USAID/Bangladesh -- project assistance completion report (PACR)[: Bangladesh food policy sub-project (BFPP)]

The subproject was known as the Bangladesh Food Policy Project (BFPP). BFPP was successful on several counts. It supported policy changes in the food sector that have increased real income and nutrient intake, which in turn reduced the poverty of all net foodgrain buyers (rural poor, urban poor, and middle class) -- who altogether make up 85% of Bangladesh's 115 million people. Approximately $100 million in savings per year have already resulted from policy reforms enacted by the Bangladeshi government (BDG), to which the BFPP contributed significantly. The BDG's current policy of maintaining a lower security stock level, as recommended by BFPP, is likely to generate additional savings starting this year, which will allow the Ministry of Finance to allocate more resources for other development activities. The BDG has been promoting education for children of poor households through the Food for Education (FFE) program, as suggested by the BFPP. In total, 700,000 of Bangladesh's 1.48 million primary school students are covered by the FFE, which is planned to cover up to 1 million students in 1995. This program has increased primary school enrollment and attendance for girls and boys by 28.1% and 14.3% respectively, and has reduced the drop out rate by 8%. Improvement in child nutrition is also expected from FFE, but has not yet been evaluated. Other targeted assistance programs recommended by BFPP (e.g., Cash for Work) are being considered by the BDG. In addition to the above: (1) the technical and analytic capacities of 6 local institutions were strengthened through local and overseas training, study tours, and by working with the contractor in collaborative research and rapid appraisal training; (2) the share of nontargeted food distribution channels in the annual Public Food Distribution System was reduced from 43% to 32%; (3) targets for public procurement and sales through open tendering were partially achieved; and (4) the BDG has created a fully equipped food situation room which provides market information daily to the public and private sectors and produces a monthly food situation report containing production, market, price, and stock information. Lessons learned are as follows. (1) Solid policy-oriented research on program impacts can be an effective tool for stimulating policy reforms in Bangladesh, when policy results are presented in a timely and effective way. (2) Project results show that the private sector can and will step in to fill the void when the BDG withdraws from activities easily performable by the private sector. (3) Effective policy research takes time and must be built on a solid empirical base. The final 2 years of effective dialogue, reporting, and impact were in part the result the first 3 years of food policy data collection.