Food and nutrition insecurity and a generally low level of education predominate in Malawi: Many Malawian school children usually go to class with an empty stomach. Around 37 per cent of children under five are affected by chronic malnutrition and their growth is stunted. 42.4 per cent of primary school children are vitamin A deficient and 25 per cent of them are anaemic. Studies estimate that the economic losses caused by chronic undernutrition among children are around 10 per cent of Malawi’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Due to a lack of a balanced and nutritious diet, children suffer from concentration deficiencies and often become ill, lowering their attendance rate and leading to a high drop-out rate in schools. As a result, learning outcomes of Malawian primary school pupils are among the lowest in the region.
In order to improve the nutritional status of all pupils and promote healthy diets at schools and beyond, Malawi’s Government has updated its National School Health and Nutrition Strategic Plan and prepared corresponding School Health and Nutrition Guidelines. Within this framework, the Home Grown School Meals approach plays an important role as it aims to encourage a strong level of involvement by schools and communities.
Providing nutritious school meals are a powerful tool to keep children in school. At the same time, it helps boost pupils’ nutritional and health status, enhancing their performance.
The project supports the Malawian Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in implementing the National Plan. At 180 primary schools in ten districts, the project promotes the Home Grown School Meals approach and supports the schools and communities in providing nutritious school meals. To enable the schools and communities to provide school meals even after the project ends and improve the nutrition and hygiene practices sustainably, the project focusses on three areas:
(1) Increasing the availability of high-quality foodstuffs for preparing school meals;
(2) Improving the nutritional knowledge and the hygiene practices of primary school pupils and community members; and
(3) Developing the capacity of stakeholders.