International School Feeding
USDA's Oversight of the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program Needs Improvement. Report to Congressional Requesters. GAO-11-544
Description:... The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (MGD Program) provides donations of U.S. agricultural products and financial and technical assistance for school feeding programs in the developing world. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), with about $200 million in funding in fiscal year 2010, the MGD Program served about 5 million beneficiaries in 28 countries. In 2006 and 2007, USDA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audited the department's food aid programs and identified significant weaknesses. This report examines (1) USDA's oversight of the MGD Program and (2) the extent to which USDA has addressed the program's internal control weaknesses. GAO conducted field work in Cambodia, Guatemala, and Kenya; reviewed USDA and implementing partners' documents and studies on school feeding; and interviewed officials from U.S. agencies and various organizations. GAO recommends that the Secretary of Agriculture improve oversight of the MGD Program, including issuing monitoring and evaluation guidance for implementing partners, and formalize policies and procedures for closing out grant agreements and establishing guidance to determine when agreements should be closed. USDA agreed with GAO's recommendations and said that it will take steps to address them. Appendices include: (1) Objective, Scope, and Methodology; (2) GAO Analysis of Selected Studies on School Feeding Programs; (3) Operation of the MGD Program; (4) MGD Program Funding by Year, Country, and Region; (5) Methods NGOs Planned to Use to Select MGD Program Beneficiaries; (6) MGD Program's Planned Complementary Activities in Agreements with Implementing Partners; (7) MGD Program's Performance Indicators in NGOs Agreements and WFP Proposals; (8) Comments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and (9) GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments. (Contains 11 tables, 9 figures and 48 footnotes.).
Show description