MASERU – To recommit to school meals, the Minister of Education and Training (MoET), Professor Ntoi Rapapa and other officials held a courtesy meeting with Germany’s Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Reem Alabali-Radovan on Friday.
The engagement as according to information from the MoET underscores Lesotho’s focus on strengthening national capacity and delivering resilient, sustainable school feeding through strategic partnerships.
In addition, the Minister is also said to have held an insightful meetings with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ) Reem Alabali-Radovan,founding partners of the School Meals Accelerator, the World Food Programme (WFP), the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, with country representatives from the Philippines and Guatemala as well.
Meanwhile, a press release issued by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation shows a first-of-its-kind School Meals Accelerator was launched on Friday so as to reach an additional 100 million children by 2030.
The Accelerator, reported to be getting off the ground with more than US$80 million from the four founding partners, with additional support from France and the Global Partnership for Education, will unite countries in Africa including Lesotho, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean with technical assistance to strengthen and scale national school meal programmes.
This will be done by pooling resources and expertise as these partners aim to unlock the full potential of national school feeding programmes to combat hunger and poverty, while strengthening food and nutrition security around the world.
School meals are regarded as one of the most powerful and underleveraged investments in development hence even locally the government has prioritised tackling hunger by providing subsidies to farmers through Post Bank so as to access farming equipment easily for realisation of National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP).
ENDS/AM/BM
