57,000 children could be deprived of school meals due to lack of funds

Maputo, 24 Mar (AIM) – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that about 57,000 children could be deprived of school meals in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula due to lack of funds.

According to a WFP statement, “the funding gap is affecting the school meals in Nampula province, and current resources do not allow it to continue throughout 2025.”

The document also warns that the deficit also threatens the continuity of the National School Meals Programme (PRONAE), which combats food and nutritional insecurity among schoolchildren in Mozambique.

“The initiative had been planned to reach over 242,000 people in 340 schools during the first quarter of the 2025 school year, but after this period, the programme will be discontinued”, reads the note.

Recently, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), after tropical cyclone Jude hit northern Mozambique, called on donors, governments and the international community to urgently increase and maintain funding for education and emergency response efforts “because without immediate intervention, the future of an entire generation of Mozambican children is at risk”.

Over the last year, the Education Ministry called for inclusion of the PRONAE into the state budget, claiming that it must be seen and assumed as an integral part of school management, a contribution to promoting access to education, retention, improved learning and completion of levels for pupils enrolled in schools that implement food support.

It also claimed that it must be included in the state budget because, as a programme independent of the budget and dependent on external funding, it is simply not sustainable.
(AIM)
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