Standard Project Report 2016
The Royal Government of Bhutan considers education as a major key to alleviating poverty and empowering people, as such the sector receives the highest priority and emphasis: 15.2 percent of total government spending, which is 7.5 percent of gross domestic product( Bhutan Annual Education Statistics, 2015). Bhutan has made impressive progress in pursuit of achieving universal primary education with a 95.2 percent net primary school enrolment rate( Bhutan Annual Education Statistics, 2015). Bhutan has also made significant progress in relation to gender equality and the empowerment of women. Gender parity at the primary education level in 2015 stood at 102, or for every 100 boys there were 102 girls enrolled.
The prevalence of child stunting significantly fell from 37 percent in the 2008 Bhutan National Nutrition Survey to 21.2 percent in 2015, while the prevalence of wasting and underweight remained low at 4.3 percent and 9 percent respectively. Nonetheless, child under-nutrition is still high among poor children in rural areas, especially in the eastern region. Micronutrient deficiencies remain a challenge among children and adolescent girls. Anemia affects 31 percent of the girls aged 10-19 years and 43.8 percent of children aged 6-59 months. The anemia prevalence rate is higher in urban areas and among non-pregnant women( 2015 Bhutan National Nutrition Survey). In recent years, the Government has recognised the importance of micronutrients for school-going children and is trying to take measures to address the issue through the school feeding programme.
Since 2011, Bhutan has been classified as a lower middle-income country by the World Bank. However, given the vulnerable nature of its economy, it is still listed as a United Nations Least Developed Country( Bhutan Overview, World Bank, 2016). Bhutan ranked 132 out of 188 countries in the 2014 Human Development Index with an index of 0.605( About Bhutan, UNDP, 2016).
Response of the Government and Strategic Coordination
Since the establishment of secular education in the 1960s, the Royal Government of Bhutan has been implementing school feeding to facilitate boarding for the students. With the arrival of WFP in the country in 1974, the school feeding programme has scaled up significantly, and after more than four decades, WFP is gradually phasing-out its operational support. WFP ' s development project is facilitating this phase-out by transferring knowledge, systems and skills to government partners, while also handing-over to the Government the responsibility of feeding a number of students on an annual basis. The Government plans to have complete responsibility of feeding all school children by the start of the 2019 school year.
The Government continued to view the provision of school meals as an important enabler for access to quality basic education. The Government allocated a budget of about 15.2 percent of total government spending, or 7.5 percent of gross domestic product( June 2015), for education and the school feeding programme. Since 2014, participating schools receive a stipend of BTN 1,000 per child per month for the procurement of food commodities for nutritious school meals. A separate budget covers transportation costs for the delivery of the meals.
In recent years, more focus has been placed on improving the nutrition of school meals. The Ministry of Education underwent an organisational change that established a School Health and Nutrition Division, which integrated school feeding, health and agricultural programmes under one manager. The division will receive additional staff, a nutritionist and a programme officer for school feeding. Until reinforcements are in place, WFP is supporting the division with three staff recruited to provide national-level management of the school feeding programme and strengthen the capacity of the schools to implement the programme.
In terms of programme, the Government requested WFP to support with rice fortification as a means to address the persistent issue of school children suffering from micronutrient deficiency, especially deficiency of vitamin B1, which has caused beri-beri disease outbreaks in schools since 2011. Fortified rice will be introduced to school meals during the 2017 academic year( February to December) and will reach 17,000 school children. Upon the request of the Government, WFP is facilitating an assessment of the dietary intake of school meals, which may help improve the food basket. The assessment will be conducted from April to November 2017 to account for seasonality and food availability throughout the year.
In terms of supply chain, a centralised procurement system is used to provide a standard list of non-perishable food items with the same nutritional value to all Bhutanese schools. WFP also facilitated a meeting between the Ministry of Education and the Food Corporation of Bhutan Limited to establish a per tonnage rate for reimbursing internal transport, storage and handling costs for the food commodities provided by WFP. This system can then later also be used for the government supported schools.
The Government embarked on a new educational approach for " central schools " where the majority of the children are boarded and are provided three meals. In 2016, students attending these central schools are also provided with lunch.
Bhutan, Kingdom of( BT) 4 Development Project- 200300