The 13th annual Global Child Nutrition Forum, held May 3-7, 2011, in Nairobi, Kenya was touted as a huge success from speakers and attendees alike. Delegates representing 22 countries attended, as did many national and international corporate and non-governmental organizations. The theme of the Forum was “Scaling up Sustainability: Linking School Feeding with Agriculture Development to Maximize Food Security”.
Opening day of the Forum was full of excitement and promise for a great conference. Gene White, President of the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) began opening remarks by saying, “At the beginning of a five day event like this, it’s best to ask ourselves ‘why are we here?’.” Later, Dr. Sam Ongeri, Kenyan Minister of Education, seemingly answered White’s statement by saying, “Education is the great social equalizer but to have quality education there must be quality food programs. Education effects change … An empty stomach is a dangerous thing”. High profile attendees included the Kenyan Ministers of Agriculture, Education, Public Health and Sanitation and the Ghanaian Minister of Local Government and Rural Development.
Many speakers echoed the sentiment that school feeding programs are essential not only to child development but to keeping children in school. It is especially important for girls to stay in school and they are able to do so because of school feeding programs. Forum attendees were able to see this first hand on the school field trip day. Attendees divided into four groups, two went to the Kajiado District, one went to the Machakos District and one went to the Narok District. All were a two hour bus ride outside of Nairobi. On these school visits, attendees were able to witness a small part of daily life of Kenyan school children. Some children live at the schools, while others walk nearly two miles to attend class. For those children, the school feeding program is what keeps them going back.
Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in the Market Place, which brought the school feeding supply chain to life by providing a visual representation of the processes food commodities go through starting with the small-holder farmers and ending on the plates of children in area schools. The Market Place demonstrated how participating Forum organizations fit into the Home Grown School Feeding paradigm.
The final Forum session was a workshop teaching the School Feeding Toolkit, produced by the Global Child Nutrition Foundation. The Toolkit session, lead by Penny McConnell and Stan Garnett, detailed the steps needed in order to operate a successful school feeding program:
1. Country Goals and Objectives
2. Diagnostic Information
3. Needs Assessment
4. Country Plan
5. Country Plan Revision and Feedback
The Forum concluded with the release of the School Feeding Call to Action asking all African nations to “immediately focus on establishing and expanding home grown school feeding programs through legislation and national policies.”
The Global Child Nutrition Forum is a joint effort of the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) and the Partnership for Child Development (PCD).
For further Press coverage of the Forum, please visit: http://www.gcnf.org/media-3/press/
Pictures of the Forum are available at: http://www.gcnf.org/media-3/kenya-forum-2011/
No Responses