WFP wants to expand school feeding in remote areas

25 October 2009, 17:00 PM

Staff Correspondent, Bogra

Deputy executive director of World Food Programme, Staffan de Mistura visits a school in Saghata upazila in Gaibandha district yesterday to see progress of school feeding programme conducted by WFP to prevent dropout.Photo: STAR

Visiting Deputy Executive Director of World Food Programme (WFP) Staffan de Mistura yesterday said they would like to expand their programme including school feeding in backward areas and scheme for providing food security for the ultra poor in Bangladesh. During his visit to WFP assisted programmes along the Jamuna River on the second day of his three-day visit to Bangladesh, the WFP official, however, told The Daily Star that their assistance depends on the government's desire as well as donors' response to it. Staffan saw for himself the school feeding programme at Saghata Government Primary School and in river erosion-hit Hasilkandi area and community nutrition programme for pregnant women and children in adjoining areas during his Saghata visit. He expressed optimism that the donors would come forward to help Bangladesh, where food assistance has evidently contributed to increasing primary school enrolment and reducing dropouts, improved nutritional status for malnourished mother and children and brought thousands of river erosion victims under food safety net in Bangladesh. "Due to the WFP support, the enrolment in the school rose to 100 percent in four years since the school feeding programme started in 2006. The dropout has reduced to nearly zero from 33 percent, while daily attendance rose to 87 percent from 62 percent during the period," said Mozammel Haque, headmaster of the school. Inquiring into the WFP assisted programmes at the field directly, Staffan said he was satisfied with the quality of programmes in Bangladesh, a country that urgently needs additional and continued supports from donors in the fields of education promotion, improvement of nutritional status of children and mother as well as food security for the ultra poor. WFP Country Director John Aylieff, Deputy Country Director Michael Dunford, Chief of the Staff of the Executive Director Ms Lauren Landis and Head of WFP Rangpur office Anwarul Kabir accompanied the delegate in Gaibandh and Jamalpur districts. Asked what benefit WFP biscuits have brought to her family, housewife Asma Begum, 40, said, "Now I don't have to push my kids to go to school. Eager to get biscuits, they attend school regularly." She urged continuation of the programme for a few more years. The UN agency sources said it has now been working hard to ensure food aid for 10 lakh ultra poor people in Bangladesh, most of them in the northern region. WFP sources said they have been facing fund crunches due to global economic recession. Millions of people have become landless due to regular erosion along east and west banks of the Jamuna, Bangladesh Water Development Board sources said. Local government representatives and victims said the frequency of erosion incidents has risen alarmingly during the last five or six years. Water experts link the phenomenon to climate change.