INTRODUCTION

Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) improves the nutrition status of pre-school, primary school children and adolescents, by addressing macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies. This leads to enhanced education, nutrition and health outcomes, decreased morbidity, and increased learning capacities. During the 2016 ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the assembly recognized the importance of HGSF through passing decision: AU Assembly (589 XXVI) on HGSF and the Assembly declared African Day of School Feeding (ADSF) on the 1st of March of every year.

Since the declaration, the ADSF continental commemoration has been a rallying point to reinforce and strengthen political will for school feeding on the continent. The ADSF has served as a convening space for stakeholders across the public, private, civil society, and multilateral sectors to raise awareness and knowledge on school feeding, take stock of progress made and galvanize political support for the adoption, implementation or sustainment of pro-school feeding policies programmes.

WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED TO DATE

-  Motivated by the ADSF events, and other continental and global initiatives and the support of partners, below are some of the achievements seen so far;

-  Development and dissemination of the Continental Guideline for Implementing Home Grown School Feeding Programmes

-  Member States have increased the investment in domestic financing for school meals from 34 percent in 2020 achieving 45 percent in 2022.

-  AU has documented and shared four major publications and biennial reports on African school feeding programmes highlighting both achievements, and shortcomings.

-  Member states have increased coverage and scale of school feeding programmes in Africa with 65.9 million children receiving daily school meals, a marginal increase on the 65.4 million fed in 2020. This figure shows an increase of over 100% compared to the 2016 data of 29,685,465 students prior to the groundbreaking decision of the AU Assembly.

-  In 2022, about 89 percent of countries adopted a school meals policy, compared to 68 percent in 2020.

-  On average, for every 100,000 learners fed, 757 direct jobs (most of these jobs are cooks and caterers) were created in 33 countries in 2022.

-  The African Union and Member States have established the HGSF Cluster for strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships with the aim of promoting ‘DELIVERING AS ONE’ to the AU Agenda 2063.

LINKAGES WITH AU THEME OF THE YEAR AND THEME OF THE 9TH ADSF

The AU Assembly/AU/Dec.864(XXXVI) of February 2023, has designated ‘EDUCATION’ as the African Union Theme of the Year 2024. The theme “Educate an African fit for the 21st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa,” was endorsed with the intention of re-galvanizing Member States towards the achievement of CESA and SDG4 targets, mobilizing governments and development partners to rethink education and skills development models in Africa and implement the declarations from STC-EST4, the UN TES, the High-level Side Event on TES and the Youth Manifesto on TES in Africa.

Consequently, the 9th ADSF will focus on the theme: “Investing in Home Grown School Feeding to transform education systems - for an inclusive, and prosperous future of the African Continent”. Under this theme, the 9th ADSF will bring AU Member States, and partners to come together to further spotlight HGSF. Under this theme, the 9th ADSF will bring together, AU Member States, and all School Feeding Partners, to further spotlight HGSF, with the objective of consolidating the political commitments made by Member States at TES, AU Summit, Global SMC, and trigger future action to strengthen the implementation of a comprehensive HGSF programs that contribute to Education, Health, Nutrition outcomes, agriculture, and local development.

OBJECTIVE OF THE EVENT

This year's ADSF continental commemoration provides an opportune moment to take stock of the leadership and commitment of African countries in this Year of Education 2024 (YoE) and discuss next steps in ensuring this commitment is translated into national implementation plan.

The outcome of the event in the long term would enable Member States and partners to take deliberate measures:

-  To strengthen the implementation of comprehensive school feeding programs to improve human capital and enable greater access to education, enhancing the health & nutrition of children, and strengthening local and rural economies.

-  To increase sustainable financing and systematic investment in Education, allocating more funding to the re-integration of Out-of-School girls in the education

-  Sharing Member States and South-South Cooperation experiences on school feeding for nutrition and education improvement.

-  Showcase ambitious commitments from Global School Meals Coalition that has demonstrated on how countries will improve and scale its current programming, responding to the health, nutrition and education needs of children.

THE AFRICA DAY OF SCHOOL FEEDING HOSTING FORMAT

The 9th ADSF with Department of the ESTI requested Member States to notify the AUC of their willingness to host the 9th ADSF through formal Note Verbales (NV) giving equal chances to all Member States. The commission has received two official expressions of interest from Member States. The Commission received the concrete confirmation and budget to host the event from Burundi, hence the 9th edition of the continental ADSF will be celebrated in Burundi under the theme specified above. Furthermore, the ESTI will invite all Member States to participate on hybrid basis in the pre-technical event on 29 February 2024 and the main celebration on 1st March. The technical session will be a key input for drawing important ideas for the continental 9th ADSF communique that will be endorsed on 1st March. The celebration event will take place in Bujumbura, Burundi. The technical session on February 29th and the main event on March 1st will take place physically. However, both sessions will be simultaneously conducted on-line in the hybrid format.