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FACT SHEET: President Clinton Announces New Steps to Improve Nutrition and Education for Children in Developing Countries

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 PRESIDENT CLINTON ANNOUNCES NEW STEPS TO IMPROVE  NUTRITION AND EDUCATION
                   FOR CHILDREN IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
                             December 28, 2000

Today, President Clinton will announce $300 million in implementation
grants for the Global Food for Education Initiative (GFEI), a pilot program
to promote better nutrition and school enrollment for needy children in
poor countries.  The GFEI program grants will allow approximately 9 million
children to receive a regular meal or a take-home ration at school.  The
food will be distributed through the United Nations' World Food Program and
private voluntary organizations, including Catholic Relief Services and
CARE, and in all, the grants will support 49 projects in 38 countries.  The
GFEI received strong support from Ambassador George McGovern and former
Senator Bob Dole, who will both join President Clinton for the
announcement. The President will note that Senator Dole and Ambassador
McGovern have been the two greatest proponents of an international school
lunch program building on their experience as strong advocates of the U.S.
school lunch program during their service in the U.S. Senate.  The new
program, which will encourage improved enrollment in schools in developing
countries as well as better nutrition, is part of a continuing effort to
achieve the Education for All goals of the Dakar World Education Forum held
in April of 2000.  Universal access to basic education, along with debt
relief, AIDS funding, and other initiatives, has been an important part of
the Administration?s development agenda.

THE GLOBAL FOOD FOR EDUCATION INITIATIVE (GFEI)  At the July 2000 G-8
Summit in Okinawa, the President announced that the United States would
commit resources worth $300 million to establish school feeding programs in
developing countries, particularly those countries that have made
commitments to providing universal education for their children. Currently,
an estimated 120 million children do not enroll in school in part because
of hunger or malnourishment.  The initiative announced today is a pilot
program administered by the Department of Agriculture (USDA), with
technical assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID).  Under the program, USDA will provide surplus commodities and
funds to cover transportation and distribution of the commodities to the
World Food Program (WFP) and 14 private voluntary organizations for use in
school feeding programs.  USDA and USAID will also provide administrative
and technical assistance as well as project
monitoring and evaluation.  The recipients of the school feeding grants
were selected using a set
of criteria that included need, contribution of resources by the host
government, technical feasibility, and a commitment to the Dakar Forum?s
Education for All goals.  Additionally, each program was examined to insure
that the donations would have a benign effect on local markets and would
not disrupt commercial sales opportunities.

SCOPE OF THE GFEI  The Global Food for Education Initiative will deliver
over 680,000 metric tons of food to support 49 separate programs in 38
countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe.
Approximately 9 million needy children will be reached by the program.
Among the organizations that will be implementing the program are the World
Food Program, Catholic Relief Services, CARE, Africare, and Save The
Children. Examples of projects receiving grants are:
?    In Eritrea a joint program by Africare and Mercy Corps International
will provide in-school feeding of high-protein biscuits and milk throughout
the school year for approximately 65,000 students in 170 Eritrean schools.
?    In Bangladesh and Vietnam, Land O?Lakes, Inc. in partnership with
Tetra Pak will provide milk packages and fortified biscuits to over
1,000,000 school children.
?    In Guatemala, Catholic Relief Services and World Share will use
proceeds from the sale of U.S. commodities to purchase locally grown food
and garden inputs for school feeding and take-home rations for more than
26,000 children.

EXPANDING ACCESS TO EDUCATION:  A RECORD OF ACCOMPLISHMENT  Today?s
announcement builds upon the Clinton Administration?s record of
accomplishment to broaden access to basic education in the poorest
countries.  President Clinton strongly endorsed the international Education
for All goals adopted in Dakar, Senegal in April 2000 and has spearheaded
an effort to accelerate their implementation.  Key steps include:
?    A new $37 million Department of Labor School Works program to
strengthen educational systems in developing countries, targeted to areas
where abusive child labor is prevalent;
?    $155 million -- an increase of more than 50% over FY 2000 --  for
international basic education programs, including $118 million for USAID;
$45 million for the International Program to Eliminate Child Labor (IPEC)
of the ILO -- a 50% increase over last year and more than 10-fold higher
than the FY 98 level;
?    Successfully mobilizing the G-8 to endorse the Dakar Education for All
goals at the Okinawa Summit;
?    Working together with the World Bank to increase Bank lending for
basic education by 50% -- a $1 billion increase or doubling of the Bank?s
lending for this purpose.

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