Congo (Brazzaville)

Final: IPHD has successfully organized the distribution of USDA-donated commodities, locally purchased food and cooking utensils to 175 schools serving over l51, 608 students in the regions of Pool, Kouilou, Bouenza and Lekoumou of the Republic of Congo

Although school data remains incomplete, comments from parents and administrators from focus group interviews indicate overwhelming support for the School Lunch Program (SLP) and teachers report they can see the improvement in student enrollment, attendance, and academic performance. One school district indicates an eight percent increase in enrollment, and another a 12% increase in attendance.

IPHD continued with the malaria prevention and education program. Other components provided Vitamin A and zinc tablets to children in need, and communities helped to refurbish schools. The project ended in June 2003.

Midterm: School feeding for approximately 125,000 students began in February 2002. International Partnership for Human Development (IPHD) received 8,300 tons of commodities to support the Global Food for Education (GFE) program. About half of the commodities were successfully monetized and the proceeds of $1.6 million were used to purchase local commodities and cooking utensils to supplement use of the donated commodities in feeding. Solid data on the performance of the program is not yet available, but IPHD’s GFE monitors report a 125% increase in enrollment in the initial assessment of the first grade classes in the GFE program in the coastal region of the country. IPHD-Congo also plans to target 500 of the GFE schools for a malaria prevention program. The GFE project is scheduled to continue through the 2003 school year.

Final: The Government of Congo signed a peace agreement with the rebels in Pool and other affected departments since the midterm report. The agreement ended the hostilities and allowed the repair of transportation facilities. Such actions have enable IPHD to begin the implementation of the GFE program in Pool and other affected departments as originally planned

Midterm: The Congo experienced political conflict and civil disturbances in the years preceding its independence from France in 1960. Likewise, Congo's history since independence has been violent, with three Presidential coups and one presidential assassination between 1958 and 1979. After restoration of a fragile peace in October 1997, a new cycle of violence began in December 1998. The transition to democracy and a market-based economic system has been undermined by frequent episodes of violence, insecurity, and sporadic fighting.

Congo's economy is based primarily on the petroleum sector, which is by far the country's major revenue earner, contributing 93% of the export earnings. Oil production is expected to continue to rise significantly in the next few years, considering the fields currently under development and recent discoveries. The country's abundant rain forests are another source of revenues. Forestry, which led Congolese exports before the discovery of oil, continues to generate 10% of export earnings.

Families have only just started to rebuild their lives following three years of civil conflict. Most schools reopened in 2001, although government funds are lacking to begin a school lunch program. Approximately 512,000 children annually attend primary schools in the Republic of Congo, and most dropouts occur after one or two years of schooling. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that 34-40% of women are illiterate, compared to 17-18% of men.

Malnutrition is high among primary school children. Absenteeism due to malaria is also high. Most primary school children have a glass of water and fruit before leaving for school. In the evening, they eat their only meal of the day.

Final: IPHD took delivery of an additional 4,500 tons of rice in February 2003 and successfully monetized 3,400 tons, which were sold to local buyers at a higher price than originally anticipated. The remaining 1,100 tons was distributed directly to the schools.

Due to civil unrest in the regions and the unavailability of rail cars, the delivery of the commodities from the port city of Pointe Noire to the targeted regions was delayed. However, an arrangement was made between IPHD and the Ministry of Transportation to resolve this situation and railway cars were made available to ship the commodities to the regions. This agreement, coupled with the signing of the peace accord, has enabled IPHD to resume shipments.

Midterm: IPHD received 8,300 metric tons of commodities from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Approximately half of the commodities, 4,300 tons, were monetized, with the other 4,000 tons used for direct distribution. Proceeds realized through monetization totaled $1.6 million. IPHD used some of the proceeds to purchase flour, yeast, salt, and sugar to supplement preparation of local foods and donated commodities at the schools.

Allocations of USDA-donated commodities included: 1,800 tons of soybean oil (1,300 tons for monetization, and 500 for direct distribution); 4,500 tons of rice (3000 for monetization, 1,500 for distribution); and 2,000 tons of corn-soy milk (all for distribution).

Final: IPHD was forced to alter the original timeline for the completion of the GFE project in Congo due to armed civil unrest in some parts of the targeted regions. The signing of the peace agreement to end the hostilities enabled IPHD to plan for the implementation of the program in the affected regions.

IPHD observed major growth in the enrollment in schools with GFE programs in Pointe Noire and Brazzaville. With the improved communications with Ministry of Education officials IPHD was able to solve the problem of lack of railcars and they were able to use road transportation to deliver commodities to Dolisie and Niari from Pointe Noire.

IPHD currently provides lunches to 151,608 students. This figure is about 26,000 more students than originally planned. IPHD also provides cooking utensils to 175 schools.

Ministry of Education (MOE) has begun the school repairs phase of the project.

The school enrollment figures for GFE as of March 31, 2003 were:

IPHD’s has strengthened its relationship with the Ministry of Education at both the district and national levels. With this improved communications, the Minister of Education pledged her government’s assistance to the GFE program. However, a nationwide lack of sufficient teachers hampers the effectiveness of all education programs in the Congo. The consequences of the teacher shortage is that there are extremely large class sizes in most of the GFE schools. The Minister of Education indicated a plan to recruit 10,000 teachers for the entire country for next year.

IPHD continues to meet and exceed project targets, although at a slower pace than originally expected due to transportation and logistical reasons explained earlier. By May 2003, IPHD had successfully organized the distribution of USDA-donated commodities, locally purchased food and cooking utensils to over l51,600 students in the Departments of Pool, Kouilou, Bouenza and Lekoumou. These figures are 51,000 greater than the 100,000 targeted in the original proposal. Throughout the first quarter of 2003, IPHD/MOE teams made further visits and approved the increased number of additional students.

Midterm: The GFE program data collection process has been hampered by sporadic violence in three of the target feeding regions.

IPHD’s GFE program began in February 2002 and has a 12-month time line. The 12 months include one month for project initiation, 10 months of school feeding, and one month to evaluate and close out the program. IPHD contracted with CARITAS/Brazzaville, a local non-governmental organization (NGO) to assist in program implementation. The overall goal of IPHD’s GFE program is to increase enrollment, reduce the dropout rate, and increase attendance, especially for girls, while improving the health of students. The target feeding areas are the coastal region of Kouilou (Pointe Noire) and the provinces of Pool, Bouenza, Brazzaville, and Niari. The table on the next page presents the key criteria for measuring success of the program.

IPHD worked with the Ministry of Education to identify schools to participate in the GFE project. The school selection rationale is as follows:

Final: In School Congo River Department (district), the success rate (defined as an increase in attendance) for the first quarter in 2000/2001 was 49% without any feeding program; the identical rate for 2002/2003 was 56%, an increase of 8% which was attributed to the school feeding program.

Midterm: Enrollment and attendance data are not yet available, but IPHD’s monitors report a 125% enrollment increase in the initial assessment of first grade classes in the GFE program in Pointe Noire region.

Final: For Ngangouoni School Department, a comparison between the first quarters in 2001/2002 and2002/2003 also shows an improvement from 60% to 72%, or an increase of 12% in attendance.

Final: Teachers and monitors report that since the GFE program began the enrollment of girls has increased. Additionally, women from the community have been hired by IPHD to cook the school meals. These women are paid in-kind, thus generating increased food security for the communities.

Midterm: IPHD designed their program to give incentives to schools with higher than normal enrollment figures for girls.

Final: Malaria prevention program. IPHD began to distribute anti malaria and vitamin A and zinc tablets and continued with the malaria prevention and education awareness program components.

Midterm: The Ministry of Education also requested that IPHD target 500 of the GFE schools to participate in a malaria prevention program. IPHD developed informational and educational materials and provided technical assistance in communication design for the prevention program. IPHD selected 10,000 children in 50 of the 600 schools where the incidence of malaria is highest to receive vitamin A and zinc tablets daily for the school year. Dehydration salts and malaria tablets for severely ill children were also provided. IPHD monitors and local teachers will select 3,000 children in Kouilou and Pool Provinces to receive mosquito nets at cost.

Final: UNICEF, the United Nations Children fund supports de-worming activities as well as school rehabilitation. Some Parents/Teacher Associations with the support of the French, have acquired teaching materials and donated books to the schools. A local NGO called PRESIEC (funded by the US Embassy) has developed an HIV/AIDS intervention program in collaboration with the National AIDS program to train teachers on HIV/AIDS prevention education. In Pointe Noire, two oil companies have built some schools and began an educational program to supplement the national government’s educational system.

Currently there are regular coordination meetings with the MOE, WFP, UNICEF, and other NGOs to discuss the School Lunch Program (SLP). IPHD has also had a preliminary meeting with the International Red Cross (IRC) to discuss ways to work together in health (malaria) education.

Final: IPHD and the Ministry of Education re-negotiated the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on how to work together to implement the GFE program. The revision allowed for the formation of a working group of three Ministry staff members, who report directly to the MOE’s Director General, and IPHD SLP staff. This working group, and other subgroups, visit all the schools participating in the program to verify the number of students, and the readiness of school facilities and personnel to implement the program. The Government of Congo, through the Ministry of Education has initiated a feasibility study to develop a nation wide school lunch program in the near future.

Midterm: Through its many years of experience working with school communities, IPHD has developed a strategy for sustainability that is based on active local interest and participation in basic education. IPHD’s experience has shown that education activities have the most chance of being successful and their impacts sustained if parents and other community members are actively involved through such mechanism as parent-teacher associations (PTA’s).

IPHD also works to facilitate linkages between PTA’s, local NGO’s, and regional government education offices so that eventually parent-community groups and federations can advocate successfully for the education needs of their communities. Such collaboration between the NGO’s and local officials in Congo bodes well for sustainability should the economy of Congo improve to allow funding for a national school lunch program.

Final: See evaluation methodology in Appendix 1

Midterm: Program monitoring and evaluation is the responsibility of both USDA and the implementing organization. USDA’s local monitor will use methodology developed by USDA to collect data on the performance of the program in 20 sample schools. Data collection is in progress, hampered only by recent unrest in certain parts of the country.

IPHD hired 15 full-time monitors who visit each school twice a week to collect data. Data collection measures changes in attendance, enrollment, and the level of community participation. The monitors, who have received training in data collection, provide the program director with weekly and monthly reports that highlight successes, problem areas, and inventories. IPHD uses rental vehicles for their monitors, given the unreliability of local transportation in Congo.

Final: IPHD’s program has demonstrated to Ministry of Education Officials the benefits of school feeding program on the children in the targeted area. A positive outcome has been the action taken by the Ministry of Education officials to conduct a feasibility study to explore how the MOE could implement a feeding program for the entire country. Additionally, because Ministry Officials make frequent visits to the participating schools to observe the feeding program at the local level, they are better able to carry the information on the success of the program back to others in the Government.

Midterm: The IPHD bidding process includes private business and gave a boost to newly started private commercial enterprises. The bidding process introduced transparency and made it possible for these enterprises to ask for information on purchases of commodities under USDA’s commercial marketing programs.

Final: The people of Congo appreciate the GFE program as implemented by IPHD and they express this gratitude in the following statements:

A Parent--"Last year it was too difficult for my son to go to school especially when we had nothing to give to him to eat. When he managed to reach the school, it was to sleep under his desk. Now at the Congo River School there is a canteen with a feeding program and my son has changed. Every day now, he wakes up at 5 AM, prepares his bag, his spoon, and his cup and leaves around 6 AM to go to school. Even when someone informed him that there was no class, he had to go to check for himself."

A Director of the Congo River School--"Before the canteen, when schoolchildren were informed that the next day was off, they were full of joy, jumped and sang a song that said, "LELO TOKOKOTA TE", meaning, no class tomorrow, no class tomorrow. Now when they are informed that the following day is not a school day, they become sad and don’t sing any more. Instead they shout, "Faunio, faunio" meaning porridge, porridge that they will be missing by not going to school."

A girl student--When I was at Angola freedom elementary school last year, level 3, I was very slim and could not attend classes everyday. This year, I’ve noticed that I’m gaining weight and I do not miss class any more."

Midterm: The GFE program provides a strong incentive for children to attend school. At one of the schools in Pointe Noire region, an 8-year-old girl was observed carrying a baby behind her back during the school lunch. Sensing that the girl might not belong to the school, the regional coordinator asked her if she were a student and whose baby she was carrying. She explained that her mother told her to watch her little sister, but she still wanted to attend school because she knew that the school lunch would be served. So she came to school with her baby sister so that she could eat.