Senegal, situated in West Africa with a population of about 9.8 million, is among the countries that pioneered democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa. The country gained independence in 1960 and for a long time was highly visible in the international arena. It has maintained a relatively stable political and social environment but, for the past several years, has been confronted by a rebellion in the southern part of the country.

Senegal has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $4.4 billion and annual per capita income of $490, with a population growth rate of about 2.7% a year. A total of 47% of the population is under the age of 15. The adult literacy rate is 38%, with primary school enrollment at 56% of the primary-school-age children. 70% of the rural population works in the agricultural sector, and rural areas contain 80% of the country's poverty. In addition, Senegal faces structural food deficits because production covers only 50% of consumption requirements. Progress on the economic front has not yet been sufficient to make a dent in poverty. In February 2001, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a third annual arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF).

Although the Government of Senegal has repeatedly expressed a strong public and private commitment to education since independence, the quality of schooling and percentage of female students remain low, while the student-teacher ratio is high. The result has been a high rate of adult illiteracy and few graduates from rural areas.

Just four years ago, only 31% of students passed grade six and only 53% passed grade nine examinations. Not enough children have access to schooling and educational quality is low for those who do. In 1980, public expenditure on pre-primary and primary education was 42.8% of the total expenditure on education. That figure increased to 50.1% in 1985, but had fallen to only 34.2% by 1996. In 1997, the public expenditure on total education was only 3.7% of the gross national product.

According to the World Bank in 1999, more than one million children attended primary school, while only 174,114 attended secondary school. In 1980, 568,000 children of primary school age were not enrolled in school. This number increased to 583,000 in 1997. At the same time, children of secondary school age who were not enrolled in school increased from 685,000 to 1,092,000.

These low rates of education extend beyond the urban areas, affecting all levels of education in the rural communities. While Dakar has a primary education enrollment rate of 91.5%, other regions average only 55.4%. According to the Demographic Health Survey in 1992/93, only 21% of rural females attended primary grades, while 78% of their urban counterpart attended. The primary school completion rate for the same demographic group was 2% in rural areas and 23.9% in urban areas. Rural males had a 28.8-% primary school enrollment rate and a 7.1% completion rate, while rates for urban males were 92.3% and 42.5%, respectively.

The percentage of girls enrolling in grade one who reached grade five increased from 82% in 1980 to 85% in 1996, while boys remained the same at 89%. The percentage of eligible girls who were not enrolled in primary school increased from 55% to 57% from 1980 to 1997. The percentage of girls in total primary school enrollment increased from 39% in 1970 to 45% in 1997.

Issues contributing to the education problems faced by Senegal's population include: an inadequate number of schools; the prevalence of schools offering only five grades (35.6% of children are enrolled in these schools); high pupil-teacher ratios, which have reached 56:1 in primary schools; and continuing gender inequalities resulting in girls still accounting for only about 45% of students in primary schools.

These factors have resulted in high levels of illiteracy, so that only 10% of the poor rural population can read and write. While the current situation appears dire, the Government of Senegal has pledged to improve the educational system by increasing the capacity of primary schools, constructing new classrooms, and redeploying teaching staff. Through these initiatives, supported by the World Food Program (WFP), the number of primary school students should increase from 950,000 in 1997 to 1.6 million in 2003, with a gross schooling rate of 80% of eligible children (82.5% for boys and 79.3% for girls).

Within this framework, CPI proposed the Fouta-Toro Project for Education and Food Security in Senegal (EFFS). In St. Louis Prefecture, high rates of malnutrition have been recorded as a result of inadequate food in homes; lack of important micronutrients; poor food utilization; poor maternal, infant, and child care; nominal health services; poor sanitation and hygiene; and inadequate household incomes.

Final: CPI requested and received 7,550 metric tons of commodities from USDA to support its GFE program. This included 7,000 tons of rice, 50 tons of non-fat dry milk for monetization; 430 tons of soy-fortified bulgur wheat, and 110 tons of vitamin A fortified vegetable oil for direct distribution.

The commodities arrived in Senegal in two shipments in September and October of 2002. CPI generated $2,085,260 from the monetization. The bulgur and vegetable oil were detained at the port while the government of Senegal considered its approval for use in the GFE program

The commodities were cleared from the port in late January 2003 and moved to CPI’s warehouses in Ndioum. The first phase of distribution took place from February 4 - 10, 2003. The food basket contains five products. The soy fortified bulgur and vitamin A fortified vegetable oil, are provided by USDA. The additional products (fish and vegetables) are purchased from local markets with the monetized funds. The fish and vegetables compliment the bulgur and vegetable oil and create a nutritious meal

The bulgur and vegetable oil were delivered to 11 intermediate sites from which the schools collected their allocations. Overall, these distributions involved 13.735 metric tons of bulgur and 11.022 metric tons of vegetable oil.

The second phase was conducted from February 18 - March 3, 2003 with 11 selected sites, making it possible to deliver to 31 schools that had previously experienced difficulty with access to the distribution sites. During this period, 2,300 aluminum bowls, 13,731 spoons and 2,300 cups were delivered to the beneficiary schools.

Midterm: CPI signed the GFE agreement on Aug. 20, 2001, and requested the following commodities for the GFE project:

CPI plans to monetize 6,960 metric tons of rice and use the proceeds to fund an information campaign on the importance of education and nutrition. CPI also plans to distribute 590 tons of various commodities directly to 53,925 school children between grades one and five in the Podor district in St. Louis Prefecture.

Final: CPI GFE program began implementation on February 3, 2003 in 127 schools spread over Podor Department’s ten rural communities for a total of 13,731 students. Five schools launched the program with a series of trainings that addressed school feeding canteen issues such as hygiene and proper handling and cooking of food. In addition, 27 cooks were trained in two of the program areas, Taredji and Gamadji Sare. The training consisted of demonstrations on how to prepare a variety of dishes including bulgur with dried fish and meat stew couscous. Participants were trained on how to measure commodities and calculate each school’s daily ration in accordance with the attendance for that day. Other sessions were on basic hygiene and nutrition principles. The goal of the training program was to provide every school with at least one trained person.

Midterm: CPI targeted Podor district in the St. Louis Prefecture to implement the GFE program. All school children at the cooperating institutions and families in the selected communities were to be eligible for appropriate program components. Estimated beneficiary numbers for the Podor District are:

The CPI GFE program in Senegal, originally scheduled to start at the end of fiscal year 2001, did not become activated until late in April 2002 because of a disagreement between CPI/Senegal and the Government of Senegal on monetization of commodities in Senegal. This disagreement was resolved in April 2002, and the feeding program should start with the beginning of the next school year in September 2002.

CPI plans to work predominantly with educational institutions, formally and informally organized community groups including women's associations, and local NGO partners, specifically, the Programme Intégré de Podor (PIP) and the Union de Jeunes Agriculteurs de Koyli-Wirnde (UJAK). Measurable results will be achieved through the implementation of school feeding, nutritional and sustainable agricultural technical assistance and community training, and an information campaign on the importance of education and nutrition.

Final: CPI implements the program to benefit 13,731 students in the Podor Department. The number of beneficiaries was lower than anticipated due the lateness of the start-up of the program and the difficulty of travel to remote regions.

Final: The Counterpart office also received six tons of soy products (2.8 MT soy protein isolate and 3.2 MT textured soy protein) as a donation from the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH). The commodity arrived at the Dakar port in early February and was stored there until approved for clearance by the Senegalese government in late March. It was shipped to the Ndioum warehouse and distributed to select schools in the program in late April and May. A staff member from WISHH traveled to Senegal in May to give training session on how to develop recipes to use the soy.

CPI also received about 100 tons of raisins from the California Raisin Marketing Board for use in the school feeding program.

Final: The project is expected to benefit about 13,910 children as well as improve enrollment, attendance, and access to food.

Enrollment: The school feeding program started in February 2003. Enrollment data will be available the beginning of school year in October 2003. However, preliminary reports from teachers and school administrators indicate that student enrollment has increased since the school lunch was introduced. Additionally, students who dropped out earlier in the school year returned to school.

Attendance: Preliminary reports from Counterpart monitors and school administrators show a dramatic rise in attendance in most schools.

Special emphasis on girls: Although 60.35% of students are girls, the teachers believe that the GFE program will keep them in school, thereby delaying marriage, pregnancy and cyclical poverty. The lower enrollment of boys is caused by strong religious and cultural beliefs that boys should attend Koranic schools and look after the family livestock. The Counterpart Education Information Campaign will be addressing this issue.

Midterm: CPI hopes to connect with a number of local partners to implement the project in a participatory and sustainable manner. It will complement work performed by the Government of Senegal, other non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), and international organizations in the areas of education and food security. CPI also plans to work closely with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Agriculture throughout this project.

Final: CPI identified and trained field supervisors to assess the status of the project, and monitor the implementation, the community involvement and effectiveness of the management committees that were organized and set up by CPI and local community partners.

Midterm: The project will begin with a baseline survey, which will provide information for the project and help establish more accurate annual and project targets. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices with regard to household food security and education data (using an adapted household food economy model) will be collected. All aspects of the baseline, mid-term, and final surveys, and monitoring and evaluation will be participatory with the partner NGO’s, government ministry staff, and communities.

Lessons Learned

Final: Counterpart incorporates community mobilization initiatives into program development and implementation activities whenever possible. In laying the community-level infrastructure for program activities, Counterpart established relationships with participating communities through community meetings and community-based decision-making. With Counterpart now in its implementation phase, program activities are receiving energetic support, and implementation plans are running smoothly due in part to community cooperation.

CPI also plans an awareness campaign on the importance of education, and the basics in health and nutrition. The health component will insure that proper hygiene is observed during the school feeding. CPI will also distribute de-worming medicines in all the schools.

CPI and WISHH (Word Initiative for Soy in Human Health) plan to conduct a pilot study to evaluate the feasibility of fortifying school lunches with soy protein products to improve the nutritional value of school meals.

Counterpart will continue developing local capacity (partners--local NGOs, communities and PTA) to insure sustainability of the program.

Final: Babacar Niang, the principal and teacher, at the Gawdi-Gotte School said, "The school lunch program was a godsend to our community. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, students break for two hours and go home for lunch. Before the school lunch program, most of the students did not come back to school due to the long distance walk, heat (110 F) and lack of food. Now, the students stay at school, eat their lunch, play, and study. I am sure that the students’ grades will improve this year."

The GFE program is being implemented in the north of Senegal where most of the population (Pular) is pastoral and nomadic. Parents usually start moving with their livestock in search for a green pasture around March through July, and they take their children out of school to go with them. Schools administrators are very pleased to see that most of the parents kept their children in school this year because of the school lunch program.