was financed by the Food Price Crisis Response Trust Fund, which was endorsed by the Board in May 2008 as part of the Global Food Crisis Response Program.18 47.
Prior to this Bank-funded school feeding program, no formal school meal
program or canteen existed in Togo. Children were usually given a small allowance by their parents (about 25–50 CFA) to buy snacks and hot meals prepared the village women (femmes-mamans) authorized by the school to sell food.19 This system is relatively efficient but became increasingly expensive because of the food price crisis. By the end of the 2007– 2008 school year, the cost of a basic meal (i.e., 120 grams of rice with fish sauce) had increased by almost 50 percent.20 4.2
Institutional Arrangements 48.
The program operates through three main groups of stakeholders: the national
government, non governmental organizations, and local communities. The communities are active in providing food-related services (in terms of the supply, purchase, and preparation of the food as well as serving the meals) but also in responding to the program by sending children to school, learning new skills, and making decisions at the village level. Regional and local NGOs, including the PTAs, are responsible for program implementation and daily on-site monitoring (Box 2). The national government, via the establishment of a Steering Committee, is providing overall guidance to the program. 49.
Of these three groups comes six main actors:
50.
Ministry of Grassroots Development is responsible for the overall program. At
the central level, a Steering Committee chaired by the Ministry of Primary Education oversees program implementation and provides overall strategic guidance. The program is then coordinated by the Technical Secretariat, which.
18
The objectives of the GFCRP are to: (i) reduce the negative impact of high and volatile food prices on the lives of the poor in a timely way; (ii) support governments in the design of sustainable policies that mitigate the adverse impacts of high and more volatile food prices on poverty while minimizing the creation of long-term market distortions; and (iii) support broad-based growth in productivity and market participation in agriculture to ensure an adequate and sustainable food supply response. 19 The femmes-mamans are required to have an updated cahier de santĂŠ, which is a menu of vaccines and exams that is administered by regional Departments of Health. 20 World Bank. 2010b. Togo Community-Driven Development Project, Paper No. 54513-TG. Washington, DC: World Bank.
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