Nepal’s experience with school feeding is a success story: PM Dahal

Kathmandu: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has coined the school meal as a success story in Nepal.

PM Dahal praised the campaign as a success story while addressing the UN Food System Summit (UNFSS+2) 2023 in Italy.

PM Dahal said, ‘Nepal’s experience with school feeding is a success story. It has integrated agriculture, food security, education, nutrition, health, and sanitation in the best way. As such 3.3 million children including girls all over the country are directly getting benefits from the program every day.’

He shared the impressive results of school nutrition in boosting enrollment, attendance, and learning outcomes with the help of the campaign. ‘We have quadrupled the budget in the last five years for this purpose. In the current fiscal year, we have allocated 6 percent of the total education budget to school meals. We are committed to further scale-up investment and resources for this important safety net,’ added PM Dahal.

Following the UN Food System Summit in 2021, the Nepal government organized national and provincial level food system dialogue with relevant stakeholders to examine the existing food system, understand vulnerabilities, and design pathways to transform them.

PM Dahal said, ‘We then prepared food system transformation strategic plans from 2022 to 2030 to link with the Sustainable Development Goals. We are also strengthening the capacity of the local government to implement and monitor the program.’

He even talked about the homework of the government for strengthening the campaign. ‘My government is striving toward establishing a home-grown school feeding model and expanding local food production to ensure a diversified and nutritious food supply to school meals,’ PM Dahal,’ Together, let us embrace this transformative journey of working hand in hand to provide our children with nutritious meals, quality education, and a sustainable future.’

He appreciated the UN System, development partners, and key stakeholders for their strong commitment assisting to transform the food system and achieving SDGs by 2030. He shared the aim of Nepal to graduate from LDC by 2026.

Nepal joined the school meal coalition in 2021 to improve the quality, adequacy, coverage, and sustainability of the school meal programs. PM Dahal along with daughter Ganga Dahal, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Dr. Beduram Bhusal, Member of National Planning Commission Jay Kant Raut, and other senior government officials departed for Italy to attend the summit on Saturday. The program will last till July 26.