School Feeding in Angola: Research Highlight

Excerpted from: Meeting Nutritional Needs Through School Feeding: A Snapshot of Four African Nations, Amanda Buhl, MPH(c), Global Child Nutrition Foundation; University of Washington, School of Public Health. The report focuses on four African Nations – South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Angola. Insider International will periodically feature excerpts from each country. The following is a highlight of school feeding and nutrition in Angola.

The full study is housed here: http://www.gcnf.org/resources/research-studies/

According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), initiatives to fight poverty, like school feeding, have become critical to the recovery of Angola (80).  Many communities have little or no access to basic social services, while more than a third of children are not enrolled in school (72).  According to Angolan law, education is compulsory and free for 8 years.  However, many students do not attend due to a lack of school buildings and teachers, or because families cannot afford additional school-related expenses, including fees for books and supplies (81).  In addition, it is reported that nearly half of all schools were looted and destroyed in the Angolan Civil War, leading to current problems with overcrowding (81).

Various organizations are working in Angola, in partnership with the government, to implement school feeding programs. A total of 147,182 children in the most conflict-affected provinces are benefitting from WFP-assisted programs, and attendance in these schools increased to 94% in 2007/2008 compared to 88% in the previous school year.  The WFP has also committed to raising awareness among parents regarding the importance of education, particularly for girls.  Recently, the Government of Angola has launched a three-year pilot school feeding program in those provinces previously assisted by WFP, and this project will serve as the baseline foundation for the National school feeding program to help school children countrywide. (80).  The Brazilian National Fund for Education Development (FNDE), with support of the Brazilian Government, has helped support this national school feeding effort in Angola (80).

The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) is also working with the Angolan Ministry of Education to create policies and implementation procedures for a national school feeding program.  Major aims of the program are to reduce short-term hunger, while increasing nutrition and health knowledge through education (82).  In an attempt to strengthen the capacity of the Angolan government, GCNF will work with Joint Aid Management (JAM) and Humana People to People (ADPP) to provide training and management development for school feeding administrators, along with monitoring and evaluation and nutrition education expertise.

Another promising school feeding effort is LIFE Outreach International’s (LOI) Mission Feeding Program, which feeds 200,000 Angolan children.  Through a partnership with Joint Aid Management, LIFE’s Mission Feeding Program operates on the basis of the Complete Community Assistance (CCA) model, which is founded on a school-based platform and contributes to more holistic community development.  This approach attempts to provide a comprehensive foundation for community engagement and development and is comprised of four complimentary interventions: nutritional feeding, water and sanitation programming, agricultural development, and HIV prevention education (83).  Additionally, LOI/JAM recently announced plans for the development of a new food processing facility in Angola.  This facility will have the capacity to process over 1 million meals per day, and store up to 10,000 metric tones of food, potentially helping to avoid the bottlenecks in the nation’s school feeding food supply (83).  LOI has committed to the production of fortified foods at this facility, addressing country’s need for additional micronutrient-fortified food products.

There are numerous threats to the successful implementation of school feeding in Angola, and the country is far from achieving universal school feeding program coverage.  At the most basic level, the education system in Angola continues to be extremely under-funded, and the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the country’s extensively destroyed physical, social, and economic infrastructure remains a national challenge.  A lack of clean water and insufficient agricultural development compromise the capacity for food production for schools, especially those in the poorest areas.  The presence of landmines continues to obstruct the free movement of goods and people.  Existing school feeding programs lack sufficient and sustainable sources of funding and additional technical assistance is needed for program oversight and development.   Additionally, mechanisms must be put in place to protect against the squandering and theft of what food and resources are available.

As organizations shift their focus from food assistance to capacity development in Angola, the government of Angola must maintain its commitment to and support of school feeding and a national nutrition policy.  Specifically, WFP donors believe that the government should be putting more of its own financial resources (from oil, gas, and mineral revenues) toward the provision of social services, like school feeding programs, to the population (72).
WFP has traditionally targeted school feeding activities in the most conflict-affected zones and those with a high concentration of resettled returnees recovering from the war.  Food insecurity in these areas is severe, and most targeted families spend 60% of their income on food, allowing for one meal per day (80).

National, regional, and individual targeting mechanisms for school feeding programs have not been formally established.

Angola currently has a modest salt iodization program, and it is estimated that 1/3 of households have access to iodized salt.  However, the goiter rate in Angola is 33%, and this may contribute to a lowering of the national IQ average by 10 to 15 points (78).  There is currently no national fortification legislation for the addition of iron and folic acid to wheat flour, though the government has expressed interest in a large-scale fortification program. The World Food Programme in Angola has begun fortification in one wheat mill in the country and is distributing fortified flour to beneficiaries (84).

WFP has also very recently initiated maize fortification in Angola, to combat pellagra, a micronutrient deficiency disease caused by a lack of niacin, commonly occurring among people whose diets are dominated by maize.  By providing fortification equipment to a commercial mill at the port of Lobito and using a vitamin and mineral pre-mix provided by UNICEF, this project has overcome many of the difficulties common in countries emerging from conflict.  Monthly rations of fortified maize are provided to some 115,000 beneficiaries (85).   These efforts demonstrate that local food fortification is possible in Angola, albeit challenging.  Such work helps to protect the nation’s mental and physical health, prevents the occurrence of birth defects and increases energy and productivity among the population.

Linking fortification efforts to school feeding in Angola will help protect against the micronutrient deficiencies that impair physical and cognitive development of school-age children.

References

72. World Food Program. Angola country report. Accessible online: http://www.wfp.org/countries/angola.

78. Micronutrient Initiative/UNICEF. Vitamin and Mineral Deficiency: A damage assessment report for Angola. Accessed online, May 2, 2010: www.micronutrient.org/VMD/DARs/Angola.pdf.

80. Lambers W. School meals in Angola: An interview with Domingos Afonso Ndedica of the United Nations World Food Program. American Chronicle. May 27, 2009.

81. Bureau of International Labor Affairs, US Department of Labor. 2005 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. 2006.

82. Global Child Nutrition Foundation. Newsroom: School feeding in Angola and Mozambique. Report accessed online, May 8, 2010: http://www.gcnf.org/index.php?/content/view/180/58/.

83. Life Outreach International. Mission Feeding Program Website. Accessed online, May 10, 2010: http://www.missionfeeding.org/.

84. Micronutrient Initiative. Special Report: The Work of the Micronutrient Initiative in Africa, 2005.

85. van den Briel T, Cheung E, Zewari J, Khan R. Fortifying food in the field to boost nutrition: case studies from Angola, Afghanistan, and Zambia. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 2007; 28(3):353-64.