Educational and health impacts of two school feeding schemes

This brief summarizes the results of a impact evaluation study, entitled Educational and health impacts of two school feeding schemes, conducted between 2006 and 2007 in Burkina Faso. The study observed the impact of two school feeding schemes on health and education outcomes for children from low-income households in northern rural Burkina Faso on the student level. Among children between 6 and 15 years, new enrollment increased by 6.2 percent overall and by 5.6 percent for girls in villages which were randomly selected to receive take home rations (THR). New enrollment for girls increased by 5 percent in villages that received school meals. While both interventions were successful in increasing new enrollment, the impact is confined to younger children. There is no evidence that THR targeting girls crowds out boys registration. There was a significant gain in test scores for girls in school meals villages and these gains are confined to older girls in school meals villages (13 to 15 years old). There was no significant impact overall on boys, but there was a negative and statistically significant effect on older boys in the school meals villages. There was no discernible impact on cognitive outcomes. Overall, results suggest the program had no impact on boys' attendance and leads to relatively lower attendance among girls. Overall, the interventions did not eliminate child labor, but instead altered the allocation of child labor (especially among girls) away from productive activities and more toward domestic activities which the children may be more able to combine with school activities. For children between 6 and 60 months who were not in school, THR have increased weight-for-height by 0.33 standard deviations and weight-for-age by 0.38 standard deviations. Overall, both programs improved enrollment with THR having positive spillovers onto younger children, and results also suggest that food redistribution within the household tend to favor boys over girls. Funding for the study derived from the Spanish Impact Evaluation Fund.