The school feeding program (SFP) in Ethiopia is designed to provide nutritious meals to children attending pre-primary and primary school. In this report, we analyzed the costs of the SFP and quantified its impact on education, health and nutrition, social protection, and agriculture. By comparing costs and benefits of the SFP, we assessed its value for money in Ethiopia. We found that SFP is associated with substantial impacts on education. Beneficiaries would achieve an additional 34% of years of schooling, on average, compared to non-beneficiaries, equivalent to an extra 2.3 years of education. This increase in educational attainment would be further associated with better job opportunities and higher incomes in the future. Moreover, SFP beneficiaries would experience improved health outcomes, with reductions in cases of anemia. As a result, a cohort of 1,000 children benefiting from the SFP during primary education would experience cumulatively 5 additional years lived in good health compared to a same size cohort of non-beneficiaries. Overall, considering the monetary value of the impacts on health and nutrition and education, for every $1 invested into SFP, an average benefit of $4 can be expected. The distribution of school meals would also greatly improve equity. The value of the transfer associated with school meals would amount to up to 5% of annual food expenditures for the poorest households. Additionally, local food procurement for the school meals would constitute a substantial transfer of potentially around USD 50 million per year to Ethiopian smallholder farmers according to Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education. In conclusion, Ethiopia’s SFP presents high value for money, with potentially substantial benefits to the education, health and nutrition, social protection, and agriculture sectors. Strengthening data collection and management information systems, particularly with respect to the health and nutrition status of adolescents, and agricultural production and productivity of smallholder farmers, would allow for more precise quantification of the full benefits of school feeding in the country.
Centro de Recursos de Saúde e Educação