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  See Also

  Refugees and the Displaced

  Soaring Food Prices Mean Less Education for Poor

  Author:	Gene B. Sperling, Senior Fellow for Economic Policy and Director of the Center for Universal Education

  May 1, 2008
  Bloomberg.com

  Rising food prices have led to deadly riots in fledging democracies such as Haiti and caused World Bank President Robert Zoellick to project that 100 million more people will fall into poverty.

  Among the casualties of the food crisis will be the schooling of millions of the world’s poorest children. The connection is as simple as a school lunch. Ensuring that children get a free meal at school not only is a powerful tool for combating malnutrition for 350 million hungry kids, it is also one of the best education strategies.

  Studies have shown that children who are fed at school have increased concentration, stronger short-term memory, increased verbal fluency and improved cognition.

  An International Food Policy Research Institute evaluation of Bangladesh in 2003 found that overall achievement test scores in schools with feeding programs rose 15.7 percent, with a 28 percent increase in mathematics scores. A 1989 Jamaican study found that providing breakfast to primary-school pupils significantly increased both attendance and arithmetic scores, with children who were stunted or previously malnourished benefiting the most.

  Beyond improved learning, school feeding can also work as an incentive to get extremely poor parents to enroll many of the 72 million children and 226 million teens who aren’t attending school in developing countries. Each year in school may lead to a wage increase of 10 percent or more when a child enters the workforce.

  View full text of article

• 

  New CFR Books

  

  In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.

  

  America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.

  

  In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.

  Complete list of CFR Books.

  

  

  Task Force Reports

  U.S.-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality

  This report identifies four emerging issues—poverty and inequality, public security, human mobility, and energy security—that represent fundamental challenges and opportunities for Latin America and for U.S. policy toward it.

  U.S.-China Relations: An Affirmative Agenda, A Responsible Course

  This report takes stock of the changes under way in China and what they mean for China and for U.S.-China relations.

  About Independent Task Forces at the Council.

  

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