World leaders urged to increase investment in school feeding plans

Local and international non-governmental organisations have called on African and world leaders to increase investment in school feeding programmes to guarantee provision of education to all children on the continent.

The chief executive officer of Kenyan Non-Profit Food for Education Africa (F4E) organisation Wawira Njiru has called for urgent investment in the school feeding revolution to ensure children across Africa stay longer in school as part of enhancing exposure and in future use acquired knowledge to develop the continent.

“We know that hungry kids can’t learn, and as an organization we are changing that one meal at a time. Through our work we’re investing in children’s future, and the future of Kenya and all of Africa. But we cannot do it alone,” said Ms. Wawira in a statement released on World Food Day celebrations in Nandi county.

Wawira confirmed that F4E in its next stage of growth aims to feed three million African children daily by 2030, by tripling the number of children served in Kenya and by expanding its network into two more African countries.

Affordable food

In Kenya, for instance, the organisation in partnership with national Government and county Governments targets to feed one million children daily by providing affordable, nutritious meals for children and their families.

She added, “Food for Education has a unique and replicable model that currently feeds over 450,000 children a day in Kenya, but that is barely 0.2 per cent of all the children facing malnutrition in Africa. If we are serious about investing in our continent, we urgently need to invest in the education of our children because they are the human capital of all our futures. The only way to do that is to keep them in school to make sure they learn. By far the best way to do that is to feed them a daily hot, nutritious meal every day in school through programs like ours.”

Wawira urged world leaders to guarantee investments in children by supporting programs like F4E and thus enable them with necessary skills for their success and the success of Africa.

Wawira who will be attending World Bank annual meetings in Washington this week confirmed that the most recent Africa Pulse Report by the bank emphasized that “addressing education and skills gaps, among other investment and policy priorities, could help accelerate growth to end poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

The report further revealed that 90 per cent of 10 year olds in Sub-Saharan Africa are unable to read simple text while 7 in 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa are not benefiting from pre-primary education.

Further, less than 1.5 per cent of 15 to 24 year-olds are enrolled in formal vocational education programs, compared to roughly 10 per cent in high-income countries.

The World Bank report notes, “Climate change is creating an agricultural crisis which is “fueling malnutrition, with more than 45 million children in Eastern and Southern Africa at risk of health issues, displacement, and educational setbacks”.