10 takeaways from the UN’s school meals analysis
A groundbreaking analysis of school meals across the world offers guidance to governments and development agencies on how to design and implement large-scale sustainable programmes.
The World Food Programme (WFP), along with the Imperial College London’s Partnership for Child Development and the World Bank, analysed individual programmes from 14 countries then compared the case studies to identify good practices and lessons learned.
Authors of The Global School Feeding Sourcebook: Lessons from 14 Countries focused on Botswana, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa, selected to provide diversity in geography, approach and development.
Here are 10 things they found out:
1. Schools meals are fed to a fifth of the world’s children
Some form of school meals are implemented in almost every country in the world, involving 368 million children. This means one out of every five children on the planet. Programmes therefore have great potential to impact children’s health, local communities and countries’ futures.
2. School meals benefit a child’s education, but lots of other things too
The primary outcome of successful school meals programmes was found to be an improvement in education, through increased enrolment, greater gender equality and better attendance and learning.
But school meals also contribute to health and nutrition, both through short-term benefits, such as the micronutrient fortification of school food in Ghana, as well as through longer-term gains such as helping children avoid obesity by learning to make healthier choices in Chile.
As well as providing direct benefits to school children themselves, programmes can have a spill-over effect and benefit others such as younger siblings and out-of-school children.
3. There is no ‘one size fits all’ for a successful programme
The researchers analysed an immense diversity of approaches used by national programmes and found that context is key, with different approaches being suited to different country situations. For example, half of countries provide meals to all children while the other half provide them just to the neediest communities. While there is no one “best” model, there are many common good practices across the programmes.
4. Community involvement is key to success
The strongest and most sustainable programmes are those that respond to community needs, are locally owned, and incorporate some form of parental or community contribution, such as cash payments or donations of food or labour.
But coordination is important: programmes in Kenya and Brazil owe their success to the clear definition of the roles of the community and different sectors. The successful participation of the community in Chile and India is thanks to the detailed guidelines that help define the communities’ roles.
5. Programmes are fluid and dynamic
The case studies showed that programmes can change rapidly and dramatically as they evolve over time. This means that they benefit from ongoing learning and adaptation. Countries should monitor their programmes in real time and provide feedback that can lead to evidence-based changes in policy.
6. Local sourcing of food also benefits rural economies
Connecting programmes with local food production provides an important opportunity to increase the effectiveness of programmes as it benefits rural economies and potentially improves the nutritional quality of the food, according to the authors. It can support groups not traditionally reached with school meals, such as local farmers, and is extremely popular with governments.
7. Successful programmes have clear objectives
Comparisons of the case studies show that clearly defining objectives helps to guide countries as they make decisions about the design and nature of their programmes.
8. The private sector is a growing area of financial support
While in most countries funds for food purchase are provided by the central government, not all funding is public. Partnerships with the private sector are an emergent source of financial support. Researchers found however a strong political will to continue to finance school meals through national funds.
9. More evaluation is needed
Authors were surprised to find a lack of information on the effects of school meals. Despite the number of programmes around the world, few evaluations have been undertaken about their impact on smallholder farmers, local development, eating habits, and food quality and safety. This is a lost opportunity for improving programme effectiveness.
10. The global network offers great untapped potential for mutual learning
A clear message that emerged from the case studies was the existence of a richness of expertise across countries. This provides a great opportunity for mutual learning and sharing of information. This learning has already begun to take place through regional networks and informational meetings and workshops, but there is potential for much more.
Find out more about WFP’s School Meals Programmes.
Article first published on 21 June 2016.
