WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by country | Seite 199

Standard Project Report 2016
During the training of teachers in charge of school feeding and school cooks, as organised and managed by the
Ministry of Education, female participation is encouraged, and gender sensitisation was also included. WFP
promoted equal representation of girls and boys and male and female teachers in the school feeding management
committees. These committees were instituted in each of the schools supported by WFP in order to oversee and
ensure proper management and provision of meals to the school children. Gender parity on the school committees
is encouraged as a way of empowering women, providing women with increased leadership and decision-making
opportunities and ensuring that the ideas and concerns of both men and women are being heard. Following the
example of WFP, schools supported by the Royal Government of Bhutan now have similar gender representation
requirements in their school feeding management committees in schools.
Protection and Accountability to Affected Populations
Safety issues for beneficiary children were mostly related to the risk of attacks by wild animals or of crossing the
streams during their daily commute from home to school and back, although none of the beneficiaries were affected
by these risks in 2016.
There were some safety challenges for the girls camping near the schools in shacks and huts as informal boarding
sites. In order to address these issues, WFP used to support the construction of hostels with proper water and
sanitation facilities so that the girls could stay in school and live in a safe environment. In 2016, the Royal
Government of Bhutan continued this effort, identified vulnerable girls living informally as boarders, and
admitted them into boarding schools.
WFP's mainly interacted with beneficiaries through the school teachers who received the food, took care of storage
and provided timely reports. During monitoring visits, WFP met with some of the children privately to talk about the
quality and quantity of food. Responses from the children were positive, and there were no complaints. A
communication channel was established to inform the schools if food was delayed and how to properly dispose
damaged food items.
Beneficiaries were aware of their food entitlements because WFP made it compulsory for every school to display
the ration scale and daily menu on classroom boards, which were visible to all children.
Given the long history of WFP in Bhutan, spanning 43 years, both WFP beneficiaries and their parents were aware
of the food provided by WFP. During WFP's monitoring visits, children indicated that they knew about WFP's work
and were familiar with the WFP logo. The informal contact with the children and the quarterly reports from
teachers helped to ensure that any safety or protection issues were promptly identified. As WFP monitored safety
and protection issues more informally, no specific protection indicators were collected in 2016.
Bhutan, Kingdom of (BT)
17
Development Project - 200300