23/06/2022 18:16 Benin: The Multiple Benefits of School Lunch

Who We Are This page in: EN



FEATURE STORY MAY 6, 2019

Benin: The Multiple Benefits of School Lunch

    

“We try to take the children's preferences into account in our weekly menu planning. Many of them come to school because they know that they will be fed,” explains Armand
Bignon Hessou, the canteen supervisor.

Photo: Gnona Afangbeji, World Bank

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In Benin, the establishment of school lunch has helped reduce absenteeism and dropout rates

Some 89,000 children in 25 communes in the country receive a hot meal daily with ingredients sourced exclusively from
local providers

Beyond the short-term impact on children’s health, the daily provision of balanced meals will help improve the human
capital of the entire country in the long term

COTONOU, Benin, May 6, 2019—The clock strikes noon at the Babazaoré public primary school, the most highly anticipated
moment of the day for about 100 pupils in this village in the Copargo commune in northwest Benin. It is time for the hot meal
provided by the school cafeteria every day. On today’s menu: a dish of rice with fried fish that is especially popular with the
students. “Here, the children eat every day, which allows them to remain in school. We try to take the children's preferences
into account in our weekly menu planning. Many of them come to school because they know that they will be fed,” explains
Armand Bignon Hessou, the canteen supervisor.

"Before there was a canteen, many children did not return to school after traveling long distances
to go home for lunch. Those who remained at school would light a fire under the tree to roast yams
or would settle for mixing some garri in a bottle of water"
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/05/06/benin-the-multiple-benefits-of-school-lunch 1/4
23/06/2022 18:16 Benin: The Multiple Benefits of School Lunch

Basile Ossoté
School principal of Babazaoré

Some 89,000 children in 25 communes in the country receive a hot meal daily with ingredients sourced exclusively from local providers.

Photo: Gnona Afangbeji, World Bank

The long trek home for lunch

Fousseni Séibou tucks into his plate of rice with relish. Only 8 years old, twice a day this Grade 1 student walks the 11
kilometer stretch that connects his village of Kompari to Babazaoré. “If the canteen did not exist, there is no guarantee that
Fousseni and his brothers would go to school,” explains Basile Ossoté, the school principal. “Before there was a canteen,
many children did not return to school after traveling long distances to go home for lunch. Those who remained at school
would light a fire under the tree to roast yams or would settle for mixing some garri (ground cassava) in a bottle of water.”

Today, his school welcomes more and more children from the villages of Kompari and Kikira, some 5 kilometers away, and
even from Goumougou, located 7 kilometers from Babazaoré. Moreover, they are among the top students. Thanks to the
cafeteria, school enrollment has also climbed from 84 to 145 pupils, and net dropout rates have been on the decline for three
years.

“The commune of Copargo is sparsely populated. This canteen helps make the school more inclusive for children from the
more far-flung villages. This is why it is important to allocate more resources to school feeding programs and extend them to
all schools in the country,” states Djakpèdo Biao, president of the Copargo parents’ associations.

Elementary school students line up to wash their hands before lunch. Photo: Gnona Afangbeji, World Bank

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/05/06/benin-the-multiple-benefits-of-school-lunch 2/4
23/06/2022 18:16 Benin: The Multiple Benefits of School Lunch

Multiple benefits

School cafeterias first emerged in 2014. Today, 396 public primary schools have one. Every day, they feed more than 89,105
pupils in 25 communes in the country. “When a canteen opens in a school, enrollment and attendance rates improve
instantly,” notes Claude Thierry Gbèdégbey Adjovi, Regional Education Lead for Copargo-Ouaké.

Convinced that good nutrition plays a critical role in a child’s development and educational performance, as well as
productivity in adulthood, in late 2018, the World Bank launched its first ever human capital index. This new tool measures
the contribution of health and education, which are equally as important as economic indicators, to the productivity of a
country’s next generation.

By providing a hearty, balanced meal to pupils, the canteen is helping combat challenges relating to malnutrition that affect
extremely poor families and contributing to improving Benin’s ranking on the human development index, which currently
stands at 127 out of 157 countries. “In a number of communes, poverty and malnutrition rates have already reached crisis
levels. Barely two out of ten households manage to have one meal per day. The meal served by the canteen offers pupils a
minimum level of nutritional stability and helps them maintain good health, with the attentiveness and vitality required to
pursue their studies,” explains Kassoumou Arouna, head of the school feeding service in the Departmental Directorate of
Preschool and Primary Education in Atacora and Donga departments. “We have noticed that there is very little infant
mortality associated with malnutrition in schools where the FCB-PME canteens have been established.”

By entrusting meal preparation to local providers, the program is also helping stimulate the community’s economy. “All the
food consumed by the children comes from local farms,” Basile Ossoté points out. “It is therefore less costly, and we are
confident in the quality. Even the rice the children eat comes from the fields of Babazaoré.” In some schools, students’
parents have even grown vegetable gardens to offer a number of products to the canteen.

The same handwashing session before the meal at another school, a few kilometres from Babazaoré in the village of Sô-Zounko, in the commune of Sô-Ava. Photo: Gnona
Afangbeji, World Bank

New financing

Cofinanced by the Beninese Government and several of its international partners, including the Global Partnership for
Education through its World Bank-administered Common Fund Budget (FCB), the school canteen project was subject to an
impact evaluation in July 2018. The review noted positive outcomes in over 88% of boys and 90% of girls benefiting from the
project. With the overall objective of improving the standard and quality of education in Benin, this program is also
developing other initiatives to build teachers’ capacities in the 25 most disadvantaged communes in the country, such as
constructing classrooms, distributing school kits, and implementing an education management and information system.

This success encouraged the Government to continue to finance the school canteens after the closure of the FCB program in
April 2018, with $5.9 million (CFAF 3.4 billion) allocated to providing hot meals to pupils in 3,179 schools during the 2018/19
school year. Four school canteen programs are already in place in some 7,360 schools. “A well-nourished child will stand a

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/05/06/benin-the-multiple-benefits-of-school-lunch 3/4
23/06/2022 18:16 Benin: The Multiple Benefits of School Lunch

better chance of succeeding at school and becoming a healthy and productive adult,” explains Katrina Sharkey, World Bank
Country Manager in Benin. “By ensuring that its children are properly nourished, Benin is investing in its economic and social
future, because a high-performing, competitive economy depends heavily on its human capital.” 

RELATED

WORLD BANK
Human capital index

Global Partnership for Education

WEBSITES
The World Bank in Benin

The World Bank in Africa

KATE PHILP JUN 23, 2022 LANT PRITCHETT JUN 23, 2022 HANS TIMMER JUN 23, 2022 DAVID MCKENZIE JUN 23,
Small islands in Southeast Asia: Awash in a sea of The Future of Government: Basic Education and the Unlocking growth across South Asia Weekly links June 23: STEM role mod

plastic (limited) role of technology in complex human multiple tests and complex intervent

endeavor approaching, and more…



About News
Data Projects and Operations
Research and Publications Countries
Learning Topics

FOLLOW US

NEWSLETTER

SUBSCRIBE HERE

This Site in: ENGLISH 

Legal Privacy Notice Site Accessibility Access to Information Jobs Contact

SCAM ALERTS REPORT FRAUD OR CORRUPTION

IBRD IDA IFC MIGA ICSID © 2022 The World Bank Group, All Rights Reserved.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/05/06/benin-the-multiple-benefits-of-school-lunch 4/4