The School Meals Coalition First Global Summit took place in Paris France on 18-19 October 2023. World leaders convened to showcase member countries’ new commitments and welcomed new members of the Coalition.
The Global Summit spotlighted how in many countries school meal programmes serve as a safety net offering a strong lever to nourish the next generations, creating jobs, driving economic growth, transforming food systems, and promoting longer-term development.
This statement summarizes the outcomes of the first School Meals Coalition Global Summit held in Paris on October 18-19, 2023. The summit highlighted the Coalition's growth, emphasizing school meal programs as pivotal for education, health, social protection, and food system transformation. Key achievements include increased global investment in school meals and commitments to expand and enhance these programs worldwide.
This report summarizes key outcomes from the School Meals Coalition Global Summit in Paris (2023), where countries and partners reaffirmed commitments to expanding school meal programmes. It highlights progress, new country pledges, financing strategies, and the role of school meals in education, nutrition, food systems, and climate action.
If I were the Prime Minister, I would give children food three times a day: before they start their classes, at break time, and after school before they go home. Because when they get home, they may not find any food and spend the whole day hungry.
Following a high-level segment with the President of the Republic of France, the President of the Republic of Honduras and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, the Co-chairs of the Coalition will welcome the new members that are present at the Summit. This segment will end with a dialogue on the importance of leadership to advance the goals of the Coalition.
Moderator:
George Fominyen, Master of Ceremony
Speakers:
Showcasing new national commitments and remarkable achievements of Coalition Members.
This session aims at showcasing remarkable progress towards the Coalition’s objectives, through national commitments as guiding instruments. Speakers will describe their strategies to advance on national commitments in several focus areas in their respective contexts, outline success achieved so far and share their ambitions for the future. Several countries will also announce fresh national commitments. The main principle of the Coalition and the reason for its success is the focus on country action. Indeed, without it, there is nothing. Without political will, investment and implementation in each country that is member of the Coalition, there is no hope of progress.
Moderator:
H.E. Mr Ville Tavio, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development of Finland
Speakers:
Discovering the dynamics of regional school meal conversations, the priorities at the regional level and how these emerging networks facilitate peer-to-peer knowledge exchange.
This session aims at outlining regional visions for school feeding and demonstrating the results of regional initiatives and networks as catalyzers for contextualized action and peer-to-peer knowledge exchange. 2023 has been a year of materializing regional ambitions for school feeding around the world, and several regional meetings have allowed countries align and share experiences on school meals. Conveners of these regional meetings will share emerging priorities and next steps for each region, and countries and regional bodies will share their vision for school meals in the future.
Moderator:
H.E. Mr. Jose Carlos Cardona Erazo, Minister of Social Development, Honduras.
Speakers:
Addressing the issue of sustainable and innovative financing for school feeding and providing concrete examples of financing mechanisms for school meals by partners and countries.
This session will explore how governments might draw on a range of innovative financing options, building on current initiatives and the increasing interest of international finance institutions. Looking beyond more efficient and equitable taxation and public spending, this session will explore options including:
The session will highlight possible avenues for the way forward, focusing on the big question: what will it take to achieve a global breakthrough on financing for school meal provision in low-income countries by 2030?
Moderator:
Under-Secretary-General Cristina Duarte, Special Adviser on Africa to the United Nations Secretary-General
Speakers:
Exploring concrete examples that showcase how investments in school meals not only nourish young minds but also serve as powerful tools in advancing more equal and inclusive education and societies.
Investments in human capital are among the most effective that countries can make for their future. This session showcases how countries and partners invest in the well-being and development of children through school meals as a key component of school health and nutrition strategies, to advance more equal and inclusive education and societies. The session features some of the most important multi-year partners in school feeding, multilaterals, United Nations agencies and countries where multi-year school meals programmes are an important conduit for the careful planning required to establish effective programmes, both in stable and conflict-affected contexts where a school meal often determines whether children go to school or not, particularly girls. Panellists will showcase intentional efforts to design programmes that incentivize families to send girls to school and help them stay there longer, reducing the risk of child marriage, early pregnancies, and gender-based violence.
Moderator:
Ms. Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director, Education Cannot Wait
Speakers:
Announcing bold commitments and progress of country champions and non-state partners in rolling out planet -friendly school meal approaches and providing the newest evidence on how school meals can drive climate action – both of which feed into COP28.
This plenary session will illuminate the pivotal role that school meal programmes can play in driving climate action to promote nutrition, education and learning outcomes for children and provide a platform for food systems transformation. It will be based on the preliminary findings of an analysis that has been done over the last year by the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition – an initiative of the Coalition – to understand how school meal programmes can drive systemic change. It will also showcase the countries that are already implementing systemic and planet-friendly approaches, who in turn will share their own experiences, best practices and recommendations. This session will help illustrate how research is feeding into policy adoption, which in turn is feeding into more political will for practical, scalable solutions on the world stage and how all these actions will feed into plans for COP28.
Moderator:
Ms. Valerie Guarnieri, Assistant Executive Director of World Food Programme
Speakers:
Launching a new initiative led by municipalities and highlighting the crucial role of local governments in school meals, including innovation and experimentation with new approaches on food system transformation.
Local governments, such as Municipalities, have a critical role in managing and administrating most of the global population, and their key function will continue to expand in the coming years; by 2050, more than 50% of the entire population will live in urban areas.
School meal programmes represent a strategic infrastructure of the urban food systems; their synergetic management can positively impact citizens’ wellness regarding social protection, education, health, and gender equality. In the majority of cases, school canteens are managed at the Municipality level within the local budget; cities are responsible for adopting and implementing national frameworks and guidelines and managing the service.
This session is dedicated to highlighting the successful stories of 5 different Municipalities from different regions in managing and improving school meal programmes, stressing how these programmes can directly impact not only schoolchildren participating in them but the entire community involved in managing and providing goods.
These examples can set the path for new collaborations and strengthen the involvement of cities and mayors in the work of the School Meals Coalition.
Moderator:
Filippo Gavazzeni, Head of Secretariat of Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP)
Speakers:
Providing an overview of upcoming activities and efforts developed by different partners to support government action and link to other coalitions
The first two years of the Coalition helped solidify its unique multisectoral model and strong base of government support, a critical component given the importance of government ownership on the school meals agenda. Different constituencies play key roles in supporting governments in scaling and improving the impact of school meal programmes. The Coalition is well-positioned to be a platform for new partnerships and this session will highlight new upcoming activities/initiatives/toolkits that partners and member states are working on to drive the work of the Coalition further.
The session will showcase the leadership of different stakeholders to champion school meals within their constituencies and connecting their work with the overall goals of the Coalition.
Moderator:
Joseph Nhan O’Reilly, Executive Director, Interparliamentary Network for Education – IPNEd
Speakers:
Introducing the Coalition’s transformative initiatives which will provide a deep dive into each initiative, how they support governments in achieving their goals and how to engage with them. It will be an opportunity to share examples of how countries have been able to leverage the initiatives to advance their own goals and objectives.
The Coalition focuses on driving country action and therefore in helping governments unlocking bottlenecks to keep growing and improving their programmes. Some of the challenges that were identified by governments to achieve their goals are:
Out of these identified bottlenecks, initiatives were established by partners to coordinate around important areas and drive progress quickly. Member States have been engaging very actively with some of these initiatives and benefitting from their support. Particularly the Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition and the Sustainable Financing Initiative have been engaging actively with member states and supporting development of country case studies, value for money studies, financing plans, and other.
This session will provide an overview of the services and the support that is available through some of these initiatives and showcase how member states can best utilize them.
Moderator:
Carmen Burbano, School Meals Coalition Secretariat
Speakers:
Culminating the meeting by revisiting the impactful deliverables and commitments made throughout the two days and presenting the outcome document, solidifying our collective vision for action and progress.
Moderator: George Fominyen, Master of Ceremony
Speakers:
President Emmanuel Macron of France hosts the first global Summit with the theme: Investing in Future Generations: Human Capital, Sustainable Food Systems and Climate Change Action Through School Meals.
The Summit is attended by Heads of State, Ministers, regional organizations, representatives from international and local non-governmental organizations, foundations, research institutions, municipalities, parliamentary networks, and UN agencies. Participants showcase life-changing results and facilitate the sharing of best practices to shape more responsive and resilient school meal programs that can achieve greater impact and reach more children. The Summit mobilizes member states, development partners, and donors to increase their efforts to reach all primary school children by 2030.
The summit aims to achieve the following:
In multiple crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating hunger and malnutrition, unsustainable food systems, ineffective education systems where children fail to learn, conflicts, and climate change, children are the hardest hit.
This is why the School Meals Coalition was launched at the 2021 Food Systems Summit: to ensure that every day, all children receive a nutritious meal in school by 2030, securing their future. It’s a simple yet powerful concept. Through the School Meals Coalition, leaders from 90 countries have concurred that scaling up and enhancing school meal programs is crucial for their country’s development.
The Coalition is promoting improved and more nutritious diets, emphasizing the strong connection between schools and local food production, leading to more sustainable food systems. Over the past two years, school meal programs have generated employment opportunities, primarily for women, in many countries. Climate-friendly school meal programs have been a significant focus in global and regional meetings.
Global investment in school meal programs has risen by USD 5 billion (from $43 billion in 2020 to $48 billion in 2022), benefiting 418 million children compared to 388 million before the COVID-19 pandemic. Government commitment, especially in low-income countries, has increased, with a 15 percent uptick in domestic funding for essential school meals, despite limited fiscal resources.
Find background information to enhance your coverage of the summit’s discussions on human capital, sustainable food systems, and climate change action through school meals. Stay connected and keep your audience informed with the latest insights and developments from this critical event.
Evidence demonstrates that school feeding is a game changer for children, as it incentivizes them to enrol in schools where they benefit from learning, and safe, diverse, and nutritious food.
At a time when 345 million people face crisis levels of hunger, including 153 million children and young people, school meals are a critical safety net for vulnerable children and households.
