WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by project type | Page 56

Standard Project Report 2016
Results/Outcomes
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Strategic Objective
: Reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger (Strategic Objective 4)
Outcome:
4.2 Increased equitable access to and utilization of education
Activity
: School feeding programme
In 2016, WFP provided 19,092 school children (87 per cent of plan) in 176 schools with breakfast and lunch, 51
percent of whom were girls, utilizing 1,344 MT of food commodities. While WFP planned to cover 22,000 school
children, actual number was slightly lower because some students enrolled in "central schools", where in addition to
school meals, other mandatory schools items such as uniforms, learning materials and boarding facilities were
provided at no cost. The number of feeding days were also less than planned due to variance in local school
session holidays in different districts.
Positive results were observed in retention rate for both girls and boys in primary schools. The net enrolment rate in
primary schools for boys increased, but for girls the rate decreased by 1.9 percent compared to the previous year.
Since WFP-supported schools are part of the national school feeding programme, data for enrolment and retention
were sourced from statistics of the Ministry of Education.
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Strategic Objective
: Reduce undernutrition and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger (Strategic Objective 4)
Outcome
: 4.3 Ownership and capacity strengthened to reduce undernutrition and increase access to education at
regional, national and community levels
Activity
: Capacity development—strengthening national capacities
In 2016 a milestone towards the transition to full government management of the school feeding programme was
reached. The Ministry of Education managed trainings of teachers and school cooks involved in the school feeding
programme and the financing and facilitation of the training sessions. WFP co-facilitated the trainings for teachers
and observed trainings for cooks. The trainings were conducted annually because of the high turnover of teachers
and since there is no school staff hired specifically to manage the school feeding programme.
Technical assistance and training was provided to 129 government and national partner staff at different levels,
including staff at the Ministry of Education headquarters, teachers, cooks, staff from the Food Corporation of Bhutan
Limited, and other partners.
As part of the handover process to the Ministry of Education, WFP helped analyse the supply chain of the school
feeding programme. Some of the concerns cited were shortage of transport capacity in the country; use of some
food commodities for the government-supported schools that do not fully comply with the set quality standards;
spoilage of food items as a result of unfavourable conditions at warehouses; and, outdated storage facilities. Piloting
of alternative supply chain approaches such as “hub and spoke” and “milk-run” methods were recommended,
and WFP plans to support the Royal Government of Bhutan with this in 2017.
In 2016, the school feeding programme was coordinated by the School Feeding Technical Committee, which was
comprised of representatives from various government agencies who made decisions on key issues related to
education, health and nutrition. WFP recognizes that the school feeding programme must continue to be a
multi-sectoral effort.
WFP did not measure the National Capacity Index for the school feeding programme in 2016 but plans to conduct
another review for 2017; the National Capacity Index was last reviewed in 2015.
Progress Towards Gender Equality
WFP continued to support and advocate for progress towards gender equality in education. At the primary
education level, girls and boys had the same enrolment and attendance rates in 2015, but girls had higher
enrolment and attendance rates than boys in 2016, with 102 girls for every 100 boys present at the schools. Girls
also completed primary education at rates 10 percent higher than boys. While the higher enrolment, attendance and
completion rates for girls is a positive reflection of efforts to increase gender equality and empower girls, WFP
hopes to improve these for boys as well.
Bhutan, Kingdom of (BT)
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Development Project - 200300