VOLUME 24/APRIL 2002 sustainable options for ending hunger and poverty Revised June 2002 IFPRI PERSPECTIVES From Relief to Recovery: featured publication Rebuilding

Afghanistan’s economic and social indicators could hardly be worse. Over 7 million people face starvation. Afghanistan has the world’s fourth highest child mortality rate: More than 25 percent die before reaching age 5. One-quarter of Afghan children under 5 suffer from moderate to severe wasting. Afghanistan ranks at the bottom of the UN DOWNLOAD AT: www.ifpri.org gender development index and its maternal death rate is one of the highest in the world.

large percentage of Afghans are sick, hungry,homeless, and destitute. Nutrition: A Foundation for Many cities have been reduced to Development—Why Practitioners A rubble. Fields and rangelands have been in Development Should Integrate planted with landmines and dessicated by the Nutrition. A set of 12 briefs published by the UN ACC Sub-Committee on worst drought in 30 years. Decades of war Nutrition (SCN) with assistance from have killed, maimed, and displaced millions IFPRI and others. 2002 / 48 pages of people, driving 6 million refugees to neighboring states, Europe,Australia, and Distributed by: UN ACC Sub-Committee on Nutrition America. Chaos, continuous warfare, and c/o World Health Organization tyranny destroyed most of the 20 Avenue Appia nation’s educational, healthcare, social, CH 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland Telephone:+41-22-791 04 56 administrative, and economic institutions.

Fax: +41-22-798 88 91 WFP/Michael Huggins Photo by Email: [email protected] Yet there is hope.With the fall of the Taliban, Web: http://acc.unsystem.org/scn/ girls are flocking back to school, young Agriculture in Afghanistan is supplying tons women and men are taking university of seed to Afghan farmers.That effort, spear- INTERNATIONAL entrance exams, and thousands of educated, headed by the International Centre for FOOD highly trained Afghan exp atriates are organ- Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), relies POLICY izing to return to lend a hand. While private on years of seed testing in Afghanistan by the RESEARCH voluntary organizations and UN emergency Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de INSTITUTE assistance agencies deliver immediate food Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT), and is the first step aid, members of the international communi- in re-establishing Afghanistan’s agricultural 2033 K Street, NW ty have been meeting to help establish an sector.As farming and agricultural production Washington, DC 20006-1002 USA interim central government, monitor increases, food aid will have to be phased out Telephone:+1-202-862-5600 Afghanistan’s transition, and pledge technical so as not to distort markets. That’s when Fax: +1-202-467-4439 assistance and development funds. IFPRI’s strengths will be needed. Email: [email protected] Web: www.ifpri.org Is There an Economist in the House? “IFPRI’s expertise in designing and imple- Writer and Editor: Joanna Berkman Like the doctor who steps forward to help in menting government policies for food, agri- Art and Production Manager: Evelyn Banda culture, and the environment can help us Designer: Joan Kirstin Stephens a medical emergency,IFPRI economists are Illustration: John Overmeyer joining initiatives to share their knowledge apply the many lessons learned in other so that Afghanistan can rebuild rapidly.The countries to rebuilding Afghanistan,”IFPRI Copyright © 2002 International Food Policy Director General Per Pinstrup-Andersen Research Institute.All rights reserved. Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild says.“We have long collaborated with Pakistan on government policies to improve IFPRI’s expertise in designing and implementing food security in the region. A great deal of government policies for food, agriculture, and the environment research on the link between poverty and hunger on the one hand and armed conflict can help us apply the many lessons learned in other countries on the other makes it clear that unless to rebuilding Afghanistan. human suffering is alleviated, we will not be able to avoid future conflicts in Central Asia.” Until 1988, livestock accounted for 40 And Afghanistan’s 1964 constitution includ- Ashok Gulati, director of IFPRI’s Markets percent of Afghanistan’s national exports. ed an equal rights amendment, which fur- and Structural Studies Division, attended Devastated during the war years, the live- ther guaranteed women’s right to vote. the Future Harvest Consortium stakeholder stock sector, which includes sedentary meeting convened by ICARDA in farmers, transhumant tribes, and nomadic The communist government established Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in late January 2002. herders, suffered further as water shortages with Soviet backing in the late 1970s Seventy-four participants from 34 interna- destroyed pastures and caused animal brought unanticipated benefits to women: tional organizations gathered on short deaths, crisis sales, and low fertility and Bride price and forced marriage were notice, at their own expense, with a single replacement rates. The FAO/WFP mission banned, the minimum age for marriage purpose: to help Afghan farmers restore report estimated that herd numbers had was raised, and both women and men were food security. The stakeholders developed a plummeted further by 40 percent from educated. These reforms were not well plan to deliver high-quality seeds immedi- already lowered 1998 levels. received by tribal chiefs in rural areas or by ately to Afghan farmers, but recognized that fundamentalist Islamic leaders, and mainly rapid needs assessments would have to be “The challenge of Afghanistan is staring us benefited women in larger cities. conducted as soon as the security situation right in the face,”Gulati observes.“If we within Afghanistan allows. fail to rise to the occasion, our commit- Before the Taliban took power in 1996, ment to poverty alleviation, our credibility, many highly trained urban women worked Revive Afghan Agriculture and our compassion will all be in question. outside the home, bringing in earnings on The agricultural sector was the mainstay of If the world wants it, ending hunger in which their families depended. The Afghanistan’s economy and its regeneration Afghanistan can easily be accomplished, Women’s Alliance for Peace and Human is fundamental to the nation’s recovery. but we must offer more than food security. Rights in Afghanistan estimated that With massive and wise investments in seed We must seek justice as well.” women in , the capital, made up over and crop improvement and diversification, 50 percent of students and professors at soil and water management, horticulture, These goals can be achieved in part by tak- ,70 percent of school- and livestock, the agricultural sector can ing the following priority actions. teachers, 50 percent of civilian government thrive again (see page 4). workers, and 40 percent of doctors. Recognize and Guarantee Women’s Prior to the Soviet and civil wars, 85 per- Human Rights The Taliban’s worst excesses may be over. cent of Afghans depended on agriculture, A country cannot succeed in “eradicating But the aftermath of the Taliban’s denial of horticulture, and livestock farming for poverty unless women are healthy,educat- education, work, and medical care to their livelihoods. Between 1979 (when the ed, empowered in the economic and Afghan women remains. Speaking at a Soviets invaded) and 1992, food produc- political field, and protected from gender- World Bank panel in March 2002, Sima tion in Afghanistan dropped by 40 per based violence,”the Wali detailed the daunting challenge cent. Only 12 percent of Afghanistan’s Development Programme (UNDP) ahead.“Afghan women are the most land is arable, of which half is irrigated. affirmed in a 2002 report. None of these oppressed in the world, and the most Only 40 percent of arable land is under conditions exists in Afghanistan today. undernourished members of society: 12 cultivation due to drought, the shortage million Afghan women live in abject of seeds and other inputs, and the collapse In just five years, the Taliban reversed the poverty. An Afghan woman dies in child- of irrigation infrastructure.A joint 2001 progress Afghan women had made through- birth every half hour. Eighty percent of report by the Food and Agriculture out the 20th century. According to Sima women are illiterate. Seventy percent of Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Wali,Afghan activist and president of tuberculosis cases are women. There are and the World Food Programme (WFP) Refugee Women in Development,Afghan more than 40,000 widows in Kabul alone. Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission women gained the vote in the early 1920s, Women are struggling with huge psycho- to Afghanistan estimated that “about one- when American suffragists were still fighting logical trauma.The physical burka is much half of irrigated area had gone out of use” for enfranchisement. In the 1960s, the easier to lift than the emotional one,”she and that “rainfed crops (wheat and barley) Afghan government made wearing the veil said.“That will take time.” had almost totally failed.” and seclusion of women discretionary.

2 IFPRI PERSPECTIVES Restoring Afghan women’s human rights Educate to Develop Human Capital WHAT IS THE “TRAGEDY depends on peace and stable government, The secret schools that Afghan women OF THE OMMONS * which are by no means assured. In testimo- spontaneously created for their daughters C ”? ny last year before the U.S. Congress, will help some girls return to the same The phrase “tragedy of the commons” Tahmeena Faryal of the Revolutionary class levels they left in 1996. But most face was first used in a 1968 article by Garret Association of Women in Afghanistan a five-year learning gap, a problem they Hardin in Science magazine. According to (RAWA) expressed her people’s fears:“The share with their brothers, whose madrassa this short article, the commons are bound Mujahadeen forces [that made up] the studies under the Taliban did nothing to to be overexploited, and uncontrolled use would overburden, pollute, and eventually Taliban and [are now part of] the Northern prepare them to earn a living in a global- destroy the very resources upon which Alliance waged a brutal war against women, ized world. agriculture, and life, depend. Hardin using rape, torture, abduction, and forced viewed environmental destruction of the marriage as their weapons. Many women IFPRI has worked with developing coun- commons as inevitable for two reasons: committed suicide during this period as try governments to create programs that unrestricted population growth and the their only escape. . .[These Jehadis] have yet encourage poor families to send children inexorable logic of the commons itself, . . . to offer a single shred of . . . credible evi- to school with special incentives for parents which socializes the costs and individual- dence that they would not repeat their prior to educate their daughters. Similar pro- izes the benefits of use. In a pasture used atrocities.” Afghan women continue to live grams could be designed for Afghanistan. by one or more communities, the benefits with and among these men. Policies that tie education to food and to the individual pastoralist of increasing focus on girls are a win-win solution for his/her herd by one more animal accrues entirely to that individual, whereas the Though a handful of staunch spokeswomen the entire society (see page 6). cost of supporting the additional animal is have voiced Afghan women’s concerns in distributed among all who use the pas- stakeholder meetings in Bonn and Tokyo, Re-establish Markets and Governing ture. As the number of people using the the paucity of female faces at the table Institutions resource increases, animal productivity when peace and transitional arrangements Millions of Afghans have no access to food declines and environmental degradation were being negotiated attests to continuing through markets, and it isn’t just because increases, producing the “tragedy of the resistance among some men in power to people lack purchasing power. According to commons.” women’s participation in public life. Last FAO,“Afghanistan’s economy is virtually November, when women attempted to rally without a direction in the absence of a However, overexploitation is not the only publicly for the right to play a more active macro-economic framework. Budgetary possible outcome for common range- role in society,Northern Alliance officials operations are defunct, there are no banks lands, and it is not even the likely result when use can be restricted. In Hardin’s dispersed them, claiming disingenuously operating in the country,and the manufac- article, the argument rests on the that they feared for the women’s safety. turing and export sectors . . . remain assumption that if there is no property marginal . . .Transportation and communi- rights institution to enforce individual The interim government’s Ministry of cation systems are in extremely poor shape.” property rights, then there is no property Women’s Affairs is an important first step, rights institution at all. If it is true that no but according to Sima Wali,“It is not Markets and basic governing institutions institution exists to regulate property enough. We need women deputies in all will have to be revived and a proper regu- rights, then a tragedy is likely to result. the other ‘male’ agencies.” She calls for latory framework restored with the partici- However, in most cases, alternative insti- mainstreaming gender considerations pation of traders, farmers, and government tutional structures arise precisely to man- through a gender stakeholder survey and agencies.These market and institutional age potential problems of overuse that analysis. “Only by developing such indica- forces would make it possible for Afghan make everyone worse off. IFPRI research has shed a good deal of light on the wide tors and generating basic data can we farmers to sell their produce as well as range of alternative property rights insti- ensure logic and transparency in gender protect them against volatile pricing, lower tutions, as illustrated in the adjoining arti- issues,”she says. their transaction costs, and increase their cle, “Tribal Strengths Can Help Manage incentives to adopt new technologies in Common Land.” The culture of violence and gender order to boost agricultural production. apartheid that sentenced women to invisi- Without proper economic, social, and For information on a recent IFPRI/ ble lives of pain, ignorance, and silence will institutional restructuring, food security USAID workshop on rangelands, see Future not help rebuild Afghanistan.That will take and justice will remain elusive goals for Opportunities for Rural Africa at women’s work (see page 5). For this rea- the Afghan people. www.ifpri.org. For a report on the son, reconstruction and development poli- International Conference on Policy and Institutional Options for the Management of cies and programs in Afghanistan must Rangelands in Dry Areas, see reach women and girls directly. Affirmative www.capri.cgiar.org/range_article.htm. actions to restore Afghan women’s rights are at the heart of the nation’s recovery. * This is a revision of the article that appears in the printed version of IFPRI Perspectives, April 2002. 3 Tribal Strengths Can Help Manage Common Land

In many parts of the world, tribes remain a powerful political force, often challenging each other and national gov- ernments. Recent reports from Afghanistan, where warlords battle for control and tribes perpetually shift alliances, illustrate the instability that results when tribes compete rather than cooperate. But IFPRI research in other Islamic countries shows that intertribal strife is not inevitable. In fact, building on tribal affiliations can be the basis of coop- eration. By enlisting local communities in decisionmaking, national governments can reinforce solidarity and collec- tive action among tribal members, reduce potential disputes between tribes, and create a workable division of responsibility between tribal and central authorities.

astoral communities have often been and Property Rights initiative (CAPRi) and cooperative, set up a fee system by which blamed for rangeland degradation. Ford Foundation/Cairo, is part of a larger members paid for each sheep that grazed, PGovernments responded by attempt- joint IFPRI/ICARDA project that also and required members to contribute labor ing to reform land tenure systems and tribal includes Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Libya. every year for reforestation and manage- institutions. Centralized efforts to manage ment efforts. Productivity per hectare was rangelands focused on settling pastoral com- “Tribal-based approaches can work,”says about the same for both systems early in the munities, appropriating pastoral resources, Ngaido,“but to manage rangelands in project. But in the Ader cooperative, which and granting a greater role to government low-rainfall areas, both tribal and govern- had far less land and much lower transaction institutions.Traditional reciprocal grazing ment participation are essential. The costs, productivity rose.The Ader communi- arrangements between tribes were main- government’s role is to provide a legal ty now has a new milk processing plant to tained but the settlement of many pastoral- framework by which to grant and guarantee which members sell directly. And there has ists and their involvement in crop tenure security.” been a multiplier effect because farmers are production reduced flock mobility and the also using the plant, which produces value- use of tribal networks. Such policies only added commodities such as cheese. worsened land degradation, reduced pro- duction, and weakened pastoral livelihoods. • Rangelands comprise “Tribes do not have the technical expertise or the financing that governments do to The overwhelming failure of state interven- 46 percent of Afghanistan’s improve and manage the resource base,” tions to improve rangeland management territory. Ngaido says.“But tribes supply critical prompted governments to re-evaluate tradi- social capital and local involvement, without tional pastoral systems and institutions that • Rangeland resources which past state policies have failed.Tribal empower local communities and foster rangeland management systems depend on stewardship. IFPRI/ICARDA research include distinct ecosystems, rainfall and reciprocity.Seasonal herd move- offers evidence that tribes in less-favored native wildlife, and plants ments follow the feed, which makes mobili- lands can cooperate with national govern- that provide grazable ty a very important part of the institutional ments and each other to create security for framework.” their citizens through effective resource forage. management.Tribes are part of the solution. There are many such experiments in the countries under study,Ngaido reports, each “Many governments hesitate to rely on one adapting tribal strengths to create an tribal systems or make local communities Recent results of rangeland management approach specific to the people and places responsible for rangeland development experiments in Jordan are encouraging. involved.“For the first time, we have a because there are no legal frameworks to Two resource management systems were global overview of all of them at once,” secure community rights or provide incen- tried side by side.The government was Ngaido says. “Teams involved in this tives for sustaining rangeland resources,” responsible for 2,600 hectares, which it research are very excited.They feel that they Tidiane Ngaido, a research fellow in the fenced in and guarded year-round. Herders are contributing to the dry areas in their Environment and Production Technology with government contracts were allowed to countries.Tribes are a vital force in range- Division explains. Ngaido directs data col- use the pasture only once or twice a year. land areas.They offer social and economic lection and analysis in Jordan, Morocco, In contrast, the Ader community,which security.They listen to their members’ con- Syria, and Tunisia on institutional options petitioned the government for use rights cerns. So listening to them is crucial.” for rangeland management. The study, and to manage its own pastures, built no funded by the CGIAR Collective Action fences on its 1,200 hectares, organized a

IFPRI PERSPECTIVES 4 The High Price of Gender Inequality

If the Taliban had been looking for a way to starve Afghanistan’s people and retard the nation’s development, they could have found no better formula than the heinous they institutionalized. Women are the key to food security. By persecuting them, the Taliban made it impossible for women, especially widows, to care for themselves and their children. By now the details of the Taliban’s domestic terrorism against women are well known: no medical care, no education, no work, no freedom of movement, no exit from the prison their own homes became. This policy feminized poverty and deepened a vicious cycle of pauperization produced by decades of war.

ender inequality in rights and in cash, the age of the woman at marriage, Women’s education is an important deter- access to resources imposes huge and the age and educational differences minant of a child’s nutritional status. An Gcosts on the health and well-being between husband and wife.Whatever a earlier study of 63 developing countries by of entire societies. In an influential 1990 woman’s power relative to men’s within the Smith and Haddad shows that gains in article,Amartya Sen coined the term “miss- household, women may encounter various women’s education accounted for 43 per- ing women” to describe the great numbers barriers outside the home: fewer work cent of the decline in child malnutrition of women in the world who are literally opportunities, lower wages, and a narrower between 1970 and 1995. Across the devel- not alive due to family neglect and dis- range of acceptable behavior. For this rea- oping world, there is a strong positive cor- crimination. Sen estimated that worldwide son, the researchers also included a com- relation between mothers’ average there are 100 million missing women, half munity-level measure of women’s status. schooling and child survival. of whom are in South Asia. Widespread neglect of girls’ and women’s health, nutri- Women’s nutrition, which Smith et al. found A study by IFPRI researchers Agnes tion, education, and care yields high female to be strongly associated with status, directly Quisumbing and John Maluccio in morbidity and mortality and high child affects the health and nutrition of children. Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and South malnutrition. It is well known that poor prenatal maternal Africa shows that when women control nutrition leads to low birth weight, which is assets, expenditures on children’s education New work by Food Consumption and the single most important predictor of child increase and the rate of illness among girls Nutrition Division (FCND) research fellow survival, and that micronutrient malnutrition drops. Another Quisumbing study finds Lisa Smith, FCND director Lawrence affects the pre- and post-natal health of the that increasing the education and input Haddad, and Emory University collabora- child. “Women’s nutrition affects their levels of female farmers to those of male tors has established the link between energy levels and their ability to breastfeed farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa could women’s status and child nutrition. “We’ve and carry out essential child care,”Smith increase yields as much as 22 percent. In actually been able to show that the low says.“Care for women, including prenatal Ivory Coast, John Hoddinott of Dalhousie status of women in many Asian countries and birthing care, is an important pathway University and Lawrence Haddad find that affects babies,”Smith says. She is careful to through which women’s status affects child increasing women’s share of cash income distinguish between women’s health, an nutrition.” in the household significantly raises the important factor in child survival, and share of the household budget allocated women’s status,“which refers to women’s Women’s status also affects child nutrition to food and reduces the share spent on power relative to men, in the households, through the quality of a mother’s care for alcohol and cigarettes. communities, and nations in which they her children.“Although women with lower live. Power is the ability to make choices for status tend to breastfeed more, the food “The empowerment of women tends to oneself and one’s family,”she says.“When they give their children is of lower quality; reduce child neglect and mortality,cut women’s power relative to men is low,they the timing and frequency of feedings is not down fertility and overcrowding, and have less control of their own time and what’s needed for optimal child develop- broaden social concerns. . . ,”according to household income; their time constraints are ment; and the health-seeking practices on Amartya Sen. IFPRI studies support this tighter and they lack social supports; their behalf of children are curtailed,”Smith view and constitute a strong argument that knowledge and beliefs are limited due to less says.“If a woman can’t leave the house, she improving women’s status and education is exposure to education and information; can’t immunize or get medical care for necessary to attain and maintain food secu- their mental health, confidence, and self- her children.” rity and other development objectives. The esteem suffer; their autonomy and freedom human rights of women cannot wait until of movement may be severely circum- It isn’t enough to care for children, impor- other economic milestones or development scribed; and their access to female-specific tant as that is. Women must be cared for goals have been met. Rather, study after health services may be inadequate.” too. Smith’s research concludes that in study confirms what should be obvious: regions where women’s status is low,the guaranteeing women’s human rights is cru- The researchers constructed an index of impacts of programs to improve care prac- cial for development and a pathway to eco- women’s decisionmaking power relative to tices for children, such as child feeding, nomic prosperity. their husbands’, including household-level would be more sustainable when combined data on whether the woman works for with efforts to improve women’s status.

5 IFPRI PERSPECTIVES Hungry for Learning: NEW PUBLICATIONS Food for Education Programs

Six Billion and inking food and education could help their children to school and to reduce food Counting: Population reduce poverty,food insecurity,and shortages within the household.An FFE pro- Growth and Food Lgender injustice in Afghanistan, espe- gram that combines these elements can be a Security in the 21st cially during the transition from emergency powerful tool to create opportunities for fam- Century, by Klaus M. relief to development assistance.“For the very ilies to educate their children and to offer Leisinger, Karin M. poor, food is a powerful motivator,”says incentives for keeping children in school.“An Schmitt, and Rajul Akhter Ahmed, a senior research fellow in the FFE program that combines school feeding Pandya-Lorch. Distri- Food Consumption and Nutrition Division, and free food to families accomplishes three buted for IFPRI by the who helped design, monitor, and assess things,”Ahmed says.“It attracts children to Johns Hopkins Univer- Bangladesh’s successful Food for Education school, helps children learn by eliminating sity Press (JHUP). (FFE) program.“We have found that making short-term hunger while they are in the class- 2002 / 155 pages school attendance a condition of receiving room, and reduces chronic hunger and mal- Governance and Food Security in desperately needed food is a formula that nutrition for the whole family.” an Age of Globalization, by Robert works on many levels.”FFE programs support For the past eight years, IFPRI (with USAID Paarlberg. 2020 Vision Discussion Paper 36. education, which is widely recognized as crit- 2002 / 58 pages ical to sustainable poverty reduction. But FFE funding) has been working with the Govern- also aims to benefit children and families in ment of Bangladesh to design, implement, and Methods for Rural Development more immediate ways.The situation in monitor the world’s first food for schooling Projects, edited by John Hoddinott. First Afghanistan is dire. Almost three-quarters of program. IFPRI’s recent evaluation revealed volume in the Food Security in Practice the population is malnourished; many people that the program increased primary school technical guide series. are starving. Child participation in education enrollment, encouraged regular attendance, 2001 / 118 pages is extremely low,with the highest gender gap and reduced drop-out rates. Girls’ enrollment Attacking the Double Burden of in the world. Less than one-third of Afghan increased more than boys’. Calorie and pro- Malnutrition in Asia and the Pacific,by children are enrolled in primary school. tein consumption in the beneficiary house- Stuart Gillespie and Lawrence Haddad. In About 38 percent of Afghan boys attend holds rose significantly. collaboration with the Asian school, but only 3 percent of girls are in the Development Bank. classroom. Half of adult males and 80 percent “Based on our work in Bangladesh, I believe 2001 / 180 pages of adult females are illiterate. an FFE program in Afghanistan should com- bine food for schooling and school feeding,” FFE boosts children’s educational levels by Ahmed says. “In tailoring such a program for increasing school enrollment, promoting Afghanistan, we would have to assess and address the current educational attainment of Bangladesh— attendance, and reducing dropout rates. At children, with a focus on the gender gap; Rolling up Our the same time, distributing staple foods to insure high-quality content and instruction; Sleeves: Research on families in return for their children’s school the Front Lines attendance improves household food security. design a program that aggressively targets 2002 / 8 pages “FFE increases girls’ enrollment significantly. girls; strive for cost-effectiveness; and Educating today’s girls will empower future strengthen local institutions to run the pro- generations of Afghan women,”Ahmed gram efficiently.” emphasizes. Currently,FFE programs target The need is urgent. In February 2002, the Mexico—PROGRESA: Breaking the mostly primary school children.“But special International Federation of the Red Cross Cycle of Poverty components can be designed to serve Afghan and Red Crescent reported that “girls as 2002 / 8 pages adolescents who lost years of education under young as 10 are being offered for marriage in Taliban rule,”Ahmed says. Impact Evaluation:Assessing the exchange for bags of flour in a desperate Impact of Policy-Oriented Social struggle for survival in parts of Herat and FFE programs have two basic elements: Science Research Farah provinces in western Afghanistan.” Children eat in school (school feeding) or 2002 / 4 pages Afghanistan needs help to transform the prac- poor families receive food when they send tice of “girls for food” into “food for girls’ their children to school rather than to work DOWNLOAD or order most IFPRI education.” An extensive, well-functioning (food for schooling).While both approaches publications free at www.ifpri.org or contact FFE program could do just that. Publication Services by telephone, fax or use food to enhance the educational attain- e-mail. To order IFPRI books published or ment of children, school feeding’s primary See IFPRI Perspectives, 4th quarter 2001, for a distributed by JHUP: tel:800-537-5487; fax: objective is to provide meals in order to description of Mexico’s PROGRESA program, a 410-516-6998; email: [email protected]; increase children’s learning capability in the social safety net and educational incentive package and web:www.press.jhu.edu/press/books. classroom. In contrast, food for schooling’s that gives cash payments directly to mothers in return for their children’s regular school attendance and main goals are to motivate families to send required healthcare visits. 6