GCNF, acting as the subrecipient to Joint Aid Management (JAM), a faith-based humanitarian organization headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, will help implement a four-year school feeding program in the Benguela Province of Angola. Reducing short-term hunger, increasing nutrition and health knowledge through the nutritional education of children and community members, and strengthening capacity building within the Angolan government are all program objectives. JAM is currently feeding 200,000 children in Benguela.
Map is from CIA World Factbook 2010 - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
GCNF will work closely with the Angolan Ministry of Education at the macro policy level to formulate policies and craft a framework and roll-out plan to implement a national school feeding program. By securing government commitment and funding at the national level, program sustainability is encouraged. Additionally, GCNF will work with JAM and Humana People to People (ADPP) to conduct school feeding seminars, train Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) representatives and help with PTA formation. Seminar topics will include: school warehouse preparation and management; school feeding management; evaluation and monitoring; nutrition education; and the PTA as a community-based organization and its role in school feeding advocacy.
Angola has an estimated population of 17 million people and is located in sub-Saharan Africa. Portuguese is the official language and 68% of its population is Roman Catholic. Angola ranks number 143 on the United Nations’ (U.N.) Human Development Index (HDI).The HDI is a composite measure of three dimensions of human development (life expectancy, education and standard of living), and therefore presents a more general definition of well-being.Compulsory education is eight years, the average literacy rate is 67% and the average life expectancy is 42 years. Crude oil, refined petroleum products, gas, diamonds and coffee are its main exports. Since 2007, Angola has been a member country of OPEC.
In addition to Angola, GCNF will assist JAM with their three-year school feeding project in Mozambique, an extension of current school feeding activities there. There are several similarities between these two sub-Saharan African countries: Angola and Mozambique both declared independence from Portugal in 1975; both are ranked 68 on the International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) Global Hunger Index (GHI), with an alarming hunger index of 25.30; and both guarantee access to the education for all in their constitutions.
Map is from CIA World Factbook 2010 - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
Mozambique is currently experiencing a more gradual socioeconomic recuperation than Angola. In comparison to Angola, Mozambique ranks 172 out of 182 total countries on the U.N.’s HDI. Cashews and prawns are some of Mozambique’s main export commodities, with sugar and cotton also being increasingly exported. Mozambique’s GDP in 2007 was $7.8 billion, whereas Angola’s GDP for that same year was $58.5 billion. It should not go unnoted, however, that Mozambique’s GDP has averaged an 8% growth per year for the past ten years and that the number of people living in poverty fell from 69% in 1997 to 54% in 2003. Additionally, the number of enrolled students doubled from roughly 2 million in 1998 to 4.6 million in 2007. However, Mozambique is plagued by extreme rainfalls that results in droughts and floods that have harmed food production, destroyed harvests and displaced families in Mozambique. UNICEF estimates that currently 44% of children in Mozambique suffer from chronic malnutrition.
Both the Angola and Mozambique school feeding projects are made possible by the Foreign Agricultural Service’s McGovern-Dole International Food for Education (FFE) and Child Nutrition Program, which helps promote education, child development and food security for some of the world’s poorest children. Among the criteria necessary to receive a FFE grant, a country must have: a lower or lower-middle per capita income; a population with more than a 20 percent prevalence of undernourishment; and adult literacy rates below 75 percent. To learn more about McGovern-Dole, visit: http://www.fas.usda.gov/excredits/foodaid/ffe/FFE.asp.
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