Governments and Partners Pledge To Double School Meals for Children in Hardest-Hit Countries by 2030

Announcements demonstrate early action in connection with a new Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty to be launched by the G20 Leader´s Summit in Rio this week

RIO DE JANEIRO | November 15, 2024 ― 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 lower-middle-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 meal 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 meal 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 programs for children in low and low-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 programs 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, finance) 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. The event is open to the press and a live transmission link can be found here: https://youtube.com/live/9jCw1ESr4b8?feature=share.

SPECIFIC ANNOUNCEMENTS AND QUOTES BY 2030 SPRINT PARTICIPANTS 

In addition to the above announcements, participants under the 2030 Sprint are today announcing the following actions to advance their collective aspirational goal of reaching at least an additional 150 million school children with national-scale school meals programs by 2030, and leading the path to a world in which every child in every school receives at least one nutritious hot meal per day:

Countries announced specific national ambitions regarding the implementation and development of school meals programs: 

• The Government of Benin: announces a target to expand coverage from 75 to 100% of the country´s public schools, while providing all schools with appropriate infrastructure for kitchens, and water access, and developing up to 100% local purchasing of food, supporting small farmers.

• The Government of Brazil: in its own school meals program, which already has universal reach, will expand sustainability concerns when purchasing from family farmers, including organic food, and broaden participation of women, indigenous groups, quilombola populations and other traditional communities in procurement. Additionally, through its ABC international cooperation agency and relevant Ministries, it will expand and establish new partnerships with FAO, IFAD, and WFP to organize at least 5 evaluation studies of country school meals programs per year until 2027, organize several onsite visit tours and online studies, host the School Meals Coalition Summit in 2025 in Brazil and support research and integrated actions related to school meals and family farming in LAC and Africa.

• The Government of Honduras: Will improve the quality of its school feeding program, currently supporting 1.3 million children, with a new policy to provide hot meals and kitchen installations by 2025 and incorporate support to Indigenous communities and local farmers, while implementing nutrition education and health centers.

• The Government of Indonesia: will launch the Program Makan Bergizi Gratis (MBG) — Free Nutritious Meal Program – in January 2025, positioning it among the largest school meal initiatives globally. The Makan Bergizi Gratis program is designed to deliver balanced nutrition to pregnant women, young children, students from early childhood through high school, and religious boarding students. By 2029, MBG aims to reach 82.9 million beneficiaries, including 78.3 million school children, supporting the development of a healthier, smarter generation and advancing Indonesia’s economic growth.

• The Government of Kenya: will expand its school meals 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, while introducing clean cooking technologies for nutritious hot meals.

• The Government of Nigeria: Will relaunch its Renewed Hope National Home Grown School Feeding Programme by November 2024, feeding 20 million children annually; launch school farms that will contribute 10% of food items to school feeding, engage 250,000 small holder farmers and aggregators in school feeding, and improve school attendance and reduce out of school children by 30% by 2026 and will deepen engagement with the private sector and explore innovative funding models to cover 30% of total programme costs by December 2026.

• The Government of Paraguay: By 2025 Paraguay will provide school meals to all the children population enrolled in schools from entry until 9th grade, or approximately 1 million children, while working to develop family agriculture and small enterprises in connection to the program.

• The Government of the Philippines: Will further bolster its recently expanded national School-based Feeding Program to provide at least 360 million meals to over 3 million students for an entire academic year. After doubling its investment in school meals to USD 200 million, the government now aims to eventually transition to universal feeding covering for kindergarten, establish Central Kitchens in its 218 school divisions, institutionalize home-grown school meals through localized procurement, increase by at least 25% the number of school vegetable gardens and farm schools, and reduce malnutrition among its beneficiaries by at least 50% in all elementary schools within 3 years as part of learner performance and well-being enhancement.

• The Government of Sierra Leone aims to expand coverage from 54% of students to universal coverage in 2030 while ensuring the provision of locally produced and processed nutritious and healthy school meals to all pupils enrolled in pre-primary and basic and junior secondary education. At the same time, Sierra Leone seeks extra support and funding to address limitations such as school network reach, enrollment, and transportation to reach children in poverty in rural areas and increase the nutritional value of the school meals provided to pupils.

• The Government of Tajikistan: will lead the transition from a WFP-managed school meals program to a fully nationally funded and managed program. Provided the required partnerships, Tajikistan will aim at reaching more than 50% of beneficiaries with hot meals by 2027, while renovating and expanding canteen infrastructure to reach 100% of schools, while establishing the formation of sustainable and long-term links between agricultural producers and school catering establishments.

Finance and knowledge partners announced the following measures to help these and other countries scale up school meal programs:

• WFP: As the world’s leading agency supporting governments on school meals, WFP plans to reach 27 million of the most vulnerable children with nutritious meals in over 80 countries in 2025. As the School Meals Coalition Secretariat, WFP will support the over 100 member governments of the Coalition to foster more sustainable and inclusive growth through school meals. This includes technical assistance to countries to reach the goal of providing 150 million more children with a daily meal in school by 2030. In addition, WFP, as the Secretariat of the Coalition, will coordinate school meal-specific support across the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty’s three pillars (national, financial, and knowledge) with support from its Support Mechanism.

•  WFP Center of Excellence in Brazil: will expand support from 15 to 35 countries in the next two years, focuses on strengthening government capacities, especially in Africa, applying Brazil’s experience in School Meal Programs

• Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) will establish the End School Age Hunger Fund (ESAH Fund) with the goal of catalyzing funding to support African countries in their ambition to achieve universal school feeding. ESAH Fund will be established with US$100 million, with the long-term ambition to attract other funders, scale sustainable school feeding programs. and reach more children across African countries.

‘‘This initiative is exciting in scale and comes at a time when country budgets have been decimated by debt, climate change is affecting food systems and child hunger is growing in Africa,’’ said CIFF’s CEO, Kate Hampton. “CIFF aims to ensure that children survive and thrive; accordingly, our partnership with AfDB is critical to accelerating universal school feeding, addressing hunger, and unlocking the potential of Africa’s children. We are excited to be part of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, and we will continue contributing to building a stronger ecosystem that will ensure school feeding is prioritized and sustained in the long term.’’

• The Government of Finland strongly supports the School Meals Programmes through supporting WFP as the School Meals Coalition Secretariat and through supporting school meal programs in selected countries. Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development will serve as a School Meals Coalition Champion and co-chair, advocating for school meals globally. Finland remains committed to advancing the Coalition’s objectives by co-leading the Coalition’s task force and coordinating strategic activities. The government pledges to adopt school meals procurement criteria that prioritize environmentally friendly cultivation, food safety, nutrition, animal welfare, and pupil involvement in planning and assessment. Finland offers technical expertise for countries developing school meal programs and facilitating support through a dedicated website.

• The Government of France: Through its French Food Assistance Programme and humanitarian aid, France will dedicate at least 15% of funding to school meal programs and will continue to work with WFP to develop partnerships aimed at scaling up such programs. France will host the Nutrition4 Growth summit in Paris on 27 –28 March 2025 and is committed to encouraging strong political and financial support from State and non-state actors on nutrition and will advocate for ambitious pledges including commitments prioritizing nutrition-sensitive school meals programs.

• The Government of Germany will expand engagement with WFP through the “Accelerating School Meals Program” in selected additional countries, continuing support to the School Meals Coalition and respective initiatives, focusing on improving access to nutritious food for schoolchildren, primarily through home-grown school feeding approaches.

• The Government of Norway: as a staunch supporter of school meals as a means for economic and social development, Norway will invest considerably in school meals programs through a variety of channels. Norway will cooperate with partner countries through The World Food Program, UN organizations, International Financial Institutions, NGOs and directly through bilateral programs to ensure healthy, nutritious school meals. Norway champions school meals as a platform to provide multiple benefits to school children, especially girls, and to improve the economic well-being of local actors, including smallholder farmers and solidify sustainable food systems.

• The Rockefeller Foundation and Novo Nordisk Foundation are working with a consortium of partners to co-develop an initiative to expand healthy, home, and regeneratively-grown school meals to 100 million more children in a planet-friendly and financially sustainable way by 2030.

• The Inter-American Development Bank:  The IADB will provide ― subject to the approval of its board ― an estimated USD 25 billion from 2025 to 2030 to support country-owned, country-led implementation of policies and programs included in the Global Alliance’s reference basket, including school meals programs, to accelerate progress against poverty and hunger and the achievement of SDGs. The IDB also commits that 50% of IDB newly approved projects will directly benefit the poor, especially women, people of African descent, and indigenous peoples ― those most affected by poverty. Also, 60% of newly approved projects by the IDB Lab will directly benefit poor and vulnerable populations. And the IDB will serve as a key financing hand to the Alliance through the reallocation of SDR to Multilateral Development Banks. It is collaborating with AfDB in seeking country contributors for the Special Drawing Rights (SDR)-denominated hybrid capital financing mechanism that would increase available financing for countries to implement policies from the Global Alliance reference basket. For every $1 billion equivalent of SDR channeled through the IDB, the IDB will generate approximately $7 billion in additional financing. This could result in an additional 10 million children receiving school meals.

• The World Bank Group commits to scaling up social protection programs, working alongside partners to support at least 500 million people in developing countries by 2030 ― aiming for half of those to be women and girls, including through its International Development Association (IDA). School meals programmes are an integral part of social protection supporting families and ensuring that children can learn without being hungry.

• FAO: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) considers School Meals programs as a game changer toward more sustainable and inclusive food systems for healthy diets and will expand support in this area according to country requests and budget availability. FAO will expand the scope and coverage of its school food global hub and enhance its potential for fostering the exchange of experiences in areas relevant to school food and nutrition. The organization will consolidate its partnership with WFP and participate in global funding initiatives to support more governments in developing holistic nutrition guidelines and standards for enhancing the nutrition impact of school meal programs. FAO will also carry out joint fundraising with UNICEF to support more countries in integrating action-oriented and effective food and nutrition education into their school systems. FAO will also continue to promote its comprehensive framework on School Food and Nutrition at the global and country level. FAO will continue its support to countries for enhancing the nutrition impact of school meal programs in a holistic manner as well as linking them with sustainable public food procurement, to support local and smallholder farmers through home-grown school feeding approaches.

• UNIDO: Will expand a joint partnership between UNIDO and Tetra Pak, currently undertaking a program with Hayel Saeed Anam in Yemen. The partnership will be expanded to include more partners to reach out to more schools and more children within Yemen, as well as to develop and deploy similar initiatives in other countries. The program will work on driving both the provision of school meals and the development of local dairy value chains, by working with small-holder farmers to enhance production, therefore achieving increased local food security.

• The Global Partnership for Education (GPE), working with the World Food Programme and the School Meals Coalition, launched the School Health and Nutrition Technical Assistance Facility to provide technical assistance to countries to implement increasingly sustainable, gender-responsive, and nationally owned school meal programs so that schoolchildren can have safe, diverse, nutritious foods that are locally purchased. GPE commits an initial amount of $3 million to this Facility with potential to scale the pilot as part of collaborative efforts under the School Meals Coalition.

About The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty

The Global Alliance was put forward by the G20 with the purpose of accelerating progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eradicating hunger and poverty. The Alliance’s approach (set out in more detail in this fact sheet) focuses on supporting country-owned programs and evidence-based approaches through strengthened international cooperation and knowledge-sharing.

About The School Meals Coalition

The School Meals Coalition, a network of over 100 governments and over 130 partners committed to school meals, drives actions to urgently improve and scale up school meal programmes to ensure that every child can receive a healthy, nutritious meal in school by 2030.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation that enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We make big bets to promote the well-being of humanity. Today, we are focused on advancing human opportunity and reversing the climate crisis by transforming systems in food, health, energy, and finance. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn and LI @the-rockefeller-foundation.