How Effective are Food for Education Programs? A Critical Assessment of the Evidence from Developing Countries - Full Text

All rights reserved. Sections of this material may be reproduced for personal and not-for-profit use without the express written permission of but with acknowledgment to IFPRI. To reproduce material contained herein for profit or commercial use requires express written permission. To obtain permission, contact the Communications Division . About the Authors 69 iii Table Table 6.1 Study design for Murphy et al. (2003) experiment in Kenyan primary schools 39 v Figure Figure 3.1 Potential benefits of food for education programs 10 Foreword F ood for education (FFE) programs, including meals served in school and take-home rations conditional on school attendance, have recently received renewed attention as a policy instrument for achieving the Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and the reduction of hunger in developing countries. FFE programs attract children to school by providing nutritious meals in exchange for school participation. If children are undernourished, the programs may also boost learning and cognitive development by improving attention spans and nutrition. The attraction of these programs is their potential to improve both school participation and learning and cognitive outcomes by increasing the consumption of nutritious food by undernourished children. However, FFE programs also have their critics. They are often more expensive than other programs that provide school inputs to increase school participation, and the nutrition benefits are small compared to those from nutrition programs targeting younger children. As a result, governments and donors are in the midst of a debate about the future of FFE programs. This food policy review presents a rationale for FFE programs and undertakes a critical review of the causal evidence on the impact of FFE programs on education participation and attainment, learning, cognitive development, and nutrition. Results from the most careful studies show that in-school meals programs improve primary school attendance of enrolled students where initial attendance was low. Potential impacts on school participation by children not previously enrolled in school are not well known. There is mixed evidence that school meals can improve performance on math and literacy tests, and they may improve cognitive development , depending on the type of food provided, the size of the food rations, and program duration. Several well-designed controlled trials have shown that school vii viii foreword meals have a positive impact on nutrition outcomes, including anthropometry and iron status, though these results have received less support from field trials in more typical settings. There are few studies …