McGovern-Dole International Food for Education

Description

The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education program helps U.S. agricultural commodities reach food-insecure countries to establish school feeding programs. The program supports improving child nutrition and access to a quality education.

What Does This Buy?

Supports improved literacy through support for teachers, libraries, school improvement, and training for faculty and administrators. Supports training in health and nutrition practices, increased access to safe water and sanitation services, and improved sanitary facilities.

Justification for the Request

• Since 2003, these funds have provided school meals to over 40 million children in 40 of the world’s poorest countries, several of which are near famine conditions.
• Nutritious meals incentivize school attendance. In communities suffering from chronic hunger, McGovern-Dole lunches are a powerful incentive for parents to send their children to classes regularly, particularly since these lunches are often the only meal these children receive each day. In countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali, schools saw attendance rates increase by about 40%.
• McGovern-Dole programs help bring girls into classrooms, and schools participating in the programs have decreased gender disparities.
• A 2016 USDA evaluation found that McGovern-Dole increased school enrollment in Ethiopia’s Somali state from 64% to 100% and in the Afar state from 35% to 60%.
• A 2016 report to Congress found that McGovern-Dole-supported programs in Guatemala increased primary school attendance for fourth to sixth grade girls by 10% and boys by 9% over a 2-year period.
• Food insecurity is on the rise, with about 821 million people suffering from hunger in 2017, 44 million more than in 2015.

U.S. Interest

• McGovern-Dole supports American farmers and shippers. Projects funded in FY 2016 purchased 64,650 metric tons of U.S. commodities from 14 different states and transported 60% of all McGovern-Dole procured cargoes on U.S.-flag vessels from nine U.S. seaports.
• Prevents children and youth from falling under the control of groups like al-Shabaab in Somalia or Boko Haram in Nigeria, who promise access to food.

Bold Vision

• The World Food Program calculates that $3.2 billion is needed per year to reach all 66 million primary school-age children that go to school hungry every day. Additional investment could reach more children.
• Additional investment could allow McGovern-Dole programs to support more communities and families in time of drought or shock, against which school feeding programs are often the first defense. A 2013 World Food Program survey of 77 countries found that 33 of them had scaled up their school meals programs to address food security shocks.
• With additional investment, McGovern-Dole programs could further incorporate more locally grown food through USDA’s Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement (LRP) program. LRP combats malnutrition, while also stimulating the local economy and creating better incentives for the host government to sustain the program.

Impact of Cuts

Cuts threaten to leave young children without a reliable source of daily nutrition, making them vulnerable both to physical stunting and reduced cognitive development. Hungry children are thus less able to learn in school and could become less productive workers.