By Crystal Nwakanma
A group of governments, multilateral development banks, UN agencies, and some of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations have announced plans to dramatically increase access to school meal programs. The initiative marks a significant move toward eradicating childhood hunger and improving access to education globally.
The school meals push aims at reaching 150 million children by 2030 in low-income and lowermiddle-income countries – more than double the number of children now receiving school meals in these countries. The proposed measures, which include national and international action on financing, coordination, and provision, would mark a big step towards a world in which every child in school receives at least one nutritious hot meal every day.
The push on school meals comes ahead of a G20 Leader’s Summit which will mark the launch of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty – an initiative led by the Brazilian presidency of the G20 aimed at accelerating progress towards the eradication of poverty and ‘zero hunger’. It represents a major boost to the efforts of the School Meals Coalition, a network of over 100 governments and over 130 partners committed to school meals programs.
The governments of Benin, Brazil, France, Germany, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Paraguay, Philippines, Sierra Leone and Tajikistan are leading the push to expand school meals provision. Among the measures announced.
Indonesia is launching its Free Nutritious Meal Program in January 2025, positioning it among the largest school meal initiatives globally, reaching around 82.9 million recipients including 78.3 million school children by 2029.
Sierra Leone and Benin have committed to achieve universal school meals provision
Nigeria, home to Africa’s largest school meals program, commits to double its reach from 10 to 20 million children, while also including children in displaced settings and involving local farmers
Kenya is aiming to expand its program, today offered in arid and semi-arid areas of the country, to reach 10 million school children by 2030 with a universal school meals program
Philippines is doubling its investment to massively expanding its school meals program from 120 days to a full academic year, alongside a pilot rollout for universal feeding, reaching over 3 million students and providing over 360 million meals
A full list of specific announcements by participants is provided at the end of this piece.
Announcing Indonesia’s major commitment, President Prabowo Subianto commented, “Providing nutritious meals for children and expectant mothers is a strategic priority. This is vital because our nation’s future rests on the well-being of our children, the children of Indonesia.”
The case for action. Evidence shows that these school meals programs can be effective in improving nutrition and health, improving education outcomes, alleviating poverty, and strengthening gender equality by limiting school dropout among girls. When tied to the procurement of food from local family farmers, these programs can also foster sustainable agricultural practices and support inclusive growth by creating stable markets for local producers.
“By supporting school meals programmes for children in low and lower middle-income countries, we can help to address a host of issues”, said Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, CEO of Novo Nordisk Foundation. “In addition to providing healthy and nutritious meals and improving children’s education and learning, homegrown school meals programmes may serve as catalytic platforms for strengthening local food systems and promoting sustainable agriculture, among other things”.
Despite school meals programmes´ multiple demonstrated benefits, many countries are struggling to reach more children because of financing constraints linked to slower growth, debt, and limited access to affordable development finance. Only one-in-five children in LICs currently receive school meals.
Alignment of finance and knowledge for greater impact. To help turn this tide, the participants in this announcement are putting forward a new, more structured way of working which would provide more consistent support to implementing governments by leveraging each others’ strengths.
Governments from Finland, France, Germany and Norway, as well as private philanthropies The Rockefeller Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), are working to expand funding for initial technical support which can be used to prepare and mobilize larger lending operations through multilateral development banks (MDBs) and seek access to concessional funds for these operations.
Planning for effective delivery will include action to embed financing in national government budgets, develop management and leadership, and build linkages with local and sustainable food systems to support local and smallholder farmers through home-grown school feeding to provide healthier, more nutritious meals to children. “Supporting governments to scale up sustainable school meals programs can deliver better learning and nutritious outcomes and opportunities for the next generation and more specifically for girls”, says France´s Secretary of State for International Partnerships, Thani Mohamed-Soilihi.
Cindy McCain, WFP´s Executive Director, said: “School meals programs are a game-changer in the fight against poverty, hunger and inequality. They open up access to education, champion local farmers and food systems, support climate resilience, create new jobs, and boost economic growth and prosperity. WFP will work closely with the School Meals Coalition, Global Alliance members, partner governments and frontline organizations as we go all-out to reach 150 million more of the world’s most vulnerable children – transforming their lives, their communities and our planet.”.
“The World Bank has fully signed up to be a partner of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty – and it will support that ambition through IDA 21. The Bank will work with governments and partners to accelerate progress towards the eradication of poverty and zero hunger. Working through a fully replenished IDA, the World Bank will seek to extend social protection to 500 million people by 2030, including the millions of children who are living with undernutrition and could be reached through school feeding”, said Akihiko Nishio, World Bank´s Vice President for Development Finance and Director of the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s concessional lending arm for lower income countries.
“By funding preparatory technical work and bringing unlikely allies together, philanthropies can help unlock the financing needed to scale school meals, ensure they reach the children who need them most, and drive demand for local, regenerative agriculture,” says Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation”. “The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty paves the way for major international public and private actors to make a concerted effort”, said Novo Nordisk Foundation´s Mads Krogsgaard Thompsen.
Throughout all these stages, relevant experience sharing and knowledge will be mobilized through the efforts of organizations such as WFP, FAO, UNIDO, and countries like Brazil, bringing together a number of existing programs and knowledge centers and enhancing synergies and impact. The School Meals Coalition and its initiatives will coordinate efforts to provide school meal-specific support to countries with assistance from the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty’s Support Mechanism.
Early action on many fronts. Today’s commitments form part of a series of “2030 Sprints”, a concentrated effort pushed by the Brazilian G20 Presidency to motivate early action and improved alignment from committed partners in the three pillars of the Global Alliance (national, knowledge, f inance) for six high-priority areas of its evidence-based “policy basket”, including school meals, cash transfers, socioeconomic inclusion programs, maternal and early childhood interventions and water access for vulnerable communities.– Read More on the broader 2030 Sprints Announcements here.
“The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty is demonstrating its capacity for early action and concrete results even before its formal launch, by bringing together political will from governments and consistent support from finance and knowledge organizations”, says Wellington Dias, Minister of Social Development and Assistance, Family, and Fight Against Hunger of Brazil. Dias is one of the coordinators of the G20 Task Force which, under the Brazilian Presidency, helped design and implement the Global Alliance. “But this is just the beginning. More governments and partners are welcome to join in this effort in the months to come, as we need more scale and reach to fulfill our vision. This is a sprint, but we are here for the long run”.
The 2030 Sprint for School Meals is being announced as part of the 2030 Sprints for the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, event held today, November 15, from 2 to 7pm at the auditorium in the Kobra Space in the G20 Social Summit in Rio, Plaza Mauá.