Data and Monitoring Initiative

Introduction

The Data and Monitoring Initiative (DMI), hosted by the World Food Programme (WFP), was launched in response to a call from member states of the School Meals Coalition to address the lack of harmonized, reliable data on school meals. 

Why Data and Monitoring?

The DMI initiative aims at improving and institutionalizing the availability, accessibility and use of high-quality data on national school meal programmes worldwide, promoting evidence-based decision-making. Reliable data will enable stakeholders to identify gaps, guide research, support policymaking, and track progress of school meals programmes over time.

This initiative also serves as the key monitoring and reporting mechanism to track the objectives and accomplishments of the School Meals Coalition.

Featured benefits:

The initiative is governed by a multi-stakeholder group of experts from governments, UN agencies, academia, civil society, and collaborates with other SMC initiatives to achieve the following objectives:

 

  • Harmonize data on school meals: by consoliding data from multiple global sources, including national governments, the GCNF surveys, State of School Feeding reports, the World Bank, African Union, and other partners, thus reducing fragmentation, duplication and ensuring consistency.
  • Define core indicators on school meals with clear methodologies and guidance: based on an extensive review of over 250 indicators across 11 frameworks, with further work underway on additional topics (education, nutrition, health, WASH, food systems).
  • Introduce a new SDG4 indicator: that tracks coverage of school meals programs worldwide under Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education).
  • Develop the Global Database on School Meals: a trusted public repository for school meals data that is continually updated with new data and improved functionalities.
  • Institutionalize data collection: by supporting national governments in the systematic collection, validation, and reporting of school meals data, thereby strengthening their capacity to monitor their national school meals programmes.
     
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