Brasilia (EFE).- The social and economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic still affects school feeding in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a report presented in Brasilia by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Program for Food (WFP).
Beyond the prolonged closure of schools, which interrupted the learning process, decreased academic performance and caused “damage to multiple aspects of the well-being of boys and girls”, the study argues that the impact of the pandemic now extends into ” a context of aggravated crises” throughout the region.
The report “State of School Feeding in Latin America and the Caribbean” referring to 2022 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, along 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 is experiencing these effects at a time of increasing “food insecurity” and with “nutritional indicators” in “decline.”
Crises and “long-standing structural challenges”
According to the IDB and the WFP, all this current scenario is added to what they describe as “long-standing 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 complicated and large-scale migratory movements.”
All this, according to the study, “threatens the well-being, access to school and the development capacity of boys and girls” and supposes “aggravated challenges” that “create the conditions” for an increase in school dropout.
In fact, it specifies that “up to 12 million children, adolescents and young people in primary, lower secondary and upper secondary” are not “attending school” in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The forecasts for the immediate future are even more bleak and say that “the educational trajectory of more than 118 million boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 17 is in danger” due to “uncertain” access to “quality education” , which constitutes “a significant threat to their academic progress and future opportunities.”
The report values that during the pandemic many countries managed to maintain their school feeding programs, which have already “returned to schools throughout the region”, although it stresses that they still face “important challenges” due to “management, financing and coordination problems”. .
Family farming as a provider
Within this framework, he 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, they have good experiences with “local food systems”.
It further states that “nearly all countries need further scale-up to realize the full potential of local purchasing” and that “national budgets are the main source of funding in all middle-income countries”.
According to the report, “the estimated regional investment in school feeding in 2022” was between 3,600 and 7,600 million dollars and that the state contribution constituted “99% of the funds.”
It emphasizes, however, that “inequalities persist between the countries that have more resources and those that have fewer” and also about “the scope, relevance and quality of the programs”, as well as the nutritional and healthy potential of the food.
In this sense, it points out that “in low-income countries, the cost of school feeding can be as low as 10 dollars per year per boy/girl, while in high-income countries the annual cost per boy/girl is estimated at $293.”
