Funded by

World Food Program (WFP)

Since 2001, the education sector has become considerably more structured. Different reforms have been instigated to improve the teaching conditions and allow young Afghans to have access to primary and secondary education. However, school attendance by girls remains a problem. Only 40% of girls attend school compared to 70% of boys. In certain regions, particularly in the south, only 10% of girls attend school. Several programmes implemented by NGOs and United Nations agencies aim to increase the rate of school attendance in general and that of girls in particular.

For a number of years, the WFP has been running a programme called Assistance to Girl’s Primary Education in provinces where there is widespread food insecurity. In the central and south-eastern regions in the Kabul zone, cans of vegetable oil are distributed to girls who go to school for more than 22 days per month, in order to encourage their families to send them regularly.

The WFP asked Groupe URD to carry out the evaluation in three provinces (Paktya, Parwan and Dai Kundi), in order to evaluate the impacts of this programme and to make recommendations for ways of improving its quality. Interviews were conducted with families and with girls who did and girls who did not go to school. These made it possible to analyse the different factors preventing or limiting girls’ attendance.

Carried out by

Peggy Pascal

Coordinator in Afghanistan (2004-08)