The Impact of a Food For Education Program on Schooling in Cambodia

Food for education (FFE) programs, which consist of meals served in school and in some cases take-home rations and deworming programs conditional on school attendance, are considered a powerful tool to improve educational out- comes, particularly in areas where school participation is initially low. Com- pared to other programs, such as conditional cash transfers and scholarships, school meals may provide a stronger incentive to attend school because chil- dren must be in school in order to receive the rations, and have the potential to improve nutritional and general health status as well. In this paper, we nd that the Cambodia FFE, that was implemented in six Cambodian regions be- tween 1999 and 2003, increased enrollment, school attendance and completed education. We also ask who bene ted the most, and how cost-eective such a program is compared to other types of interventions.