McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Project in Senegal

CHALLENGE

A large portion of Senegalese citizens rely on agriculture and pastoralism for their livelihood. Unfortunately, a persistent drought in 2017 severely impacted crop and animal production. Today, approximately 751,000 people face crisis levels of acute food insecurity and chronic malnutrition affects 17 percent of children younger than age 5. Children that are deprived of sufficient nutrition are unable to stay attentive in school and attend on a regular basis. These challenges to nutrition, health, and literacy are closely intertwined and will all be addressed by Counterpart’s McGovern-Dole Sukaabe Jango (Children of Tomorrow) program.

PROMISE

Since 2004, Counterpart International has been actively implementing USDA and USAID food security programs in Senegal. Counterpart is currently implementing two USDA funded projects in Saint Louis, Senegal: the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition project (McGovern-Dole) and the Local and Regional Food Aid procurement project (LRP). Both projects support the overarching goal of ensuring that School Management Committees can serve as a sustainable pathway to Community Led School Feeding, even after support from McGovern-Dole comes to an end. The program works directly with parents, schools, community members, and government agencies to:

• IMPROVE student attendance rates by providing nutritious daily school meals across 270 targeted preschools and primary schools;
• IMPROVE health and dietary practices by providing access to deworming medications and reinforcing knowledge of safe food preparation along with storage practices;
• IMPROVE school infrastructure and increase access to clean water and sanitation by rehabilitating latrines and water station systems;
• IMPROVE literacy skills of school age children through the provision of improved quality of literacy instructional materials;
• INCREASE capacity of government personnel to guide, implement, and maintain school feeding programs; and
• INCREASE engagement of local organizations and community groups to build capacity to establish Sustainability Action Plans.

IMPACT

Counterpart and our partners in the region plan to meet the following targets over the life of the project;

• DISTRIBUTE over 12 million meals to more than 50,000 students;
• PROVIDE 270 schools with handwashing stations, canteen maintenance and kitchen equipment;
• TRAIN over 1,050 individuals on revised nutrition and sanitary practices;
• TRAIN over 1000 individuals in commodity management, preparation, storage, and/or transportation;
• TRAIN 800 teachers on revised literacy tools to help improve literacy rates of school aged children;
• PROVIDE deworming medication to roughly 80,000 school children, teachers, and cooks; and
• GRADUATE 200 schools to Community Lead School Feeding through Local and Regional Procurement.