Representatives from UN agencies, governments and NGOs came together to discuss good practices and challenges at the 46th Committee on World Food Security (CFS)
One in three people in the world is malnourished. And this could soon change to one in two people if we continue with business as usual, with negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of populations. Given the steep rise in the double burden of malnutrition among school-aged children (the coexistence of overweight and obesity alongside undernutrition), schools represent an important entry point for better nutrition. School feeding programmes offer a great opportunity to transform food systems, by helping to establish healthy eating habits among children and fostering sustainable food chains.
Historically, school feeding programmes have been looked at with scepticism and considered social transfers with no long-term impacts for many years. Nonetheless, examples seen in places such as Brazil, Senegal and Honduras prove, in fact, that these are very future-oriented programmes. Nutrition-sensitive school feeding programmes are an investment in children, their families, their communities and their nations. Also, school-based interventions help to maximize the potential of other nutrition investments made during the first 1,000 days of life. They have also been found essential to foster human capital development throughout the first 8,000 days of a child’s life.
These findings were recently presented at a side event as part of the 46th Committee on World Food Security (CFS), which took place in Rome, Italy, last October. The session called “Investing in schools for a sustainable nutrition impact: Using schools to transform food systems and promote double duty actions for improved nutrition” was co-organised by the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger (WFP Brazil) in partnership with the Brazilian National Education Development Fund (FNDE) and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), along with the UN Network and UNSCN (United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition).
The event’s focus was on presenting practical examples of how different countries have implemented school feeding programmes and what innovations they have applied to make these programmes nutrition-sensitive. These examples highlight school feeding programmes’ potential to promote healthier diets and better nutrition among school-aged children and their families. They also showcase how these types of programmes have transcended from anecdotal evidence and went from being considered a variant of social transfer to being proven to foster child development and the prosperity of nations.
Country experiences
The Brazilian National School Feeding Programme (PNAE) is run by the National Education Development Fund (FNDE) and has proven itself as a significant source of good practices in the area. In 2018, FNDE launched a toolkit aimed at improving transparency, participation and monitoring of school feeding provision in Brazil. Among these tools, one of the most innovative is e-PNAE – an app that allows parents, students, teachers, nutritionists, school feeding counsellors and community members to follow and evaluate the quality of school meals offered in all public schools in the country. Alongside this app, the government has also developed a tool called “Monitoring PNAE”, which aims to standardize monitoring of the programme across Brazil.
Another experience in school feeding management in Latin America stands out. The Mancomunidades in Honduras are public, associative entities made up of groups of municipalities. Since 2016, they have been implementing the National School Feeding Programme in Honduras in partnership with the World Food Programme. Other than enhancing management and implementation of school feeding in Honduras, this associative structure fosters integral community development, by working with smallholder farmers to meet the demand for fresh food in schools. The Mancomunidades have been awarded the status of model initiative by FAO.
In Senegal, an innovative app called Nutrifami was recently introduced with support from WFP. The app targets school directors and cooks and includes illustrations and guidance on storage, hygiene and nutrition. One of the most interesting features of this tool is the use of audio recordings in Wolof (which makes it accessible for illiterate users).
By exploring these examples of good practices in improving nutrition standards through school feeding, this side-event fostered south-south exchanges, while feeding into the development of the CFS Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition. The later has been done by highlighting coherent policies and actions where schools have been an entry point for food system transformation.
Conditions for success
Participants in this session pointed out that school feeding programmes can only achieve long-term impacts though: smart programme design, that tackles interrelated nutrition issues; secured and continuous financing, that guarantees programme maintenance and scale up; as well as actions that promote community ownership, that are tailored to local food culture. Finally, for school feeding results to be sustained, it is imperative that policy makers take on a life cycle approach to child development that looks beyond their first 1,000 days of life.
Other factors to be considered in successfully implementing school feeding programmes are: promoting multi-sectoral coordination within governments and with external partners; implementing nutrition education at all school levels; training and building capacity of governments; creating strong legal and policy frameworks; building efficient monitoring systems; and benchmarking with international experiences through south-south cooperation.
About CFS
The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is an intergovernmental platform for all stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all. The Committee reports to the UN General Assembly through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and to FAO Conference.
Each year, over one hundred stakeholders meet at FAO headquarters in Rome for a whole week of learning through plenary sessions and side events. Last year’s theme was “Accelerating the progress on SDG 2 to achieve all the SDGs.” The event highlighted the eradication of hunger as indispensable for the promotion of sustainable development worldwide, with discussions focused on issues related to the double burden of nutrition, food waste and food programme innovations.
