School meals can change the world

Statement

Lilian Dodzo, Regional Leader and Vice President, World Vision East Africa Region

9th Africa Day of School Feeding 

Investing in Home Grown School Feeding
to Transform Education Systems for an Inclusive and Prosperous Future in the African Continent

1 March 2024

World Vision is grateful to the African Union for selecting the theme, Investing in Home Grown School Feeding to Transform Education Systems for an Inclusive and Prosperous Future in the African Continent, for the 9th African Day of School Feeding, in Burundi.

On 21 February 2024, World Vision East, West and Southern Africa launched the ENOUGH Campaign to end child hunger and malnutrition in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  The vision is, A world where every child enjoys enough nourishing food and thrives.  The global scale of child hunger and malnutrition is astounding.  Nearly 148.1 million children under 5 are affected by stunting globally.  Unfortunately, 30% or 44.4 million are in Africa.

Furthermore, globally 45 million children under 5 are affected by wasting.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of wasting of children under 5 years was 5.7 % in 2022, while under 5 mortality rates were 73 deaths per 1,000 live births approximately 3 million in 2021.

One of the expected results of the ENOUGH Campaign is more children are reached by school meal programmes providing nutritional food sourced ethically, sustainably and as local as possible. 

School meal programmes have become the world’s most extensive safety net, and present a powerful opportunity to transform the lives of children and their families affected by the food crisis. Every US$ 1 invested in school meals yields US$9 in economic returns, according to WFP in 2023.

School meals go beyond addressing hunger and serve as a holistic approach to breaking down barriers to education, the African Union theme in 2024. We recognize that hunger can be a significant obstacle to learning, hindering a child’s ability to concentrate and participate fully in the classroom. With a positive impact on attendance rates, academic performance and completion, school meals are a catalyst for breaking the cycle of poverty through education and impacting children’s education outcomes. 

In one of the Area Programmes supported by WV Burundi, a girl Emelyne says, “It is really hard to concentrate if you don’t have lunch at school. I’m likely not to get lunch at home and I worry that I could drop out. As we have lunch at school, I feel at ease while learning.” Emelyne is among the 418 million children globally who received school meals in 2022.

In Rwanda, with funding from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), World Vision partners with World Food Programme (WFP), Gardens for Health International (GHI), and the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) to implement the Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme. It aims to reach 117,093 students between March 2021 - September 2025. World Vision provides a suite of complementary literacy; water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); and Citizen Voice and Action interventions to the school meal project.

“School meals are beneficial for the physical, mental and psychosocial development of school-age children. They provide a platform to integrate a number of sectors namely Education, Health, Nutrition, Child Protection, WASH and even Livelihoods,” states Paul Kinuthia, Acting Senior Director Technical Resources, Food Security and Livelihoods, World Vision International.

 “Students that had dropped out of school re-enrolled this year because of the school meals programme. The school did not only increase enrolment but also improved the primary to secondary school graduation pass rate from 78.9% in 2020 to 92.8% in 2022,” said Mr. Nasor. He is the headteacher of Jabal Mara Mixed Basic School, a beneficiary of the school meal programme implemented by World Vision Sudan and the UN World Food Programme.

We appreciate and commend Governments in Eastern Africa that have made national commitments in the School Meals Coalition namely Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia and South Sudan.  We encourage other Governments to commit, implement and scale up their school meals programmes.

 We encourage governments to improve the quality and efficiency of school meal programmes to meet children’s nutritional requirements, especially through home-grown, climate smart, and sustainable solutions. 

 School meals can change the world. Good quality school meals give children in Eastern Africa a balanced diet, encouraging girls to stay in school, keeping them safe from early marriage and violence. School meals are a safety net for families who struggle to provide the nutrition their children need. 

We say ENOUGH – no child will suffer from hunger if we act NOW.