NEADAP School Milk Learning Paper Unveiled

The paper authered by Pascal Debons, Nieke Westerik, Marco Streng, Monique Beun, Demewez Moges, and Frederick Kizito acknowledges that school feeding programmes are effective interventions to improve educational outcomes, nutrition and health, gender equality, and local economies. However, it also recognizes that these programmes often face difficulties in reaching the most disadvantaged and excluded groups in low-income countries, due to limited funding, food insecurity, and low quality and diversity of food. To overcome these challenges, the authors suggest a parent-led approach, where parents and communities take part in the school feeding programme by supplying, processing and distributing milk to the schools.

The paper explains the operational model of the school milk programme in Uganda and Ethiopia, where the authors have been piloting and scaling the approach since 2017. The paper also discusses the challenges and opportunities of scaling up the programme and provides recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers who are interested in replicating or adapting the programme in other contexts.

The paper concludes by reflecting on the potential of the school milk programme to create a lasting impact on the lives of the children, the parents and the communities, as well as the dairy sector. The authors suggest that the school milk programme can be a catalyst for creating a milk-drinking culture and a healthy diet, as well as a model for scaling school feeding in low-income countries, with the complementary roles of donors and governments.

The paper is available for download here.