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Abstract
The Government of Bangladesh launched the innovative Food for Education
(FFE) program in 1993. The FFE program provides a free monthly ration of rice or wheat
to poor families if their children attend primary school. The goals of this program are to
increase primary school enrollment, promote attendance, reduce dropout rates, and
enhance the quality of education. This paper presents the findings of a recent
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) evaluation of the FFE program that
demonstrates the extent to which these goals were met.
This evaluation uses primary data collected from multiple surveys covering
schools, households, communities, and foodgrain dealers. The authors first examine the
performance of the FFE program, showing that it has largely fulfilled its objectives of
increasing school enrollment, promoting school attendance, and preventing dropouts. The
enrollment increase was greater for girls than for boys. The quality of education,
however, remains a problem. Next, they analyze the targeting effectiveness of the
program, its impact on food security, and its efficiency in distributing rations. In general,
the FFE program targets low-income households. However, there is considerable scope
for improving targeting, as a sizable number of poor households remain excluded from
the program even while many nonpoor households are included. Furthermore, the
evaluation results indicate that the functioning of the current private-dealer-based
foodgrain distribution system of the FFE program is not satisfactory.