ABIDJAN - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today welcomed US$35.6 million from the U.S. Government’s McGovern–Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program to enable WFP to maintain its sustainable School Meals Programme in Ivory Coast for the next five years.
The McGovern-Dole Program (MGD) donation, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, allows WFP to continue provision of a daily hot meal to 125,000 children in 613 public primary schools in the country’s most vulnerable regions (Cavally, Bafing, Bagoue, Poro, Tchologo, Bounkani, Gontougo). It will also help build the capacity of, and strengthen collaboration with, women farmers who are supplying food for the school meals programme.
"WFP is grateful for the U.S. Government’s generous and continued support. The U.S. has demonstrated again and again that it is committed to help Ivory Coast’s most vulnerable, and to break the cycle of hunger and illiteracy. By supporting the school meals programme, we are working together to invest in the country’s future,” said Gianluca Ferrera, WFP Country Director in Ivory Coast.
The MGD donation contributes to achieving the country’s national goals of improving enrollment and retention rates of both girls and boys, and also to reach the strategic goals set by the MGD: improving literacy and primary education, especially for girls, as well as health and dietary practices.
“The U.S. reaffirms its engagement in working alongside the people and Government of Ivory Coast with the aim of improving the lives of everyone, especially school children – the country’s future leaders,” said U.S. Ambassador Terence Patrick McCulley.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. Each year, WFP assists some 80 million people in around 80 countries.
The McGovern–Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program helps support education, child development and food security in low-income, food-deficit countries around the globe. The program provides for the donation of U.S. agricultural commodities, as well as financial and technical assistance, to support school feeding and maternal and child nutrition projects.
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For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Ibrahima Diallo, WFP Abidjan, Tel. +225 22526000
Rachel Pierre, WFP/Abidjan, Tel. +225 22526300; Mob. + 225 05444377
Adel Sarkozi, WFP/Dakar, Mobile + 221 77 637 5964
Jane Howard, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06 65132321, Mob. +39 346 7600521
Steve Taravella, WFP/Washington DC, Tel. +1 202 653 1149, Mob. +1 202 770 5993