/REPEATING FOR POINTS NEEDING/DEVELOPMENT: US and UN to Help Launch School Feeding Programme

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 25 2000 (IPS) - The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed a 300 million dollar US contribution that will help launch a universal school feeding programme in the world’s poorer nations.

“We applaud the US government and the generosity of the American people for taking a leadership role in supporting the first global school lunch programme,” WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini said Monday.

The US initiative was announced over the weekend by President Bill Clinton at the conclusion of the Group of Eight summit meeting in Okinawa, Japan. The participants in the summit included leaders of the United States, Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Canada, Germany and Japan.

Under the pilot programme, the US Department of Agriculture would purchase surplus agricultural commodities and donate them for use in school feeding and pre-school nutrition programmes in poorer countries.

According to US estimates, over 9 million school children and pre- schoolers in developing countries are expected to benefit from the programme.

“For the first time in human history, we can contemplate the real possibility of an entire generation of children around the globe receiving basic nutrition,” Bertini said.

The ultimate aim of the universal school lunch programme is to try to ensure that every child has at least one nutritious meal every day.

An estimated 300 million children are chronically hungry, of which about 130 million are not in school. Others are enrolled in school but under-perform or drop out due in part to hunger or malnutrition.

The WFP, which currently manages the world’s biggest school feeding programme, said that favouritism towards boys has also left most girls outside classrooms.

The school feeding programme, it pointed out, is an incentive for parents to make sure all children attend. In the process, the food received at school enables children to be more alert in class and better able to concentrate.

“The experience of WFP is that school feeding has been a powerful tool in helping to dramatically raise enrolment – be it Pakistan, Kenya or Bhutan,” Bertini said.

“In many cases, enrolment has doubled or even tripled. School feeding is the best investment for the health of nations. For just pennies a day – less than 20 cents – a child can get the best possible start in life,” she added.

The link between good nutrition and a child’s ability to concentrate in school is well-documented, Bertini said.

In 1999, WFP invested some 38.3 million dollars in school feedings for 3.2 million school children in 30 countries, including Bolivia, Ethiopia, Nepal and Yemen.

WFP has been supporting school feeding programmes for over 30 years. Because every single school in every country has its own particular needs and customs, WFP said it has become the leading expert in tailoring global food aid to the little schoolhouse.

According to a 1996 World Bank study, when children suffer from hunger or poor nutrition and health, their weakened condition increases their susceptibility to disease, reduces their learning capacity, forces them to end their school careers prematurely, and keeps them out of school altogether.

The study also said that an estimated 210 million children suffer from iron deficiency anaemia, 85 million are at higher risk for acute respiratory disease because of vitamin deficiency and 60 million live with iodine deficiency.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 40 percent of children (about 42 million) are out of school. In South Asia, about 26 percent (46 million) are not enrolled in primary education.

Of those children who do enrol, 33 percent never finish in sub- Saharan Africa, 41 percent in South Asia, and 26 percent in Latin America.

Bertini said that WFP will work closely with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to expand the scope of school feeding programmes to ultimately include all children.

“But the most important thing is that this initiative is fully funded, not just for one year, and that it becomes a permanent feature of our global community of nations.”

She said she was hoping that the initial US contribution of 300 million dollars will ultimately be supplemented by contributions from other donors, as well as from the private sector and charitable foundations.