete the full primary education cycle. Illiteracy among women exceeds 95%.

Final: There have been no additional commodity shipments and all commodity quantities and arrival dates were reported at the midterm.

Final: In 2001, the school feeding program focused on increasing student enrollment and attendance. The program originally planned to serve some 500 schools and 63,000 students each year. Support from the USDA Global Food for Education Initiative helped the program reach 851 schools and feed 123,000 students.

The program contributed to the development of human capital by supporting government policies and strategies in the education sector. The principal goals included fighting short-term hunger, increasing school attendance, and promoting the enrollment of girls, particularly in rural and semi-rural schools. These goals were reached through:

By feeding children in food-insecure areas, the program helped to improve the country’s nutritional status. It also increased student enrollment in disadvantaged rural areas and worked to improve school attendance while reducing student dropout rates.

Midterm: In accordance with the Government of Chad’s educational policy, this project aims to promote the regular attendance of school children, especially girls, and to increase their learning capacity.

The activity pursued the following objectives:

A hot meal is prepared and served to boys and girls every school day for 160 days a year. Girls who attend classes regularly over an extended period of time are given dry rations to take home to their families. During the 2002-2003 school year, 15,606 girls received take-home rations under the WFP initiative. The supplemental food portions help compensate families for the lost labor that is involved by allowing girls to attend school for a meaningful period of time.

Real community participation and a sense of program ownership are vital for the success of the project. An extensive awareness and capacity building effort was undertaken to ensure that parents and school authorities recognized and became comfortable with the roles they were expected to play. To facilitate this process, a country-specific school feeding handbook was developed by the Ministry of Education in cooperation with WFP to supplement the orientation process.

When the program began, a baseline survey was conducted to help simplify the evaluation process, help measure program impact and ensure reliable findings. Completed in 2001, the analysis of the data from this survey is being finalised and will serve as a basis for comparison when the results of a follow-up evaluation are compiled in 2003.

The baseline survey will provide information about changes in attendance, enrollment, health and sanitation, school infrastructure and public and private contributions. Even preliminary findings strongly indicate the need for improvements in the education system. While the survey found that the proportion of girls in relation to boys has increased in WFP-assisted schools during the last three years, the rate of increase has been very slow. Current estimates show that for every two boys there is barely one girl. Although it is low, it is almost double the rate in schools where school feeding programs do not exist.

Chad has also piloted a monitoring system that uses satellite technology to transmit program data instantaneously. All data is posted on the Internet for WFP and the Government to access at will. The system is especially helpful in remote areas where it is difficult for monitors to conduct routine visits. Sending data on a frequent basis keeps WFP and the Government informed about the program’s progress and alerts monitors of any commodity problems or potential food shortages. To view results from the pilot, visit http://www.wfp-schoolfeeding-argos.cls.fr

While the system aims to become worldwide eventually, Chad is among a few countries to be included in the development and testing phase.

Each participating school tracks the following information under normal WFP regulations and operations:

Midterm: The preparation of fortified meals in the schools and the provision of a dry ration to the families of girls permits children to attend school regularly and allows them to continue their education. The aid affords children and populations suffering from food insecurity with better access to food and represents an income transfer for parents who keep their girls in school.

The activity operates under the technical authority of the Ministry of Basic Education through the National School Canteen Service (SNCS). A coordination unit composed of representatives of the above Ministry, the Ministry of Planning, and WFP is responsible for implementation and monitoring. The management committee of each school is in charge of receiving and supervising the use of commodities. Following WFP’s "Enhanced Commitments to Women" policy, the presence of women on these committees is compulsory. The dry rations for the families of girls are delivered by the management committee under the supervision of parents’ associations.

WFP’s assistance is targeted exclusively to the rural and semi-rural public or community schools in five prefectures of the Sahelian zone. The number of beneficiary children averages about 66,000 a year in 500 schools, including around 22,000 girls. These figures represent a continuous progression of the total enrollment in the schools and the proportion of girls in that total. WFP is providing hot lunches to 63,750 students in 500 primary schools. Increased U.S. donations have provided take-home rations for 61,250 students (35% girls) in 351 schools.

Other donor support:

The Government of Chad, WFP, and other organizations, chiefly UNICEF, German Technical Assistance, and Catholic Aid and Development, conduct awareness-raising campaigns periodically to promote girls’ education and to increase community involvement. Improvement in the educational structure is the main objective of another World Bank project. The European Union and France, along with WFP, are the principal donors of food aid.

During the first two years of implementation, this program had a very significant impact on the enrollment and attendance of girls. The increase was estimated at approximately 40%. Gains of this magnitude were beyond all expectations. In many areas, especially in grades one through three, girls now outnumber boys. In higher grades, retention rates among girls have also improved. In the past, the numbers of girls enrolled was quite low. If these gains can be maintained, they will mark a turning point in Chad’s struggle against illiteracy, particularly among women.

In addition, the country is beginning to develop additional partnerships in the education sector with organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund. These organizations are targeting educational infrastructure and parental participation. Additional reviews should be conducted in coming years to more adequately evaluate these impacts on the Chadian school feeding program.