{UAH} School food, politics, and child health

This paper reflects on how understanding of school feeding has changed since the 2009 analysis conducted by the UN World Food Programme, The Partnership for Child Development and the World Bank, which was published as Rethinking School Feeding. Data on school feeding programme outcomes were collected through a literature review. Regression models were used to analyse relationships between school feeding costs (from data that were collected), the per capita costs of primary education and Gross Domestic Product per capita. Data on the transition to national ownership, supply chains and country examples were collected through country case studies.

The authors found that school feeding programmes increase school attendance, cognition and educational achievement, as well as provide a transfer of resources to households with possible benefits to local agricultural production and local market development. Low-income countries exhibit large variations in school feeding costs, with concomitant opportunities for cost containment. Countries are increasingly looking to transition from externally supported projects to national programmes. With a global turnover in excess of $US 100 billion, the authors sustain that school feeding should remain a focus of study with a view to helping countries ensure that their programmes are as cost-effective as possible.

Link:http://www.schoolsandhealth.org/Documents/School%20food,%20politics,%20and%20child%20health.pdf

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Rehema
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