WFP education programme benefits over 350,000 rural girls
By Khalid Amin

ISLAMABAD—The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) helps over 350,000 girls’ students every month under its current country programme (2005-2009).
According to WFP, assistance to girls’ primary education programme is being implemented in 3003 government-run girls’ primary schools in the poorest districts of Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, NWFP and AJK and has achieved impressive results.
The programme led to improved girl’s enrolment as well as teacher’s attendance.
Peter French, WFP Representative in Pakistan said, “assistance to girls’ primary education is major activity of WFP country programme being implemented in government schools in rural food- insecure areas where enrolment rates are below the national average.”
The use of the single commodity high-value/low-volume system, introduced in 1994 to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of food aid in Pakistan has continued to be the mode of support for the school feeding programme.
The success of this approach can primarily be attributed to the income transfer resulting from the high-value food commodity- edible oil that helped to defray the opportunity costs of sending girls to school and improved the attendance of teachers.
“Edible oil is used to encourage the attendance of the girls of poor families to these schools. Each month, the girls receive four litre tin of oil for a minimum 20 days of attendance.
The monetary value of the monthly take-home ration of 4-liters of vegetable oil represents nearly 10 percent of the average poor family’s monthly income which helps to offset the cost of sending girls to school, Peter French added.
Attraction of young girls to schools is contributing toward women’s mobility and participation in economic activity in the conservative communities.
Enrolment has been more than double during three years (111%) while it increased 20% in non-assisted schools. Demand was created for middle and high schools.
This activity, which started in two districts in 1994, was expanded in 2000 to 3003 schools in 34 districts identified through food insecurity exercise conducted by Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Unit (VAM) of WFP, and has become the core activity of WFP’s development programme in Pakistan.
Since the food aid has shown good results overall and in districts like Buner and Kohistan, a demand was created for middle and high schools as well. Many assisted schools have been upgraded to middle level to accommodate the high number of primary graduates and increased demand for further schooling. UNICEF and other agencies are providing additional teachers, water supply and child friendly schools, under an MoU with WFP worth 28 million dollars.
Ministry of Education and Provincial Education Departments are implementing partners of this programme. The provincial education departments contribute the costs of transportation of edible oil from port to schools and have established Project Implementation Units (PIUs) for programme implementation and its supervision.
The government increased its budgetary share from 5% to 15% for transportation of food and monitoring and have established the Project Implementation Units in each province.