School Meals Provide ‘Powerful, Cost-effective Way’ to Drive Progress across Multiple Sustainable Development Goals, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Event
Following is UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s message for the opening segment of the high-level political forum side event titled “Investment in the Future: School Meals for Sustainable Development”, in New York today:
It is an honour to join you today to celebrate the success of the School Meals Coalition — a key driver of our efforts to foster sustainable development and address some of our most pressing global challenges.
A combination of crises — including climate change, conflicts and economic shocks — continue to hit developing countries the hardest. If these trends continue, an alarming 575 million people will stay in extreme poverty, 84 million children will miss out on education and approximately 300 million students will lack the basic numeracy and literacy skills necessary for success in life.
Food systems transformation is a powerful entry point to put development back on track.
School meals provide a powerful, cost-effective way to drive progress towards food systems transformation and across multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They’re an investment worth making. Some studies estimate a remarkable return of $9 for every $1 invested.
But the benefits of school meals are far more than economic. They provide an incentive for parents to send their children to school — particularly for families struggling to make ends meet.
By including healthier, fresh and nutritious foods to menus, school meals programmes can improve children’s diets and address malnutrition, improve children’s growth patterns, reducing the prevalence of stunting — particularly when linked with other health and nutrition services in school.
They are also an avenue to educate children on food and promote the consumption of indigenous and local foods, potentially influencing eating habits and behaviours over the long term.
School meals can help us drive the food systems transformation we need to see by creating jobs and predictable markets for local and smallholder farmers. When combined with local efforts to produce food sustainably and organically, they can also help meet key environmental goals.
In fact, the School Meals Coalition has been one of the most successful coalitions coming out of the Food Systems Summit, convened by the Secretary-General in 2021.
Under the leadership of France, Finland and Brazil, with support from 98 Member States and 129 partners, the Coalition is working to ensure that all children have access to healthy and nutritious school meals by 2030.
The Coalition is demonstrating a new kind of partnership that is driven by country leadership, breaking the outdated logic of “North” and “South” or “donor” and “recipient”.
Strengthening food systems is an issue for all countries and regions, regardless of income.
It is inspiring to see, for example, that the European Union is considering a universal child guarantee of school meals. At the same time, the African Union just celebrated its African Day of School Meals, making this a continental priority. Canada, Bangladesh, Kenya, Indonesia and others have recently made bold commitments to expand their national programmes.
The global progress is deeply inspiring. Between 2020 and 2022, the reach of school meal programmes expanded from 388 million to 418 million children, with an additional $5 billion invested from national budgets.
This is a testament to the national recognition of the critical role these programs play in shaping a sustainable future.
But challenges remain. Sustainable financing and enhanced technical assistance are essential for overcoming barriers and unlocking the full potential of these programmes.
The Coalition will play an important role in addressing these challenges. But all of us have a role to play.
To Governments — I urge you to turn your commitments into tangible action. Develop and implement sustainable financing plans that will ensure the success of these initiatives. This includes exploring innovative financing mechanisms.
To partners — I urge you to continue convening around these commitments and support countries with technical assistance to scale-up and strengthen their programs.
With strong political commitment, sufficient resources and shared knowledge, we can build on the progress achieved to date.
As we look ahead to September’s Summit of the Future and the next Food Systems Summit Stocktaking Moment in 2025, now is the time to raise our ambition and scale up our efforts.
Let’s continue working together and pushing forward to give this critical issue the attention, investment and innovative solutions it deserves.