Namibia has expanded its school feeding program that is benefiting 431,500 learners up from 78,000 at its inception in 1996, said Anna Nghipondoka, Minister of Education, Arts and Culture, on Thursday.
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"We have made tremendous progress in scaling up school feeding in Namibia over the years. It has quadrupled in size, reaching 431,500 learners in 1,496 schools in all 14 regions of Namibia," Nghipondoka said.
The program, launched in 1996, aims to address inequalities and expand access to educational opportunities to disadvantaged children, particularly orphans and vulnerable learners.
@WFPBrasil is supporting Namibia in School Feeding Program. Specialists from @WFPBrasil took part in an online session with Namibia, organized by @WFPNamibia last week to discuss mechanisms to transform rural economies based on the Brazilian experience. https://t.co/WjNcPyIlTg pic.twitter.com/iBLuIgf4Fq
— Daniel Balaban (@DaniBalaban) April 30, 2021
Meanwhile, to expand the program, the government introduced a school feeding policy to refine approaches and quality of education delivered by a decentralized feeding program.
Furthermore, according to Nghipondoka, Namibia is looking to diversify the school feeding program. The ministry, along with the United Nations World Food Programme, is designing a home-grown school feeding program to diversify school meals with locally available food by linking schools to smallholder farmers.
"This will serve a dual purpose; to increase the intake of diversified nutritious food by learners while simultaneously also increase income for smallholder farmers," she said.
The program is supported by United Nations Children's Fund and the World Food Programme.