Final: The Government of Dominican Republic (GODR) project is a comprehensive effort to address the complex causes of poor nutrition, education, health and school attendance in underserved areas of the country. The commodity donation was monetized at world market prices and the funds were used to address the primary causes of poor education, helping the Dominican Secretariat of Education (SEE) provides nutritious school lunches to over 48,000 students daily. The USDA donation is channeled through non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) aimed at improving student health, nutrition, attendance and educational attainment as well as strengthening the link between communities, families and schools. The GODR program works in 360 communities and, pursuing its goal of strengthening the link between communities and their schools while improving rural school education, includes the following activities: delivering school lunches; constructing new and additional classrooms; equipping classrooms with desks, supplies and materials; building community and school water systems; training teachers; organizing PTA’s; training rural health promoters; carrying out training for students; and stimulating local agricultural production.

The GFE program has accomplished the following: served 48,000 daily rations, built 110 new classrooms, repaired 163 classrooms, equipped 337 classrooms with desks, furniture and supplies, built or repaired 158 latrines or school sanitary facilities, built 115 new school water systems, built 30 new community water systems benefiting over 18,000 community members, trained 488 health promoters, de-wormed 33,000 students, provided vitamin supplements to 26,000 students, produced 72 acres of community crop production, installed 1,071 nutritional family gardens, installed chicken farms producing over 8,000 eggs daily, and carried out hundreds of community, family and teacher training activities.

Midterm: The Government of the Dominican Republic (GODR) project is a comprehensive effort to develop capacity at the national level to administer school feeding programs through local community organizations. Last year, the groundwork to award grants to local organizations began. Non-governmental organizations, community organizations, and other GODR agencies submitted proposals to serve poor rural schools in their communities, and 16 organizations were selected. This model government-to-government project is expected to feed approximately 30,000 children and benefit an additional 28,000 indirectly through educational improvements. Logistics, training, construction, and education activities began in June 2002. School feeding is scheduled to begin in September 2002 and to continue for two school years until June 2004.

Given the uneven distribution of income in Latin America, poverty is greater than per capita income data alone may indicate. The debt crisis of the 1980’s exacerbated the situation. Incomes fell, inequality increased, and the number of people living in poverty rose by at least 40 million or 22% during the decade. In the Dominican Republic, conditions worsened considerably along with high inflation and limited government social services. In the late 1990’s, however, the Dominican Republic was often cited as an example to economic progress. The 2000 United Nations Human Development Report on the Dominican Republic reported that, "Growth rates averaged above 7% in the previous four years, but has dropped to less than 3% from 2001-2002. Nevertheless, serious problems exist with regard to the quality of social services provided by the public sector." An estimated 25% of the population suffers from poverty, with poverty being more severe in rural areas and especially in border provinces. The worst poverty rates are for rural families in which the head of household works in agriculture.

In rural areas, 20% of the population has had no formal schooling, compared with 10% in urban areas. The difference is even more pronounced when considering those who have studied beyond primary school. In rural areas, the figure is one-sixth that of urban areas, and the illiteracy rate is nearly three times higher in rural areas than in urban areas. The Dominican Republic scored last place among all Latin American countries participating in the UNESCO standardized tests for literacy and math

The Global Food for Education (GFE) project was developed by the GODR with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS). The project is consistent with the World Bank’s recommendation that the government "…develop a more comprehensive poverty reduction strategy that (i) streamlines, integrates and coordinates its ongoing programs, including international aid; (ii) rationalize(s) and targets expenditure towards the poor and most vulnerable, particularly in the social sectors; and (iii) decentralize(s) decision making and foster(s) community participation for the delivery of services to the poor."

The GODR GFE project is targeted at six eastern provinces of the island in which the problems of malnutrition, illiteracy, and poverty were among the most severe. The provinces are Monte Plata, El Seibo, Hato Mayor, Samaná, San Pedro de Macorís, and three communities within the Federal District. According to the poverty map of the National Planning Office, ONAPLAN, Monte Plata, El Seibo, and Samaná are the three poorest provinces in the eastern region of the country. The other three are not far behind. The GFE project also targets Batey communities, which frequently lack the basic services of health, water, electricity and education.

Final: As of May 31, 2003 the proceeds from the monetized commodities had earned an additional $1 million in interest, which has been used to fund the inclusion of additional schools.

Midterm: The GODR received 62,200 metric tons of commodities (50,000 tons of wheat and 12,200 tons of soy bean oil). The commodities were monetized, generating $11.5 million in program funds, and the proceeds were used to implement the project's multiple components to carry out school feeding and enhance the learning environment. Three shipments of commodities arrived as scheduled between September and November 2001 and the monetization took place without any problems or transportation loss. The proceeds were deposited into a special account managed by the Program Executive Council made up of representatives from the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency, Ministry of Education, USDA-FAS, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The proceeds from the donation were used to carry out community-based school feeding programs developed by local non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) aimed at boosting school enrollment, increasing school attendance, and improving academic performance in primary school students. The project will be completed in 2004.

Goals and objectives: In order to meet the overall goals of the GFE project (that is, to increase enrollment, attendance, and performance, especially for girls, and to improve child nutrition and health status), the Program Executive Council proposed to carry out the following objectives:

Final: The Government of Dominican Republic developed an integrated program addressing the many causes of low enrollment, poor attendance, poor performance and inadequate nutrition. NGOs and community associations were asked to carry out a diagnostic to determine the primary causes of poor nutrition and education in their communities. Based on the information obtained from the studies, the community-based groups developed proposals detailing solutions to the causes of poor education.

The diagnostic identified the causes of poor educational attendance and performance as the following: i) parental attitudes, ii) alternative employment, iii) family responsibilities (i.e. caring for siblings, fetching water), iv) distances to schools, v) poor health and vi) marriage/pregnancy. Based on the results of the diagnostic study a comprehensive strategy was formulated whereby diverse activities would be funded, each aimed at strengthening the link between the community (families) and the primary school.

The Government of Dominican Republic funded a total of 18 projects operating in 360 communities to address the specific causes of poor education. Specific achievements of the program included the following interventions:

The $12.5 million USDA Donation was able to leverage $7.8 million in local counterpart contribution, bringing the total value of the program to $20.3 million. The program was so successful that many government and private sector institutions were willing to contribute funding, labor, land, equipment, and other resources in order to bring the GFE program to their communities.

All implementing institutions (NGOs) were required to contribute a minimum of 20% of total project costs as counterpart contribution. Local communities contributed land and labor. The Secretariat of Education contributed school lunch rations to the participating students in order to make GFE funds available for community-based solutions to educational problems.

Counterpart contribution can be categorized into five specific groups.

Sustainability: The government-to-government GFE program in the Dominican Republic is creating a fully sustainable, self-funding program that will continue for many years beyond the end of the donation. Following the completion of the U.S. participation, the Government of Dominican Republic will continue to provide 48,000 daily school lunches to all children participating in the GFE program. Many schools have been converted from the milk and biscuit lunch program to the more nutritious "hot meals from local rations" program that was initially funded with donated funds.

The GFE program leaves behind school, community and family agricultural production projects that continue to produce and provide school rations and home meals for over 20,000 students. Production from these chicken, egg, milk and garden projects continue to feed children both at school and at home during vacations and on weekends.

The GFE program leaves behind the construction and repair of 273 new classrooms, 158 new school sanitary facilities, 134 school water systems, 37 community water systems, as well as hundreds of more infrastructure projects. All these infrastructure interventions are designed to last for many decades and will continue to provide improved educational and health services to the participants of the program.

The GFE project leaves behind 360 communities trained in improving health conditions, HIV/AIDS prevention, nutritional gardening, agricultural production, leadership and self-esteem, and teaching with improved teaching methodologies. There is no substitute for a well-trained and educated populace. The subject matter learned from the GFE trainings will continue to be applied and reproduced, which will lead to sustainable improvements in living conditions in the GFE communities.

Final: See evaluation methodology in Appendix 1.

The program was monitored continuously by FAS in-country staff, who directly approved and supervised the use of the funds, oversaw all disbursements, monitored compliance of program objectives, and administered the external auditing process.

Participating schools and implementers were obligated to prepare for FAS quarterly reports, monthly enrollment and attendance information, the number of rations served, progress reports on infrastructure and training components, and financial statements. The reports were validated by FAS in-country staff through on-site field visits, interviews, and crosschecking data.

An international certified accounting firm is currently conducting an external audit of the program, and the results will be available in the FAS-Santo Domingo office.

Midterm: The Program Executive Council will be responsible for monitoring and evaluation activities, but USDA-FAS will also play a significant role. USDA has two full-time staff assigned to the Dominican Republic GFE. They provide project management and will set up the local monitoring system for USDA. The staff member responsible for the monitoring and evaluation began to work with the project implementing organizations to carry out baseline surveys of targeted schools before the end of the 2002 school year in June. Preliminary baseline surveys had not yet been carried out because the list of schools is not yet finalized.

Schools were selected based on different criteria, and USDA trained all project implementing organizations in the use of the questionnaire. Implementing organizations must submit baseline data to the Program Executive Council and USDA by June 30. Once the information is submitted, USDA and the council will validate it and cross tabulate it with the Ministry of Education’s database. USDA, the Program Executive Council, and the implementing organizations will coordinate their monitoring and evaluation efforts to the extent possible to avoid redundancies while ensuring independence of action. Because each implementing organization has its own unique project, sampling matrices were developed for each project.

Midterm: The Program Executive Council was established as a democratic board to develop the program objectives and implementation strategy, oversee the use of funds, monitor project development and progress, and manage evaluations and audits. A public campaign was held announcing the objectives of the GFE program and inviting NGO’s, community organizations, and other GODR agencies to develop proposals with poor rural schools located in their communities, and 67 proposals were received.

As of May 2002, 16 projects were selected for funding, with the first disbursements occurring in the third week of May. The Secretariat of Education is collaborating closely on the GFE program, in most cases providing school rations with government funds so that the GFE funds can be used to carry out other objectives of the project.

The GFE strategy in the Dominican Republic focuses on creating sustainable school feeding and educational programs by strengthening the link between the schools and the community. Scholastic performance and attendance rates are low in the rural areas for several reasons including parental indifference, health problems from lack of potable water and health clinics, economic needs forcing children into work, long distances between schools and communities, and early pregnancies.

The GODR GFE program, in conjunction with local FAS and USAID staff, has approved the following projects as of May 2002.

Other donor support: The GODR is carrying out its school feeding program in many of the same areas in which the other GFE projects are being implemented, sometimes with complementary feeding and sometimes with parallel programs to improve the educational environment and eliminate non-food obstacles to student enrollment, attendance, and performance.

Sustainability : The government already has an established school feeding program and has made a commitment to continue its work in any GFE community after the GFE project itself ends. There are also aspects of this program that are sustainable beyond GFE, including teacher training, community empowerment, infrastructure development, and community support for education. However, the cost of the complementary food and its distribution is one issue that must be addressed in the program.

Final: The GFE program impacted communities far beyond the improved nutritional intake of the primary school students. The GFE program in the Dominican republic leaves behind a long list of achievements, including the provision of 48,000 daily rations, construction of new classrooms, water systems, libraries, kitchens, teacher training, improved health care and sustainable agricultural production.

Many communities were rejuvenated with the arrival of the GFE program. Prior to the program, many communities lacked proper schools, sources of food, latrines, potable water, and trained health personnel. Through the GFE program, students were fed and the parents were organized and trained to work together to address other local community problems outside of the GFE program.

Enrollment: Enrollment data since the beginning of the program shows a 3.1% increase in attendance. Interviews with focal groups, including teachers, students, and parents primarily attribute the enrollment increases to the construction and expansion of additional classrooms built with GFE funds.

Changes in enrollment were difficult to measure due to unreliable data sources prior to the beginning of the GFE program. Reliable enrollment numbers did not exist prior to the program and counting children not enrolled is nearly impossible due to the large diverse geographic areas that encompass the rural school populations. Frequently five to six rural communities will feed into a single school, and therefore surveying large numbers of isolated communities is difficult.

Based on estimates from the sample baseline data and in-field verification, enrollment at GFE schools is estimated at 99% of all school age children where an adequate educational facility exists in the community. The construction of new and additional classrooms has allowed students to continue their primary education for an average of two additional years in the communities where the construction took place.

Attendance: Interviews with teachers, school directors, and PTA members give evidence of increased attendance directly resulting from the implementation of the GFE program. Official attendance at GFE schools, as reported by the participating schools, is 90.4%, which is an estimated increase of 7% over the previous year, based on focal group interviews.

It is impossible to compare attendance figures following the intervention of the GFE program with figures prior to the program because of the lack of reliable data prior to the start of the GFE program.

Many of the interventions will have long-term impacts on attendance that are not directly quantifiable at this point. The construction of water systems will reduce the incidence of dysentery and illness leading to missed classes. Water systems also free the children from the burden of going to local water sources (well, river, etc.) to supply water to their household. The construction of new classrooms and furnished classrooms provide improved learning environments that will benefit children in future school years.

The training of PTAs and the formation of attendance committees responsible for monitoring student attendance will help identify potential students for early desertion and address these problems before desertion occurs.

Performance: Many activities have taken place that should benefit scholastic performance. Teachers have been trained in improved teaching methodologies, libraries have been built and equipped and classrooms have been furnished with improved materials, supplies and didactic equipment.

The improvements in nutrition and health are expected to have long-term lasting impacts on the student’s ability to learn and perform in school. The construction of additional classrooms will keep students in school longer and thus increase their educational learning.

Improved nutrition from the consumption of nutritious school lunches and reduced illnesses from dysentery due to the construction of water systems should lead to increased cognitive abilities and a greater learning capacity for participating students. The community projects focusing on health, food production, water and sanitation will directly benefit the students as well as pregnant women, lactating mothers, infants and pre-school children, thus leading to healthier, more capable students in the future.

USAID/Santo Domingo, as part of their collaboration in the GFE program, is currently designing a standardized test based on the Dominican primary school curriculum. This test will be used to compare the performance of students at GFE schools with students’ scores at non-GFE schools. The results of these scholastic performance tests should be available by June 2004. The outcome of this study will quantitatively demonstrate the impact of GFE on scholastic performance.

Special emphasis on girls: All evidence in Dominican Republic reflects that girls receive equal treatment in primary school participation. Females make up 50% of total school enrollment and females have superior attendance figures over boys and make up 65% of all university students. Female students at GFE schools received equal rations, equal participation, and equal training.

However, there is evidence that women are discriminated against in the workforce, and the program took this ancillary issue into consideration in designing its strategy. The program had a focus on the family with a specific emphasis on the female head of household. The program believes that empowering and training mothers will directly lead to empowering young girls and better preparing them for the workforce. Mothers of GFE students directly benefited through donations of cows, chickens and agricultural inputs. Women were trained as health promoters, given courses in nutrition and assigned leading roles in community organization activities. Additionally, implementing organizations with a "women in development" component were given bonus points, and thus favored in the proposal review process.

Other Project Achievements: Two primary outcomes not contemplated in the Program Objectives were the strengthening of the Secretariat of Education (SEE) and the Technical Secretariat to the Presidency (STP). As a result of the GFE program the SEE received technical assistance in community organization, nutrition education, milk fortification, teacher training, hygiene and health education, and in waste removal. The GFE program has strengthened the ministry’s ability to plan, resolve and manage programs as well as having improved coordination and communication within departments and between regional office and the main headquarters.

STP is the government agency in charge of managing foreign donations. The unit assigned to the GFE program, known as STP/DCR, has been strengthened in various areas, thus making them more capable of administering foreign donor assistance from other sources. STP received technical assistance in organizational structure, managing development programs, reviewing proposals, monitoring and evaluation, auditing development projects and in logical framework..

Midterm: The Secretariat of Education and community-based NGO’s have held numerous planning meetings and activities, thereby building the public-private sector coordination and strengthening the link between communities and their schools. This link should be further strengthened as the community-based projects are implemented. Project implementation begins in September 2002.

Final: Using the donation to directly benefit the Host Country Government has resulted in a large counterpart contribution by the host government. The Dominican Government covered the cost of most food rations which thus allowed the donated funds to be used to address other educational problems affecting enrolment, attendance, performance, nutrition, and health. Due to the participation of the Secretariat of Education other government agencies, such as the ministry of public works, ministry of health, ministry of agriculture, and national sugar council made considerable contributions of land, labor, agricultural inputs, vaccinations, medicine, etc. Designing a roll for government participation in the project has been directly responsible for leveraging these additional resources.

There are multiple causes to low student enrollment, poor attendance and poor scholastic performance, which may vary, by community. Treating any single cause is not sufficient to cure the problem. Any project addressing attendance and performance needs to consist of several integrated components that involves families, communities and teachers and includes teacher training, community strengthening, school feeding, health, water, sanitation and infrastructure interventions.

The GFE project has confirmed the pre-program diagnostic study stating that the quality of education that a school offers is directly correlated to the participation of the community in school activities. The greater the participation of PTAs and community members the greater the advances made from the GFE project. Many schools, with PTAs trained and organized from the GFE project, have been able to leverage additional resources, and make school improvements from their own initiatives. Schools with strong PTAs have taken over many responsibilities traditionally carried out by teachers thus freeing the teachers to concentrate on their students.

Midterm: Government-to-government programs such as this one require a significant startup effort where there is no school feeding structure established at either the national or municipal level. A grant award process must be developed, learned, and implemented. Much planning is necessary for the national and municipal capacity building and training of NGO’s. Resources must also be coordinated from other organizations, such as U.S. government agencies, international aid organizations, and national government entities.

Final: The school-feeding program based on locally produced rations has proven to be far more sustainable than one based on imported foodstuffs. The locally-produced rations have the following advantages over imported foods: 1) stimulates local agricultural production, 2) stimulates local economy, 3) is traditional and well-accepted product, 4) involves community participation, 5) is inexpensive, 6) is highly nutritious and diverse. The impacts on attendance generated from the local rations program has been much more substantial than the milk and biscuit feeding program.

Agricultural production projects, such as community and family gardens; school and family chicken/egg production and dairy production have proven to be sustainable sources of school and home rations. These agricultural production projects are managed in such a way that a portion of the produce is sold and the income reinvested in the projects to ensure the sustainability of the program. The agricultural production projects continue to supply family rations to students, pre-school children and families on weekends, after school and during summer break.

The construction of new schools and additional classrooms has satisfied a great need for further classroom space. Many schools were overcrowded, had large student teacher ratios, or were unable to accept all students because of lack of classroom space. In many communities a primary school only reaches the forth or fifth grade at which time, for a student to continue at the next grade level, the student must walk great distances, move to a new community, or drop out of school. The additional classrooms built have helped alleviate crowded classes, and keep students in school on average an additional two years.

Last modified: Monday, April 14, 2008 06:13:23 PM