The Food-for-Education (FFE) program was started by the Government on a pilot basis in July 1993, but expanded rapidly and to become the second-largest food-assistance program in the country. It is basically an “in-kind” stipend program that links food transfers to poor households to primary school enrollment of their children in order to achieve four objectives: increased school enrollment, better school attendance, lower drop-out rates and higher quality of primary education.4 Households with a child in primary school receive 15 kilograms of wheat or 12 kilograms of rice a month (those with two or more children get 20 kilograms of wheat or 16 kilograms of rice), provided the children attend at least 85 percent of their classes and the family sends all children of primary school age to school. The overall allocation to the program of 285,000 metric tons in 1999-2000, funded entirely from the Government’s own resources, covered an estimated 2.1 million households.
The FFE program is implemented mainly in rural areas by the Government’s Primary and Mass Education Division, with the assistance of the Directorate of Primary Education, Ministry of Education. At the field level, Thana Nirbahi Officers (TNOs) and Thana Education Officers (TEOs) implement the program with the assistance of School Managing Committees (SMCs). At district level, Deputy Commissioners and the District Primary Education Officers supervise and monitor the program. The FFE covers all rural thanas and 1 city corporation in Bangladesh.
There are two stages of targeting. First, in each thana, the Thana Education Committee (comprising the TNO, TEO, representatives of local head teachers, local education specialists, and elites) recommends one or more unions deemed to be economically backward and to have low literacy rates for inclusion in the program. Based on the thana recommendations, the Deputy Commissioner, in consultation with the Minister in charge of the district, makes the final decision. In 2000-2001, 1254 unions (out of approximately 4,500 in the country) were covered by the program. Within each selected union, all government, registered non-government, satellite, and low-cost primary schools as well as one independent madrasha are eligible for the program. However, in order to provide incentives for improving the quality of primary education, schools are required to meet prescribed minimum standards on attendance, pass rates, and exam schedules in order to participate.
Second, School Management Committees, in consultation with the Compulsory Primary Education Ward Committee, draw up a list of beneficiaries for the program. No more than 40 percent of the roll at any school may be included. The Government defines the criteria to include (i) distressed female-headed families (widows, divorcees, those separated from their husbands); (ii) day-laborers; (iii) low-income tradesmen (such as fishermen, potters, blacksmiths, weavers and cobblers) and (iv) households that are functionally landless (owning less than 0.5 acres). In addition, in order to be eligible for the FFE, the household should not currently be included in the VGD, RMP, or any other such targeted food assistance program.
Started in 1975 as Vulnerable Group Feeding, this program was renamed as it evolved from providing relief to increasing beneficiaries’ self-reliance. The program, implemented by the Government with support from WFP and a number of bilateral donors, comprises three subprojects (i) Union Parishad (UP) VGD (ii) Women’s Training Centers (WTC) and (iii) Group Leaders and Extension Workers, of which the first is by far the largest.5 The projects are exclusively for the benefit of poor disadvantaged women, who receive 30 kilograms of wheat per month and training for 18 months if they have complied with a compulsory cash savings of 25 Tk. per month. In the cycle that started in July 1999, approximately 492,000 women participated, with an allocation of 184,000 metric tons of food grains.
The training is different in the different subprojects. In the UPVGD, during 1999-00, about 85 percent of the women were organized in groups and provided with a package of development services (primarily from the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) comprising: awareness building on social and health issues, functional literacy and numeracy, training in income generating skills, participation in savings schemes and access to credit to start up new income-generating ventures. The WTC trains women for one year in marketable skills on courses operated by the Department of Women’s Affairs under the Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs and several NGOs. The Group Leaders and Extension Workers program helps organize VGD women in groups, and helps them access extension services (and credit) in areas where the regular package of development services is not available.
VGD is implemented by the Directorate of Relief and Rehabilitation under the coordinating authority of the Department of Women’s Affairs in the Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs (MWCA). There are two steps in the selection of cardholders. The national VGD committee (under the chairperson of the MWCA) distributes cards across the 461 rural thanas. The higher a thana’s food insecurity rating by the Government and WFP, the greater the share of cards it gets. A minimum of 30 women are then selected from each union by union and thana-level local committees according to selection criteria which include functionally landless women, women with extremely low or no family income, women who are day laborers, and women who lack productive assets.6 Preference is given to female heads of households (widowed, separated, deserted, divorced or with disabled husbands) and to women who are physically fit to train. Women who receive assistance from other programs or have participated in the VGD in an earlier cycle cannot be selected for the VGD.
