Since 2001, the education sector in Afghanistan has become considerably more structured. Different reforms have been put in place to improve teaching conditions and give young Afghans access to primary and secondary education. The schooling of girls remains a problem with only 40% attending school, compared to 70% for boys. In certain regions, and particularly the south of the country, the percentage of girls who go to school is below 10%. Several programmes implemented by NGOs and UN agencies aim to increase the percentage of children in education, and particularly the percentage of girls.

For several years, the WFP has been running a programme called “Assistance to Girls' Primary Education” in provinces where food insecurity prevails. In the Kabul zone (regions in the center and south-east of the country), vegetable oil is distributed to girls who go to school more than 22 days per month in order to encourage families to send them regularly.

The WFP asked Groupe URD to carry out an evaluation in three provinces (Pakta, Parwan and Dai Kundi), in order to evaluate the impacts of this programme and to make proposals to improve its quality. Interviews with families who send their girls to school and with others who don't made it possible to analyse the different factors which prevent or hold back girls from going to school. The conclusions of this research are not available to the general public for the time being.