Final: USDA’s Global Food for Education (GFE) program helped WFP provide approximately 94,255 children in Pakistan with take-home rations in 2002-2003. During the 18-month period that ended in May, enrollment in all girls schools increased by 29% in schools with existing Government-run school feeding programs. As enrollment increased, so did student/teacher ratios and the size of classes. In schools with new programs, enrollment has increased by an average of 29% compared with enrollment rates eighteen months earlier. In addition to the 1,500 WFP schools assisted under the GFE contribution, some 1,800 schools receive assistance under core WFP program activities.

Midterm: WFP Pakistan focuses on girls’ primary schools in selected areas, some with existing school feeding programs and some with new feeding programs. The long-term objective is to promote primary education for girls in food-insecure areas and to increase girls’ literacy rates in the country overall. This target will be achieved by concentrating efforts in areas that have shown very low enrollment and retention rates. Edible oil is used to enable the girls of poor families to attend these schools. Each month during the country’s nine-month school year from September-June, each participating girl receives a four-liter tin of oil provided they attend school for a minimum of 20 days per month.

Approximately 75,000 of the children who received assistance in 2001-2002 did so with 2001 food contributions from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Global Food for Education (GFE) program. Girls’ enrollment increased 43.7% in the schools with existing school feeding programs over the last three years. Because the targeted schools are for girls only, this increase cannot be compared with rates for boys. As enrollment has increased, so have student/teacher ratios and class size. Class size increased to 32 students per classroom from 15.

In the schools in which the school-feeding program is new, enrollment has increased 17% compared with the level three years ago, and class size has increased to 23 students per classroom from 16.

Pakistan is a low-income, food-deficit country with a per capita income of $470 per year. Domestic production of wheat, the main diet staple, meets about 80% of requirements. Between 2.0 and 2.5 million tons are imported annually. Although wheat production exceeded demand in 2000, the recent drought significantly lowered production in levels in 2001–2002. Domestic production of edible oil meets only half of the country’s requirements, and oil and pulses have a high import value.

The poor in Pakistan are disproportionately rural and female. According to Pakistan’s Federal Bureau of Statistics Economic 2001-2002 Survey, 30 million people, or 24% of the population, suffered because they could not obtain adequate food. This scenario has not changed in the last three years. It is estimated that every day one in three people in Pakistan fails to consume enough food to lead to a healthy and productive life (Pakistan Human Condition Report 2002). Food has been consistently less available in rural than in urban areas.

Balochistan province ranks highest in food deficiency, followed by Sindh. Incidences of food non-availability nearly doubled in Balochistan during the 1990s as a result of an economic slowdown and prolonged drought.

More than 52% of Pakistani women suffer from "poverty of opportunity" (an index combining health, education, and income), compared with 37% of Pakistani men. Pakistani girls marry young and work in the home. They represent only 20% of the child population in rural schools. The adult literacy rate in Pakistan is only 49%, with a large gender disparity, 61% for men and 36% for women. Literacy rates are lower in rural areas where only 20% of the women and 47.4% of the men are literate. It is estimated that some six million children aged between five and nine years of age are unable to attend school. In a country where the overall literacy rate is just 49%, literacy among girls is half that of boys. Most women in rural areas cannot read or write.

Less than 60% of Pakistanis have access to a safe water supply and more than 40% of government primary schools are without facilities with clean drinking water. Sanitation facilities are poor, less than half of all schools have latrines (44%). More than 50% of schools are deteriorating structurally, many without boundary walls. Social and cultural norms influence the mobility of girls and impact girls’ enrollment rates throughout Pakistan. WFP, UNICEF and WHO are trying to address basic education issues for girls through at the policy level in headquarters and operationally in the field.

Final: USDA provided 5,860 metric tons of vegetable oil in support of the WFP Pakistan

Activity titled "Assistance to Girls’ Primary Education." The vegetable oil arrived in Karachi during January 2002, approximately one month behind the scheduled arrival date. Distributed oil totaled 3,378 metric tons in 2002, of which 2,028 metric tons was distributed in the 1,500 GFE schools and 1,350 tons in the 1,800 core WFP program schools.

WFP food is transported from the port of Karachi to the provincial and district headquarters. Transport is paid by the provincial administration and contracted to private companies. Transport to the schools and within the districts is organized and financed by the DEO.

Midterm: USDA provided 5,860 metric tons of vegetable oil in support of the WFP Pakistan activity titled Assistance to Girls Primary Education. The vegetable oil arrived in Karachi in late January 2002, approximately one month behind the originally scheduled arrival date.

Final: WFP’s Pakistan Country Office has completed two-baseline surveys, the first in December of 2001 and the second in March of 2003. The data collected will enable project monitors to evaluate progress in the program. Results will be available in 2004.

Midterm: The provincial education departments are the main implementing partners of this activity. The program encourages girls and their parents to learn about the benefits of education and helps them support regular attendance. Such views support social change and promote access to and acceptance of female education. Mobility is a prerequisite for any intervention aimed at changing the socio-economic situation of women. Food aid is used as an enabler to attract and retain girls in primary education, the first step on the development path.

This program and the GFE-funded expansion contribute to the target set out in the Pakistani Government's Poverty Reduction Program (PRP), which the United Nations Development Group helped develop. The Poverty Reduction Program aims to accelerate enrollment and focuses on girls.

The intended outcomes of this activity are to increase enrollment, attendance, and retention rates at selected girls’ primary schools in targeted areas. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has provided a checklist for "Minimum Requirements for Rural Primary Schools in Pakistan" in order to ensure that WFP is not attracting girls to sub-standard schools. The checklist covers items such as adequate buildings, qualified teachers, and the availability of teaching materials, latrines, and drinking water. WFP will work with Federal and Provincial authorities to ensure the availability of basic infrastructure as suggested by UNESCO. WFP uses a food-for-work program to provide drinking water, latrines, and boundary walls.

Final: WFP oil is reaching thousands of targeted beneficiaries in selected rural schools. In thousands of Pakistani homes, girls get up in the mornings and get ready for school rather than doing household chores. They are gaining confidence in themselves as they study reading, writing and arithmetic. More mothers are leaving their houses to visit schools and monitor their children’s progress. As a result, relationships between teachers and parents are developing, and communication about their children’s performance is increasing. The changes in enrollment, attendance and parental involvement demonstrate how school feeding provides far more than food. Since the program started, school council committees have formed at the grass roots level and mothers are participating. Enrollments and attendance levels have improved and dropout rates are declining. The total number of girls in GFE Schools grew from 73,066 in the 1,500 schools located in AJK, Sindh and Punjab in 2001 to reach 94,255 by April of this year. GFE school enrollments have increased by 29% this year alone.

Midterm: The average ratio of student to teacher has increased from 14 students per teacher to 30 over the last four years. Today, in elementary schools across Pakistan, girls sit side-by-side, learning the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, something that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

Gul Panoor is an Ambassador of change and a development pioneer. WFP’s oil distribution program helped her enroll in the Government Primary School of Dassu Colony for girls. For Gul Panoor and many of her fellow classmates, she is the first female member of her family to enter school.

Education Authorities have affirmed that, "…WFP oil [facilitated] female education in the District of Kohistan, where one could never have imagined that locals would send their daughters to schools. There are now 8,000 girls in Primary Schools in Kohistan in 2002-2003 largely because WFP helped change attitudes towards female education," they reported. One persistent barrier to girls’ education stems from longstanding cultural and religious concerns over educational content. These fears require sensitization workshops in order to demonstrate the importance of education and the benefits it can provide to the entire community. According to a 1998 census report, the overall literacy rate in the region was 11% and the rate for women was less than 3%.

Gul Panoor’s father is the deputy commissioner’s gardener. He makes the equivalent of US $50 a month. With his salary, he supports his daughter, two sons and his wife. "I am a poor man," he said. "Initially I allowed my daughter to enter school with [the] greedy motive to receive dalda (oil). Later, I discovered she is becoming a good human. Therefore, I want to support her educational needs - to buy her uniform, books and copies and for the middle school, even without dalda."

Mr. Panoor said he has seen the difference an education can bring to an individual and a family. Through the WFP school feeding program, he hopes all of his children will benefit from the chance to learn. "We are animals without education and pass life in darkness like blind people," he said. Since the start of the school feeding program in Pakistan, Mr. Panoor said his life has changed. Now, he says, "I am a proud father of an educated daughter and two sons".

The program has touched the entire family and Gul’s mother said the experience has created new possibilities. "My parents never allowed me to enter school because they were ignorant and blind," she said. "But I will encourage my children to receive an education and enjoy a quality life."

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