Former US Senators receive 2008 World Food Prize
In recognition of their life-long efforts to eliminate hunger among children, two former US Senators Robert Dole and George McGovern have been awarded this year’s World Food Prize. They have helped provide meals to 22 million children in 41 countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Des Moines, Iowa: For their international school feeding programme and lifelong devotion to food security, former US Senators Robert Dole and George McGovern have been selected to receive the prestigious $250,000 World Food Prize for 2008.
- Robert Dole and George McGovern / Photo credit: ENS
Announcing the award in a statement on June 13, the World Food Prize said: "By exerting tireless and creative leadership, Senators McGovern and Dole took significant steps towards ending the cycle of hunger and poverty that affects as many as 300 million chronically malnourished children."
The Senators are being honoured for the McGovern-Dole international school-feeding programme, first established in 2000. Since then, it has provided meals to feed children and boosted school attendance by an estimated 14% overall and by 17% for girls."
The senators are being honoured for the McGovern-Dole international school-feeding programme, first established by the United States in 2000. Since then, it has provided meals to feed children and boosted school attendance by an estimated 14% overall and by 17% for girls."
Throughout their careers, Senator McGovern, a South Dakota Democrat, and Senator Dole, a Kansas Republican, have dedicated themselves to the elimination of hunger.
In the 1970s, as leaders of opposing parties, they worked together to reform the federal Food Stamp Programme, expand the domestic school lunch programme, and establish the Special Supplemental Food Programme for women, infants, and children (WIC).
Building a non-partisan consensus
They built a non-partisan consensus for anti-hunger and anti-poverty programmes. By the early 21st century, the national school lunch programme they fostered was providing meals to 30 million children.
In the late 1990s, McGovern and Dole began working towards reviving and strengthening global school feeding, nutrition, and education programmes.
They created a programme that would provide poor children with meals at school in countries throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.
President Bill Clinton supported the senators’ initiative and, in July 2000, his administration established a two-year pilot programme, the Global Food for Education Initiative, GFEI, funded at $300 million.
The US Department of Agriculture administered the programme, which initially provided nutritious meals for children in 38 countries. It submitted its final report in December 2004.
Under the GFEI, the agricultural agency provided surplus commodities to school-feeding programmes operated by international organisations including the UN World Food Programme, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Mercy Corps, World Vision, Joint Aid Management, and the American Red Cross, as well as to the governments of countries that had made commitments to provide universal education.
With the support and urging of the two former senators, in 2002 Congress passed legislation establishing a permanent international school feeding programme.
In May of 2002, President George W. Bush officially signed into law the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Programme – more usually known as the McGovern-Dole Programme.
22 million children in 41 countries
Since it began as a pilot programme in 2000, the McGovern-Dole Programme has provided meals to 22 million children in 41 countries, including Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Ghana, Kyrgyztan, Liberia, Malawi, Moldova, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan and Vietnam.
When children are eating enough, they display improved cognition and better all-round academic performance; there are increases in local employment and parental involvement in school activities; and participation by local governments in supporting school-feeding efforts, the senators recognise.
On the other hand, hungry children have difficulty learning, and malnutrition often leads to permanently stunted physical and cognitive development.
Inspired by McGovern and Dole, school feeding programmes have gained recognition and support at the highest levels of national and international governance.
In 2002, the Group of Eight and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development listed school feeding as a specific intervention in their action plans for poverty alleviation.
In 2005, school feeding was highlighted in the UN Millennium Project’s 10 key recommendations for achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The European Union, Canada, and Japan are now among the major providers of resources to global school feeding programmes.
The McGovern-Dole Programme emphasises benefiting girls and young women and overcoming gender inequalities in literacy and access to education.
Traditionally, young girls in many developing countries are often kept out of school to work in the home performing child care, elder care, and other domestic chores, or are sent out to earn a living.
But when meals are available at school, girls and young women are much more likely to be allowed or encouraged to enroll. The World Food Prize cites studies in Mexico showing that school feeding programs there have led to girl students’ finishing school at higher rates, marrying later in life, and having fewer children.
Looking to the future, the McGovern-Dole Programme is moving towards increasing the amount of cash awarded while also implementing a new bartering system to diversify the commodities and foodstuffs that the programme provides.
