The World Food Programme (WFP) in a bid to strengthen the capacities of Government to takeover the Food For Education (FFE) project and reduce hunger, recently conducted a countrywide 22-day training of head teachers, cooks, students, community  members and cluster monitors in 335 schools countrywide.

The training, which was aimed at enhancing the capacity of stakeholders for effective management of the Food for Education project was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Basic & Secondary Education (MoBSE). It was geared towards ensuring that school meals are more effectively managed and accounted for through the compliance and application of basic principles relating to effective project management and took place from 16th February to 19th March 2010.

The training modules addressed key issues such as agreeing on roles, responsibilities and composition of the Food Management Committees (FMCs); improving the knowledge and skills in food management and developing action plans among others. Various methodologies were used in ensuring that key messages were understood by the participants such as group work, role plays, brainstorming and experience sharing.

The training forms part of numerous capacity initiatives by WFP.  It follows the training of school committee members on nutrition & hygiene education backed by cooking demonstrations in all WFP-targeted schools in 2009 and how to ensure effective school gardens in 20 of such schools in March 2010. Other initiative include deworming of school children.

This training is also expected to assist the stakeholders to adopt techniques and attitudes that will promote the School Feeding Programme in their day-to-day activities, management and reporting. It is also intended for the participants to replicate the training or use as reference for head teachers and other food managers and to also put the concepts and skills into practice themselves.