Governments across Sub-Saharan Africa have significantly increased school meal provisions, reaching an additional 20 million children over the past two years, as reported by the World Food Programme (WFP). This expansion signals a strategic shift towards domestic investment in education and away from reliance on foreign aid.

• The region's school meal coverage grew by nearly a third to 87 million in 2024, with countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda, Madagascar, and Chad expanding their programs sixfold.
• The WFP highlights this as a "significant shift from reliance on foreign aid to recognising school meals as a strategic public investment in children's education (and) health."
• Despite this progress, millions of children, particularly in low-income African nations such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, and South Sudan, still lack access to school meals due to declining donor support.