EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - Global Child Nutrition Foundation

Scaling Up Sustainability: Linking School Feeding with Agriculture
Development to Maximize Food Security
May 3-7, 2011
Nairobi, Kenya
Welcome and Opening Remarks by the Government of Kenya
■ Speakers: Gene White, Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF)
Dr. Lesley Drake, The Partnership for Child Development (PCD)
Professor George Godia, Ministry of Education, Republic of Kenya
Hon. Dr. James Gesami, Assistant Minister of Public Health and Sanitation, Republic of Kenya
Hon. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Republic of Ghana
Hon. Professor Sam Ongeri, Minister of Education, Republic of Kenya
Overview
Well-designed school feeding programs increase access to
education and improve children’s health. As a result, they are
widely recognized as significant contributors to achieving the
Millennium Development Goals and Education for All.
During the Global Child Nutrition Forum, delegates were invited to
explore ways that food security could be enhanced, by linking
school feeding programs and the agriculture sector. Government
officials from Kenya and Ghana set the stage, describing lessons
learned from their home grown school feeding initiatives. Programs
with robust management systems are most likely to deliver
measurable benefits to children, families, and society at large.
Context
The speakers welcomed the Forum delegates and discussed the
Kenyan and Ghanaian school feeding programs.
Key Points
The Global Child Nutrition Forum seeks to link agricultural
development to school feeding.
The central theme of the 2011 Global Child Nutrition Forum was
attaining long-term food and nutrition security by linking school
feeding to agricultural development. The meeting goals included:
Strengthening coordination of school feeding, school health,
and small-holder agriculture development.
Identifying barriers and remedial actions that may be taken to
link small-holder agriculture development and school feeding.
Facilitating knowledge exchange between stakeholders in
national government, the private sector, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), and the research community.
Assisting country leaders in developing plans to link school
feeding to small-holder agricultural production in their
countries.
To explore these issues in more depth, the Forum structured
discussions around four central pillars:
1. Policy frameworks
2. Financing, institutional capacity, and coordination
3. Design
4. Implementation and community participation
These pillars reflect standards that were developed as part of the
“Rethinking School Feeding” analysis undertaken by the World
Bank, World Food Programme (WFP) and Partnership for Child
Development (PCD).
© 2011 GCNF and PCD. All rights reserved. Page 7
Quality education and access to food go hand in hand.
The Kenyan government views education as a social equalizer. It
recognizes, however, that quality education is impossible without
quality food. In the past year, Kenya fed 538,000 children
through home grown school feeding programs. Kenya’s
experiences illustrate the benefits and challenges associated
with these programs.
Feeding programs are a way to attract poor children to school.
In 2003, 5.7 million children participated in Kenya’s free
primary education system. That number has grown to 8.6
million due, in part, to school feeding programs. These
initiatives attract poor and hard-to-reach children, especially
girls, to schools.
School feeding programs provide a safety net to families.
Large numbers of nomadic people live in North Kenya’s arid
and semi-arid regions. In these locations, low-cost mobile
schools have been established with feeding programs.
Children are also given food rations to take home. In this way,
children provide families with access to food, resulting in a
broader social safety net. WFP has been particularly active in
this area.
Education and food can combat violence. In recent armed
conflicts, African children have been recruited as soldiers.
School-based feeding programs are a way to bring children
back to the classroom and keep them there.
“Peace can only come about when the stomach
is full. We must start there.”
Hon. Professor Sam Ongeri, Minister of Education,
Kenya
Transporting food is expensive. Transporting food to food-
deficient areas is costly. Work is needed to improve supply
chain efficiency. Families must be empowered to grow food.
School feeding programs enhance children’s health.
Childhood health is a significant concern in Kenya. A 2008-2009
demographic survey showed that many children are stunted and
hungry. Poor children suffer from iodine, vitamin, and protein
deficiencies.
Kenya’s Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation believes that
school feeding programs can play a major role in improving
health for children. Combining school feeding programs with
complementary programs such as fortification, supplements, and
deworming has the potential to enhance child survival, growth,
and development.
The key to successful and sustainable school feeding programs
is cooperation between the education and health sectors.