In Pakistan, "almost 85 percent of the population live on a marginal income of less than US$ 2 per day," according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Food for Education is a key strategy for helping the impoverished in this nation of over 140 million people, most living in rural areas.
Food for Education programs provide school feeding and also take-home rations for children. This is critical to ending hunger and poverty in any country. Let’s take a closer look at school feeding with Wolfgang Herbinger, the country director for WFP in Pakistan.
How many children benefit from the WFP school feeding programs within the country?
In Pakistan, WFP has been in operation since 1968. Among the many programs WFP implements, the most important is school feeding to primary and pre-primary schoolchildren in the most food-insecure districts across Pakistan. Providing food as an incentive not only helps students meet their daily food requirements, but negates the opportunity costs of sending children to school, especially girls. In this way, it encourages poverty-stricken parents to break down cultural and economic barriers placed on the acquisition of education by their children.
The school feeding program began in 1998 and runs under three different operations. In WFP’s Country Program (2005-2009), school feeding benefits around 400,000 primary school girls in more than 30 districts all over the country. Each girl student attending a minimum of 20 school days receives a monthly “take home” ration of a 4 liter tin of vegetable oil. In areas affected by the devastating 2005 earthquake, the WFP provides mid-morning snacks (high-energy biscuits and dates) to over 115,000 primary school students.
WFP also operates school feeding programs in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan, providing fortified biscuits to 88,000 children during classes and a bag of fortified wheat flour as a take-home ration. In addition, given the patriarchal nature of the Tribal Areas, WFP provides vegetable oil to female students as an additional incentive for parents to send their girls to school.
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Article comments
1 - naseer keyani
A convincing programme. Education is the real asset and it is the real mean of helping the poor to escape from the poverty net. this programme has posed a positive effect on the poor and now more children are there in school which is result of WFP intervention. This programme however need to be rexamined so that only those who are deserving can get benefit of it.