The National School Feeding Program (SFP) in Malawi is an initiative administered by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with several partners, to provide nutritious meals to children attending primary school. In this study, we analysed the multisectoral costs and benefits associated with the SFP. We evaluated the impact of three different modalities, implemented in collaboration with Mary’s Meals, the World Food Programme, and Nascent Solutions. The objective was to quantify the impact on various sectors, education, health and nutrition, social protection, and local agricultural economy, and to assess its overall value for money by comparing estimated costs and benefits. We estimated that SFP beneficiaries achieve on average an additional 8% of school years compared to non-beneficiaries. We found that the increase in educational attainment is further associated with better job opportunities and higher future incomes. The study also estimated the potential health and nutrition impacts of the SFP. The provision of nutritious meals leads to improved health outcomes, through reductions in cases of anaemia. As a result, a cohort of 1,000 learners who benefit from the SFP throughout their entire primary education would collectively see a reduction of around 360 cases of anemia compared to a cohort of the same size not reached by the SFP. When estimating the longterm economic benefits associated with health and nutrition, and education outcomes of the SFP, we found that for every $1 invested, benefits of up to $8 could be expected, indicating a substantial value for money. Beyond health and nutrition and education, we found that for the most socio-economically disadvantaged, the distribution of 185 healthy meals per year would correspond to a transfer of up to 8% of annual food consumption expenditures. Additionally, we show that local procurement of school meals could be equivalent to a transfer of up to 12 billion MWK (USD 1.1 million) per year to the Malawian agricultural sector. Moreover, investing in agriculture through smallholder support programs could generate significant returns by boosting local food production and increasing the incomes of smallholder farmers. In conclusion, this study contributes to filling existing gaps in scientific evidence regarding the impact of school-based interventions. The SFP in Malawi has a positive impact on education, health and nutrition, agriculture, and social protection sectors, and provides a high return on investment. The program could show its full potential if accompanied by measures to address current key challenges of the education and agricultural sectors in Malawi, such as enhancing agricultural production practices and foster a more resilient agricultural economy.
2024
58 p.
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