Mauritania is a country that has been hit repeatedly by natural disasters in recent years.
Drought, desert locust invasion, and flooding have all struck causing food shortages. Located in the arid Sahel region of West Africa, Mauritania is described by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) as “one of the world’s Least Developed Countries as well as a food-deficit country.” WFP runs school feeding programs in Mauritania as part of a strategy to eliminate hunger and break the cycle of poverty. We will look more closely at this program in the following interview with GianCarlo Cirri, World Food Programme Country Director for Mauritania.
How many children are benefiting from the WFP school feeding programs within the country?
1,349 School Feeding Programs assist 136,083 children in Mauritania (as of the 2007-2008 school year). The number of beneficiaries will be increased to 153,083 for 2008-2009 school year.
Discuss what effect the meals have on the children in terms of school attendance, performance and nutrition?
These meals, specifically breakfast, are especially important for a large percentage of children, who travel between 3 and 10 miles each day to attend school. For young girls especially, school feeding programs have shown impressive results: with the implementation of school feeding programs (SFCs), attendance rates for girls like Warda have shot up in Brakna and other provinces of Mauritania – at her school, for example, the number of girl pupils outnumbers boys both in terms of enrollment and attendance. The gross enrollment rate for female students (100.5% for 2006/2007) has surpassed that of males (95.4%).
In Mauritania, where gross enrollment rates are already higher than most countries in the region, universal primary education appears to be within reach as long as programs remain well-funded and coherently implemented. Assisting 136,000 children in 2007 and 2008, school feeding programs have sped up this process considerably: the gross enrollment ratio for primary education has increased to from 88.7% in 2001-2002 to 96.9% in 2007-2008; the participation of girls in the overall school population has increased to 49.5%, and grade repetition levels have dropped drastically, from 15.9% in 2002-2003 to 3.4% in 2007-2008.
What plans are there for making school meals available for all children?
With 2/3 of the population vulnerable to food insecurity and the long distance children must travel to school, only 57.7% of school-aged children finished primary school in 2006-2007. In light of this situation, the Government of Mauritania is collaborating with partners and, with the financial support of WFP, has begun formulating a National School Feeding Program for primary and early secondary education.
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