Former Tanzanian President Kikwete calls for education and food system overhaul
What you need to know:
- The former President was speaking during a side chat session at the African Development Bank's (AfDB) annual meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 27, 2024
Dar es Salaam. Former President Jakaya Kikwete has called for a transformation of Africa's education and food systems to ensure adequate feeding of schoolchildren.
Kikwete, who is serving as the board chair of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), said it’s high time that the African continent finds new and innovative ways to finance school meals.
The former President was speaking during a side chat session at the African Development Bank's (AfDB) annual meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 27, 2024.
“We need to invest in transforming education systems. A key part of this endeavour is to ensure that no child is too hungry to learn,” he noted.
He further explained that it has also been demonstrated that school meals are an effective way to increase enrollment and learning outcomes in Africa.
Dr Kikwete told the stakeholders that malnutrition continues to be one of the greatest challenges facing human development in Africa, with at least 216 million children already suffering from stunting and malnutrition.
Statistics show that in Africa, about 30 percent of children suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition and about 89 percent of children in the Sub-Saharan region cannot read a simple text by the age of 10.
“If we are to achieve our goals set out in Agenda 2063 and truly deliver on Africa’s immense promise, we must harness our demographic dividend—that is, our children and the youth,” he said.
Since 2002, GPE has invested $6.6 billion to help countries achieve this noble goal.
The GPE is also collaborating with AfDB on a policy paper highlighting shared and innovative approaches to closing the education financing gap.
AfDB is also in the beginning stages of becoming an accredited GPE grant agent.
The effect of school feeding programmes on learning achievement in sub-Saharan Africa has been estimated at 0.13 standard deviations, higher than in other regions.
A recent cost-benefit analysis of school feeding programmes in 14 countries, nine of which are African, estimated that an initial investment of $11 billion per year had resulted in a return of $156 billion through increased school attendance.
