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Effect of the pandemic still affects school feeding in Latin America

Effect of the pandemic still affects school feeding in Latin America

The social and economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic still affects school feeding in Latin America and the Caribbeanaccording to a report presented in Brasilia this Tuesday by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Food Program (WFP).

Beyond the prolonged closure of schools, which interrupted the learning process, lowered academic performance and caused “harm to multiple aspects of children’s well-being”the study argues that the impact of the pandemic now extends into “a context of aggravated crises” throughout the region.

The report “Status of School Feeding in Latin America and the Caribbean” Referring to 2022, it was presented in the Brazilian capital, at the opening of a seminar on human capital that brings together delegates from all the countries of the region, together with representatives of international organizations.

It specifies that, due to the health crisis, 165 million students throughout Latin America and the Caribbean had their education interrupted and that the resumption of school activities has occurred in a scenario of “food prices and agricultural inputs” on the rise

He adds that the region suffers these effects at times of growing “food insecurity” and with the “nutritional indicators” in “slope”.

Crises and “long-standing structural challenges”

According to the IDB and the WFP, all this current scenario is added to what they describe as “longstanding structural challenges”.

Among them, they cite “a changing climate with intensified droughts and forest fires and more frequent and violent hurricanes, increasing trends of overweight and obesity with associated comorbidities, and large-scale and complicated migratory movements.”

All this, according to the study“threats the well-being, access to school and development capacity of boys and girls” and assumes “aggravated challenges” that “create the conditions” to increase school dropout.

In fact, it requires that “up to 12 million children, adolescents and young people in primary, lower secondary and upper secondary school”, are not “attending school” in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The forecasts for the immediate future are even more gloomy and say that “The educational trajectory of more than 118 million boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 17 is in danger”for “uncertain” access to a “quality education”which constitutes “a significant threat to their academic progress and future opportunities.”

The report assesses that during the pandemic many countries managed to maintain their school feeding programs, which “they have returned to schools throughout the region”although he stresses that they still face “important challenges” by “management, financing and coordination problems”.

Family farming as a provider

Within this framework, it recommends increasing state cooperation with family farming as a great provider of food for schools, a model in which “Brazil has been a pioneer” and in which other countries in the region, such as Guatemala, Ecuador and Haiti, have good experiences with “local food systems”.

It further states that “almost all countries need further expansion to reach the full potential of local purchasing” and? “national budgets are the main source of financing in all middle-income countries”.

According to the report, “the estimated regional investment in school feeding in 2022” was between US$3.6 and US$7.6 billion and that the state contribution constituted “99% of the funds.”

Emphasize, however, that “inequalities persist between the countries that have more resources and those that have less” and also regarding “the scope, relevance and quality of the programs”as well as the nutritional and healthy potential of food.

In this sense, he points out that “In low-income countries, the cost of school feeding can be as low as US$10 per child per year, while in high-income countries the annual cost per child is estimated at US$293” .

Source: EFE

Source: Gestion

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