Benin global forum echoes calls for greater commitment to school meals
By Henry Makiwa
Fagnon Gaston stares into the skies and delivers an assured forecast. “It will rain this afternoon. The new tomato crop loves plenty of sunshine of course, but rain will bring it a cooling relief,” he announces with a curt brush-off of dust on his beige blazer.
Youthful and ambitious, Gaston is the headmaster of Yèkon-Do primary school, an hour’s drive north of the economic capital of Benin, Cotonou. Yèkon-Do is a success story and a shining star among schools across the west African country.
The school — home to 354 pupils — has seen a significant increase in enrollment, while the rate of graduates leaving Yèkon-Do has jumped from 68 percent to a highly encouraging 84 percent between 2017 and 2022.
“The rollout of the school meals programme is the secret to our success,” says Gaston. “It’s a privilege me and my generation didn’t have when we were growing up. In our time, we walked long distances to school having had a bit of porridge or leftover supper — if anything at all.”
“This is why I am committed to impactful change for future generations. We are supporting our government’s program which puts school meals at the center as an agent for change to Benin’s education system. Meals that pupils at our school eat gets served into their plates thanks to well-organized systems and structure which factor in home-grown farm produce, our efficient storage facilities, all the way to the canteen,” he says, pointing to the thatch roof kitchen where delicious aromas of the afternoon lunch waft from.
In the kitchen, four women, who all have children at the school, busy themselves with the finishing touches of the day’s meal. The kitchen has new stoves and a small storage room. On this particular day, the pressure is on, as the school is hosting a busload of international guests who are touring Yèkon-Do on the sidelines of the 23rd Annual Global Child Nutrition Forum held in Cotonou in October — jointly organized by the Government of Benin, the World Food Programme (WFP) and Catholic Relief Services, the Global Child Nutrition Forum.
This year’s forum also attracted over 240 delegates from over 70 countries. Held under the theme: Convergence of Forces for Resilience and Sustainability of School Feeding Programs Worldwide, the forum sought to carve out opportunities for peer-to-peer exchange, stimulate critical discussions around school meals’ programs, identify collective priorities, and provide advice and support in a collaborative spirit.
Abdoulaye Bio Tchané , the Minister Development and Coordination of Government Action in Benin set the tone for the forum while officially opening the four-day event. Tchané shared Benin’s lessons and underlined the enduring potential of school meal programmes on the health and wellbeing of children globally, as well as the positive impact on local and national economies.
“Offering a hot meal to a child at school is neither a luxury nor a waste of resources but rather a necessity and an investment made to promote the development of ‘human capital’,” he said. At the end of the 2021 academic year, 75 percent of children in Benin were receiving a school meal in primary school, and then the government set the goal to increase this to 100 per cent for the current academic year.
“Our objective is clearly that every child who goes to primary school this year, whether in rural areas or in cities, should eat a hot meal before returning home.” Tchané added.
Benin global forum echoes calls for greater commitment to school meals — YouTube
The finer details
The school meals model in Benin places immense emphasis on community engagement to ensure sustainability and local ownership. The school meals vary according to local diets and additional food commodities available, such as fresh vegetables sourced from school gardens and other commodities available through parental contributions.
As the forum concluded, delegates published a communiqué with a list of recommendations for governments, private sector and all involved in child nutrition and school feeding initiatives. Identified as one of the top priorities cited in the communiqué is a call for governments to commit political will and funding for school meals programmes, as well as taking ownership to coordinate and strengthen them.
Alemtsehay Sergawi Hailegiorgis, the Minister of Agriculture in Ethiopia said: “We take a lot of lessons back to our country. We have observed strong linkages between the government (in Benin) and NGOs, but our government (in Ethiopia) doesn’t yet fully have a hundred percent budget, so the management is supported by WFP.
“WFP has the expertise and capacity to support us — as it is doing in many other countries as well. This is good as they can lay the systems and structures that ensure the smooth running of the programs without incidents of corruption. These are always the finer details which matter. Once our government has the capacity to take over the programs, the transfer would be smoother,” she added.
Benin’s school meals model has inspired many.
Fatiha Terki, Director of WFP Senegal said: “We should commend the commitment of Benin’s President Mr. Patrice Talon. He is doing an extraordinary service to the population of Benin to ensure that school meals are delivered to all children in about 7500 schools. This is an unprecedented commitment in the (West Africa) region. I believe that the leaders of other countries globally can learn from this.”
