Official Launch of the Third School Meal Programs Around the World Report

Co-organized by the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) & IFPRI Undernutrition during childhood and early adolescence has long-term consequences for development and health, and for girls it can affect the survival and wellbeing of their children. Diet-related risk School meal programs are an effective way to boost children’s nutrition and wellbeing, including physiological development and academic performance. These programs can also play an important role in food systems transformation by ensuring access to healthy diets, supporting equitable livelihoods, and contributing to environmental sustainability. However, data on large-scale school meal programs have historically been fragmented and inconsistent, despite the global prevalence of these programs and evidence of their positive impact. The Global Survey of School Meal Programs © https://gcnf.org/global-survey/ seeks to address this gap, collecting the most comprehensive data to date on national and large-scale school feeding programs, with information on 167 countries. It provides comprehensive global data on school meal coverage, financing, food baskets, laws and policies, home-grown school feeding, and more, thus serving as a foundation for monitoring global progress over time. The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) https://gcnf.org/ and IFPRI invite you to the official launch of the third Global Survey report, School Meal Programs Around the World, 2024 edition, with results from the 2022 school year. The survey is implemented by GCNF, with funding from USDA and The Rockefeller Foundation and expert input from IFPRI and other lead researchers and organizations. The resulting data provide governments and other stakeholders with an up-to-date global database of standardized information on school meal programs to make informed decisions. GCNF and IFPRI will present results from the latest survey, which concluded in August 2024, and a distinguished panel of experts will discuss implications of the survey for policy, research, advocacy, implementation, and business. Highlights of the 2024 survey results are already available in English and six other languages on GCNF’s website here https://gcnf.org/global-reports/ . The full report, School Meal Programs Around the World, 2024 edition, and additional resources will be released on the day of the event. Introductory Remarks Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy; Acting Senior Director, Transformation Strategy, IFPRI Mary Muinde, Chief of Staff to the First Lady of Kenya Fabio Veras Soares, Researcher, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Development, Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPCid/IPEA), Government of Brazil Neo Sediti, Director, National School Nutrition Programme, Government of the Republic of South Africa Dana Thomas, Managing Director, Food is Medicine, The Rockefeller Foundation Overview of Survey Results Arlene Mitchell, Executive Director, Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) Liliane Bigayimpunzi, Survey Coordinator for Africa, GCNF Ayala Wineman, Research and Survey Specialist, GCNF Panel: Putting the Survey Results into Use- Policy, Research, Advocacy, Implementation and the Business Perspective Marie Tamagnan, Senior Operations Advisor, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) Mduduzi Mbuya, Director, Knowledge Leadership, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Beatrice Wamey, President, Nascent Solutions Mia Blakstad, Social Protection Specialist, The World Bank Carmen Burbano, Director of School Meals and Social Protection, UN World Food Program (WFP) and Director of the School Meals Coalition Secretariat Closing Remarks Catherine Bertini, former Executive Director, UN World Food Program (WFP) Moderator Aulo Gelli, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI Links More about this Event: https://www.ifpri.org/event/official-launch-of-the-third-global-survey-of-school-meal-programs/