School feeding programme, Zambia. Credit: Danstan Kaunda/IPS

By Daniel Balaban
Feb 2 2018 (IPS)

Tackling malnutrition is essential for the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and will be critical for the African continent to reach its full development potential.

Studies in Africa evidence that the economic impact of undernutrition can reach up to 16.5 percent of a country’s GDP[1], not to mention the social burden in terms of wellbeing and health of the population, among others. The magnitude of the impact malnutrition has highlights the need investments capable of delivering results on the multiple factors influencing nutrition indicators. School meals is one of such investments.

School meals can play an important role by connecting different elements of food systems such as child nutrition, nutrition education and agriculture that are essential to promote sustainable, resilient food systems for healthy diets.

An analysis of 47 African countries indicate that over half of them have high or very high rates of stunting, with overall number of stunted children having risen in recent years.^[2] At the same time, the prevalence of overweight and obesity is on the rise with an increase in child overweight by 50 percent from 2000 to 2015,[3] setting a new public health challenge.

African countries have committed to the elimination of malnutrition in all its forms at the International Conference on Nutrition 2 (ICN2), and have endorsed its recommendations with measures to promote an enabling environment.

Among others, these recommendations call for: enhancing political commitment and social participation; strengthening national cross-government, multi-sector mechanisms; increasing investment in nutrition with domestic finance; promoting South-South and triangular cooperation; and strengthening nutrition governance.

Overall, they require the expansion of national nutrition frameworks, which should encompass the expansion of school meals programmes. School meals can play an important role by connecting different elements of food systems such as child nutrition, nutrition education and agriculture that are essential to promote sustainable, resilient food systems for healthy diets.

Home-grown school meals programmes act in this sense as important platforms to promote sustainable food systems that will lead to better nutrition in countries. School feeding programmes can improve nutrition rates among children through the delivery of adequate and balanced meals. In addition to influencing the eating habits of children and their families through the choice of food included in school menus, school means can also envisage nutrition education to children and the school community.

Another potential of these programmes is to foster local production, specially from smallholder farmers, through local purchases. Considering the multiple policy areas encompassed by school meals, the involvement of various government sectors in programme design and implementation is central to achieve programmes’ intended results.

The WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil has promoted South-South Cooperation to enhance national food security frameworks from a multi-sector perspective, through home-grown school meals. It works closely with African governments to strengthen multi-sector coordination mechanisms, and several of them are making significant progress in this area.

School feeding programme in Togo. Credit: WFP/João Cavalcante

The political support provided by the African Union is also fundamental for the expansion of nutrition specific and nutrition-sensitive programmes, as well as for increased domestic investment in them. The Centre of Excellence is supporting the AU in the elaboration of the Sustainable School Feeding across the African Union study, which provides policymakers with an evidence-based overview on how national school feeding features affect multiple infant and juvenile health and nutrition in the African continent.

Its evidences indicate that national school feeding programmes contribute to positive outcomes on schoolchildren’s anthropometric measurements – such as height, weight, and body mass index – micronutrient status, reported short-term hunger, and incidence of illness.

In order to continue progress in strengthening national nutrition frameworks, the Centre of Excellence supports governments to leverage schools as spaces to promote better nutrition and sustainable food systems.

School feeding in Zimbabwe. Credit: WFP/Daniel Melo

Governments should also increase coordination among different sectors to improve the delivery of nutrition outcomes in nutrition sensitive programmes, as for example in school meals and cash transfer programmes. Other measures that can contribute in this sense are the strengthening of local food systems that will provide fresh and nutritious food, and promoting consumption of traditional food with high nutritional value.

Addressing current generations’ malnutrition and ensuring that new ones enjoy healthier lives require intense dedication to improving children’s access nutritious diets. As we empower children to have access to adequate food and make choices that contribute to healthy diets, we contribute to changing the nutrition landscape in Africa.

* Daniel Balaban, an economist, is the Director for World Food Programme’s (WFP) Centre of Excellence against Hunger. He has also led the Brazilian national school feeding programme as the President of the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE), which feeds 47 million children in school each year. Prior to this, he worked in the private sector as the President of Fiscal Council of Bank Banespa Leasing and as the Fiscal Counsellor of Banco do Brasil Turismo. Additionally, he has been a financial analyst for the Ministry of Finance, an Economic Advisor to the Secretary of the National Treasury, and the National Coordinator of the Studies of the Fiscal Economy. In 2003, he served as the Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Council of Economic and Social Development under the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

[1] African Union Commission, The cost of Hunger in Africa, 2013

[2] World Health Organisation, Nutrition in the WHO Africa Region, 2017.

[3] UNICEF,WHO,World Bank, Joint child malnutrition estimates 2017, 2017.

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Children having a daily lunch meal at a kindergarten in a poor community in Salvador, Bahia. Brazil's National School Feeding Programme is an example of one of the far-reaching programmes implemented in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Credit: Carolina Montenegro/WFP

By Daniel Balaban
BRASILIA, Jan 29 2015 (IPS)

With the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expiring at the end of this year to be replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will set priorities for the next fifteen years, 2015 will be a crucial year for the future of global development.

As a country with an outstanding performance in reaching the MDGs, Brazil can play an important role in shaping and achieving the SDGs.

Extensive consultations with governments and civil society have been held in recent years, and consensus around many issues has been established and channelled into a series of documents that will now guide the final deliberations on the exact content of the SDGs. September 2015 has been set as deadline for their endorsement by U.N. member states.

Daniel Balaban, Director of WFP’s Centre of Excellence against Hunger. Credit: Carolina Montenegro/WFP

A Working Group has identified 17 goals encompassing issues such as poverty, hunger, education, climate change and access to justice. While some of these topics were already covered by the MDG framework, there is a new set of goals with emphasis on the preservation of natural resources and more sustainable living conditions, meant to reverse contemporary trends of overuse of resources and destruction of ecosystems.

As governments quickly move to adopt the SDGs, they must capitalise on what has been achieved with the MDGs to secure new targets that will go beyond the lowest common denominator.

Brazil has a compelling track record in achieving the current MDGs, and it can use its experience to influence the final negotiations of the SDGs towards ambitious targets.

The country has already reached four of the eight targets – eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and combating HIV – and it is likely to achieve the remaining targets by the end of the MDG deadline.“As governments quickly move to adopt the SDGs, they must capitalise on what has been achieved with the MDGs to secure new targets that will go beyond the lowest common denominator”

Through a set of innovative and coordinated policies, Brazil has tackled these different areas and demonstrated that it is possible to radically decrease poverty and hunger within a decade, giving special attention to the most vulnerable groups.

The National School Feeding Programme, for example, is one of the far-reaching programmes implemented so far. In 2009, the existing policy was upgraded to recognise school feeding as a right, whereby all students of public schools are entitled to adequate and healthy meals, prepared by nutritionists and in accordance with local traditions.

At least 30 percent of the food used to prepare these meals must be procured from local producers, with incentives to the purchase of organic produce.

The programme also devotes additional resources to schools with students of traditional populations, often exposed to food insecurity.

Another feature of the policy is the participation of civil society through local school feeding councils, which oversee the implementation of the programme, as well as financial reports produced by municipalities.

Altogether, the programme tackles a wide range of issues, combining action to combat hunger, ensure adequate nutrition (including of the most vulnerable groups), support local farmers and involve civil society, in line with principles of inclusion, equity and sustainability, which are also guiding principles of the future SDGs.

It is a good example of how the incorporation of innovative features to existing policies can result in more inclusion and sustainability while optimising resources.

As it occupies a more prominent role on the world stage, Brazil has been active in promoting such policies in multilateral fora, in addition to investing in South-South cooperation to assist countries to achieve similar advances.

The WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger is the result of such engagement. In the past three years, the Centre been supporting over 30 countries to learn from the Brazilian experience in combating hunger and poverty.

Brazil is now in a position to showcase tangible initiatives during the SDGs negotiations to prove that through strong political commitment it is possible to build programmes with impact on a range of areas.

Such multi-sectorial action and articulation will be required if countries around the globe are determined to tackle humanity’s most urgent needs related to hunger, adequate living standards for excluded populations, and development, while reversing the trend of climate change and unsustainable use of natural resources.

The world is at a crossroads for ensuring sustainability. If the right choices are not made now, future generations will pay the price. However daunting the task may be, this is the moment to do it.

Edited by Phil Harris   

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, IPS – Inter Press Service. 

* Daniel Balaban, an economist, is the Director of World Food Programme’s (WFP) Centre of Excellence against Hunger. He has also led the Brazilian national school feeding programme as President of the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE), which feeds 47 million children in school each year. In 2003, he served as the Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Council of Economic and Social Development under the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

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