In this editorial, we describe the emergence of four milestone principles in connection with school health and nutrition programs.

UNESCO and Peking University collaborated with national authorities in Botswana, Nigeria, and Uganda to strengthen school health education and adolescent well-being in line with national priorities.

Poor nutrition and inadequate WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) practices significantly impact children’s health, nutrition, and cognitive development, especially in low-income settings.

School meal programs are a widely implemented safety net with documented impacts across social protection, education, health and nutrition and high estimated returns to investment (Alderman et al., 2024).

Free school meals feed more than 400 million children worldwide, making them the largest social programme in history. But how effective are they? And should even more governments provide free school meals?

In June 2025, the government announced that, from the start of the 2026 school year, every pupil whose household is on Universal Credit will be entitled to free school meals.

Across Africa, health taxes – that is, excise duties on tobacco, alcohol, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) – represent one of the most underutilised but promising domestic revenue sources available to African governments.

Integrated health and nutrition packages in schools have been shown to be a cost-effective approach to support children’s well-being and academic achievement; yet few countries adequately invest in promoting such integration.

This study investigated smallholder farmers' access and participation in the Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP) market and the uptake of a mobile phone platform (MPP) in HGSFP procurement in Tharaka Nithi, Kitui and Kilifi Counties of Kenya.

This study examined the effect of a school-based nutrition and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) education on low body mass index (BMI;<18.5 kg/m2) and malnutrition symptoms among adolescents in Gojra.