Final: With the addition of GFEI commodity donations from USDA, WFP has been able to expand its existing school feeding operations. The program now serves a total of 73,000 day-school children and 7,085 boarding school children. In addition, it provides 1,164 take-home rations for girls and 24,000 to orphans.

Substantial advances, equal to or exceeding the goals established during the program planning process have been achieved in enrollment rates, regular attendance and gender equity. In each instance, there is ample evidence that among the several variables, it was the presence of a school meal that attracted children to school and an education.

Midterm: By covering part of the costs of schooling, the school feeding project will enable poor households to enroll and keep their children in school, including boarding facilities. Providing two meals per day in day schools will reduce students' short-term hunger and improve the concentration of children who have walked long distances to reach the schoolhouse. This is expected to lead to improved performance and reduced repetition and dropout rates.

Take-home rations will cover part of the costs families incur when they send their children to school. Take-home rations for girls can reduce the significant gender gap in education by providing an effective incentive for overcoming the obstacles that prevent girls from attending school. The provision of supplemental dry rations can also help orphans. They are usually cared for by foster families who depend on their labor to cover the costs of supporting them.

Despite growth rates of around 10% over the past four years, Mozambique remains among the poorest countries in the world. Its per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was $240 in 1999. Moreover, economic progress is not evenly distributed. About 68% of the people live in absolute poverty, and 64% live in food-insecure households. The total population is 17.2 million, and population density is only about 20 persons per square kilometer. With 80% of the population living in rural areas and the economy based predominantly on agriculture, Mozambique is particularly vulnerable to recurring natural disasters such as floods, droughts and pests.

In schools, the net enrollment rate drops from 53.8% for the first level of primary education (grades one through five) to only 2% for the second level of primary education (grades six and seven). There are not enough primary and secondary schools within walking distance in many rural communities. As a result, strategically located boarding institutions for primary, secondary, technical, and professional education are needed. Most rural and peri-urban families have an income far below the average GDP of $240 per year and are, therefore, not able to pay the $32 per year it would cost (using local prices) to feed each student.

Children in rural and peri-urban areas must walk long distances to reach one of Mozambique’s 626 second-level primary schools. As a result of socio-economic conditions and dietary habits (only one meal per day, usually at night), most children are hungry when they arrive at school and have difficulty concentrating and learning. This contributes to high dropout rates (about 20% between grades five and six) and high repetition rates (25%).

The main deterrent to sending girls to school is the socio-economic situation facing their families. With limited financial resources, parents send their sons rather than their daughters to school. Starting at age 10, girls often have to stay at home in order to carry out domestic and agricultural tasks. Cultural habits also play an important role in girls’ limited access to primary education.

The number of orphans under the age of 15 is currently about 504,000. By 2006, their numbers are expected to more than double to 1.1 million, with the increase mainly reflecting the deaths of parents suffering from HIV/AIDS. Current estimates of HIV infection rates are almost 25% in the rural areas of the central region for people ages 15-45, and around 15% for the same age group in other regions. Studies indicate that children in households where one or more adults are infected by AIDS or are deceased are less likely to perform well in school and more likely to be absent from classes or to drop out of school entirely.

Goals and objectives: This activity pursues the following objectives:

This activity will work toward fulfilling each child’s right to an education and improving learning capacity through increased enrollment and attendance at school, particularly for girls and orphans.

Final: In boarding schools, children are provided with three meals a day, every day, all year round. In day schools, students in both shifts are provided with a lunchtime meal during the school year. Almost 50% of the commodities used to provide these meals come from USDA-contributed rice and vitamin A enriched vegetable oil.

Given the success with which the school feeding program has increased enrollment, attendance and student attrition rates, several donors have approached WFP to discuss targeting funds that are donated for unspecified educational purposes to WFP’s school feeding activities. The proposal acknowledges WFP’s ability to provide cost-effective programs and recognizes potential for a larger success rate through additional funding and partnerships.

Midterm: WFP uses a vulnerability assessment survey to target the areas with the greatest needs. The survey includes factors such as poverty and food insecurity levels, basic health indicators, girls’ enrollment rates, occurrence of natural disasters, and the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. Based on the findings, WFP targets students in rural and peri-urban areas that suffer from short-term hunger or must walk long distances to school. Boarding school students and staff are targeted as well as upper and lower primary schools, especially grades six and seven, when many children dropout. Provinces where girls account for less than 30% of the student population are a key focus under WFP operations as well as orphans (defined as children up to age 15 who have lost one or both parents) in provinces where the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among adults aged 15–49 exceeds 20%. (For more information, refer to the midterm findings under the "project impact" section.)

Boarding school directors are responsible for implementing the school feeding activity in their institutions. They help create a parent-teacher association that establishes the necessary infrastructure for the initiative, including access to safe drinking water, sufficient manpower, and fuel for food preparation. The association also organizes food preparation and the distribution of meals.

At the beginning of each semester, (twice per year), the mothers of female students must collect the family take-home ration with their daughters. Based on the Ministry of Education’s criteria for sitting exams, a minimum attendance rate is the criterion for receiving take-home rations. Care providers for orphans must also present themselves at the school twice a year in order to receive the take-home ration.

WFP provides the necessary non-food items, such as kitchen utensils, to enable each day school to start its canteen activities. Training is provided for the parents’ association in overall management, food storage, cooking, sanitation, gender issues and girls’ education. Training is also a part of project implementation for all relevant partners.

Final: WFP receives donations from Canada, Italy, Germany, Japan and Denmark to complete the food basket. In addition to providing complementary foods, these other countries contribute additional cereals and vegetable oil that make it possible to serve additional numbers of students.

Midterm: The education sector receives substantial support from a large number of bilateral and multilateral organizations, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, the Danish International Development Agency, and the Swedish International Development Agency. Several of these programs complement WFP’s activities in such areas as the rehabilitation of boarding school infrastructure and provision of teaching materials. WFP is actively participating in the donor coordination group for the education sector.

The Government of Mozambique’s contribution over five years is estimated at $4.95 million.

Community Involvement: A high degree of active community participation is necessary for program success in day schools. Parents must be motivated in order for a school to be accepted in the program. If the parents at any given school do not wish to undertake the responsibilities involved in managing the school feeding activity, another school with motivated parents will be chosen.

After some experience with the program in Mozambique, WFP has realized the immense importance of involving the local community leader in the management process. When school personnel and parents fail to meet their responsibilities, the community leader’s intervention is often the only effective solution. Further, his concern for the future of his people and their well-being makes him a natural advocate for education. Consequently, the community leader rapidly becomes one of the program’s main advocates and helps ensure that the community embraces the initiative and works to make its objectives a reality.

A review of the program and subsequent resource retargeting made it possible to increase the number of students benefiting from take-home rations to 10,000 girls and 2,000 orphans. With the addition of GFEI and other resources that were already pledged, WFP has been able to expand the numbers to be served to include:

WFP’s day school feeding intervention targets the weakest link in the primary education continuum, the EP2 or 6th and 7th grades. The goal is to assist approximately 200 schools (120 day schools and 80 boarding schools) out of the country’s total of approximately 700 EP2 and EPC (1st through 7th grades) schools.

Enrollment: Although all of the data on enrollment, attrition, retention, and school attendance rates are not yet available for 2002 and 2003, there is enough data was for a preliminary analysis of day school feeding efforts in the Sofala province. The program was operating in 13 primary schools in 2002 and served a total of 9,334 students (6,316 boys and 3,018 girls) in grades one through seven. Data from 2001, the last year without food distribution, and 2002, the first year with food distribution, were compared for participating schools. The following improvements were noted:

Retention rates: Taking into account certain variables from school to school and the opening of new schools in some areas, an average 10% improvement was noted in student retention rates. Over the course of the school year, these figures increased by rates of between 80-85% and 90-95%.

Attendance rates: Although data have not yet been collected on attendance, anecdotal reports suggest that many schools achieved up to 100% attendance rates after school feeding began.

Passing rates: In schools that participated in the school feeding program, student pass rates experienced an absolute increase of 47% between 2001 and 2002 for students in grade seven, the highest grade in the primary education cycle. There was a 55% increase among boys, and a 62% increase among girls. In relative terms, the increases constituted a 10% overall increase between 2001 and 2002, 11% for boys and 16% for girls.

In 2002, 802 pupils received primary education degrees compared to 546 students before the WFP school feeding program started. The provision of meals can be the deciding factor for many students who must choose between work and their studies. As students get older, their ability to contribute financially to the family livelihood directly competes with their opportunity to finish primary school.

De-worming and School Health at large: With funds from the Canadian International Development Agency and the World Bank, WFP will initiate a de-worming activity in 2003 for all 160,000 primary school children in WFP-assisted day and boarding schools. This activity will involve the collaboration of the Government’s Ministries of Education, Health, the World Health Organization and the World Bank.

In connection with the de-worming activity, health seminars will be presented to help students learn about basic health and hygiene issues so they can avoid re-exposure. During the planning stage, the benefits of expanding the scope of the seminars became evident. As a result, the seminars will address basic health issues and involve two additional partners: UNESCO and UNICEF. The WB will provide additional funding to support the project’s expanded scope.

Once the pilot phase is underway, it is hoped that bilateral donors consider funding the activity’s to reach schools in which WFP does not operate school feeding.

Water and Sanitation: WFP and UNICEF are in the final planning phase of a cooperative effort to improve water and sanitation facilities at WFP-assisted schools.

School Gardens: Boarding school feeding activities have been operating in Mozambique since the late 1970’s. A recent appraisal found that the activity continues to be essential for providing rural poor communities with access to education. Given the fact that the Ministry of Education is not yet in a position to assume responsibility for the program, it is slated for some continued WFP support. However, WFP has initiated discussions with the Government for a pilot program that would phase-out assistance in selected schools. To help ensure a successful phase out, WFP, FAO, and the Ministries of Education and Agriculture are working together to design school garden activities. The gardens will be designed to reduce the dependence on WFP-food assistance and promote opportunities to develop local skills for self-sufficiency.

WFP will be seeking alternative funding for tools and technical assistance and expects the support of bilateral donors and NGOs.

Environmental component: WFP has taken steps to reduce the program’s one major drawback - deforestation. The search for firewood in a school’s immediate surroundings has increased significantly now that meals are being cooked on-site daily. WFP has approached bilateral donors with an interest in supporting environmental activities such as re-forestation and the construction and use of fuel-efficient stoves. At this stage, the discussions are preliminary, however initiatives are expected to materialize within the year.

Registration of Orphans: Through an identification and registration process orphans can apply for the "certidao de pobreza", a poverty certificate that entitles the child to certain rights. The registration effort has been undertaken by the Government of Mozambique’s Ministry of Women and Co-ordination of Social Action. Progress has been slow due to limited resources at the district level coupled by a lack of knowledge about the system at community level. However, the effort remains a significant spin-off from WFP’s take-home rations for orphans activity.

Midterm: The beneficiaries of this activity are:

Effective beneficiary targeting under this program, as well as strong donors (including local organizations), lead to greater impacts in schools under this program. Enrollment increases measured in newly participating WFP schools are greater than increases in those schools participating over the last few years (an average of 16% compared to 8.5%). However, average attendance levels in existing schools are higher than in new schools (89% as compared to 86%). This trend would indicate that the value placed on education increases as more children and their parents are brought into the school environment through school feeding programs.

Horacio Juga Ferro is the father of five children, all of whom study at the same WFP-assisted school. Ferro said he was proud of his children because they have come to understand the importance of school and value of studying. Prior to the initiation of the school feeding program he said his children left home in the morning and came home at night as if they had been in school. But they were only pretending. The school feeding program, however, has changed that. "Now they realize they were missing out on something important," Ferro says, "and they really want to attend classes every day. The daily meals provided by WFP made them realize the importance of studying."