A major milestone in Kenya’s school meals programme
Government takes over full responsibility of providing school lunches
Since the 1980's, providing school meals to primary school children in Kenya has been the joint responsibility of the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Ministry of Education. Now, the Ministry of Education is taking over full responsibility of providing hot lunches to almost two million pupils in the arid and semi-arid areas of the country.
“WFP is extremely grateful to the Government of Kenya for taking up this noble responsibility. We know that school meals are one of the most important and dependable safety nets for children and their families in Kenya,” said WFP Country Director and Representative Annalisa Conte.
“They are a powerful incentive for families to invest in education, despite their livelihoods being under stress. A daily hot lunch means more children attend school, they stay the whole day and get an education that helps them become more productive in future.”
Kenya launched the Home-Grown School Meals Programme — a nationally owned and Government-led programme — in 2009 and immediately started giving hot meals to over half a million children who were initially being fed through WFP.
This was the start of the gradual and systematic handover.
Feeding our children is our responsibility
Speaking at a formal handover ceremony in Isiolo on behalf of the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Dr. Amb. Amina Mohamed, Dr. Richard Belio Kipsang, Principal Secretary of Education said: “As the Ministry takes over from WFP, we are aware of the importance of this programme. We are also conscious of the challenges that need to be addressed to ensure the continued success of the programme. School meals need sufficient and stable funding; an effective governance and management structure; adequate capacity development support for food procurers and smallholder farmers to provide suitable and diverse produce; government participation at all levels as well as that of communities and parents; and infrastructure and environmental safety in schools.”
This commitment has been demonstrated in many ways, one of which is funding. In the current budgetary year (2018/2019), the Government has set aside Kshs 2.4 billion (US$ 23.8m) for school meals.
A culmination of a gradual handover
The Home-Grown School Meals model was first implemented in the semi-arid areas between 2009 and 2012. During this time, WFP invested in building the skills of the Ministry of Education and Agriculture and Health as well as donating equipment such as vehicles and computers to enable the smooth running of the feeding programme.
The Government, having successfully taken over school feeding in the semi-arid areas, moved swiftly to start the process in the much needy arid areas.
Working with the Ministry of Education, WFP developed and tested a Home-Grown School Meals Programme strategy for arid districts. In 2015, Isiolo county was the first arid county to transition from WFP-supported school meals to the cash-based Home-Grown School Meals Programme.
“In the semi-arid areas, agricultural produce is more readily available and markets are more robust than the more food insecure arid areas,” explained Annalisa. “It was therefore easier to hand over those schools first, and then move on to the schools in the arid areas.”
Today, almost all schools under the feeding programme are receiving cash to buy food from local markets — greatly boosting trade and agricultural production.
The gradual handover was completed in June 2018 and WFP formally handed over the programme to the Government in a public event held in Isiolo this October.
Quick facts
- 240,000 children benefited from meals in 1980
- In 2009, Home-Grown School Meals Programme was launched with 540,000 children now being fed by the Government instead of WFP. A gradual handover strategy was developed
- In June 2018, the handover was completed and all schools under the school meals programme were handed over to the Government
- A total of 1.6 million children in 4,048 schools are receiving a hot lunch under the school meals programme in 2018 all financed by the Government
Over the years, WFP and MOE have provided school lunches thanks to the generous support of (in alphabetical order) Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Kenya, Japan, Multilateral Donors, Private Donors, and the United States of America.
