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Complementary interventions: a platform for building sustainable
communities
School feeding serves as a platform for linking with other comple-
mentary interventions to achieve additional sustainable development
outcomes. Food that is sourced locally contributes not only to the nutri-
tional and educational benefits among children in schools, but also
to the local community. When school feeding programmes are linked
to procuring and processing food locally, the local economy benefits,
which increases incomes among farmers, and brings other economic
development outcomes. A modelling study in Kenya estimated that
175,000 local farmers would increase their annual incomes by USD 50
per smallholder if the school feeding programme were to purchase local
maize.
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Local procurement supports local farmers and local markets,
further contributing to long-term sustainable development.
School feeding serves as a platform for partnerships with govern-
ments, UN agencies and the private sector to implement additional
development initiatives. United Nations agencies work together, to
provide the Essential Package of 12 complementary interventions.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and WFP collaborate
through the Essential Package, an integrated package of cost-effec-
tive interventions, to improve the nutritional status and health of
school children. School feeding is a platform for other essential
package interventions such as basic education, health, nutrition and
hygiene information, promotion of girls’ education, school gardens
and environmental education, and improved stoves to reduce the
negative environmental impact of cooking. The Essential Package
of complimentary interventions links with school feeding activities
to teach children how to build a more sustainable world.
Sustainability
WFP’s role is shifting from direct implementation with
cooperating partners to enabling, building capacity,
advising and acting as a repository for best practices.
The way forward is to assist national governments in
designing sustainable programmes that are nationally
owned, nationally led and locally sourced. There are
three main areas of innovation in school feeding:
• Knowledge, in-depth analysis and understanding:
WFP will provide analytical support and advice
on needs assessment, targeting, cost-effectiveness
and cost containment to governments that seek it,
thereby enhancing design and implementation
• Support for governments’ coordination of national
school feeding strategies, facilitated by bringing the
stakeholders together to ensure an effective national
approach to school feeding programmes that
respond to local needs
• Capacity development and technical support to
ensure sustainability, to increase governments’
capacity to design and implement programmes
that are sustainable and affordable and that can be
brought up to scale.
These three elements all help to enhance the sustain-
ability of school feeding as a productive safety net.
Framing school feeding programmes as a safety net
opens the door to new national and global funding
The Baraka Za Ibrahim Children’s Centre, a beneficiary of the WFP School Meals
Programme. The WFP’s commitment to School Meals Programmes in Kenya is high
WFP School Meal project in Leogane, Darbonne. “Ecole Saint
Terese de Darbonne”
Image: WFP/Rein Skullerud
Image: WFP/Rein Skullerud