Operations

The proposed WFP intervention addresses household food insecurity and low levels of education that limit development opportunities, especially for girls, among the rural population in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. It will target food-insecure areas where school enrolment rates are low, aiming to enhance access to primary education, especially for girls, through food aid interventions to improve primary school enrolment and attendance, as well as improving children’s learning capacity.

It meets WFP’s Strategic Priority 4, contributes to the Millennium Development Goals and is an important initiative in the Government’s National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy. Partnerships with the World Health Organization on deworming and with the World Bank on impact assessment, complemented by targeted support from the United Nations Children’s Fund on water and sanitation, will enhance the impact of the intervention.

There will be three forms of food intervention: 

• a mid-morning snack for all students in participating primary schools;
• take-home rations for girls to compensate parents for the loss of domestic labour; and 
• food rations for informal boarding students to supplement food brought from home and encourage families to continue to send their children to schools at some distance from home.

Up to 1,200 primary schools in three remote northern provinces will be included. The Ministry of Education will be the main executing authority of the school feeding project.

Countries

Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR)

Overview The Lao People’s Democratic Republic is one of the world’s least developed countries.  It is landlocked and mountainous, with significant parts of the country still inaccessible by road....