The World Food Programme (WFP) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) plan to hand over financial responsibility for a school feeding program in the Oromia and Afar regions to the Ethiopian government by the end of 2029.
The time will also mark the end of the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program (IFEP), under which the school feeding financing is implemented.
While the government is expected to take over full financial responsibility for the program in four years’ time, a new baseline study warns that the path to self-reliance is constrained by systemic bottlenecks that could leave thousands of children at risk of hunger if not addressed.
Commissioned by WFP’s Ethiopia country office and conducted by TANGO International in partnership with Hermon Research, the study found that while government spending on school feeding grew by nearly USD 30 million to USD 83.6 million in 2023, allocations remain fragmented and inconsistent.
The study drew on primary data from 56 schools, split evenly between the Oromia and Afar regions. It indicates the respective regional administrations contributed USD 4.7 million and USD 355,000 to school feeding programs.
Despite this upward trend, stakeholders identify the absence of a formal national budget line as a major threat to long-term sustainability, according to the report.
Ethiopia’s school feeding program dates back to 1994, when a WFP sponsored program was started as a pilot project in schools located in pastoral, drought-stricken, and conflict-affected areas.
Today, school feeding is delivered through three main approaches: government-financed homegrown programs, partner-supported initiatives such as WFP, and community-run schemes. By the 2022/23 fiscal year, government-backed programs alone were reaching more than six million children nationwide.
The USD 27.5 million McGovern-Dole project (2025–2029) builds on earlier USDA support, targeting pre-primary and primary school children in 343 schools in Afar and 157 in Oromia. Launched in its latest phase in September 2024, the program currently operates in 500 schools, supplying meals that include U.S.-fortified rice, corn-soy blend, fortified vegetable oil, and locally grown beans.
Its long-term goal is to transition to a Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) model, sourcing food from local farmers. Yet the evaluation finds that the infrastructure required to support such a transition remains largely absent.
“The government has demonstrated increasing financial commitment to school feeding, though there is no dedicated national budget line and there are notable differences between regions,” the report notes.
It adds that funding is often intermittent and vulnerable to diversion during humanitarian emergencies, raising doubts about the feasibility of the 2029 transition.
Regional disparities further complicate the outlook. In Oromia, authorities aim to assume full responsibility for the program by 2028. However, persistent conflict and low agricultural productivity among smallholder farmers limit the capacity of local communities to replace external support.
In Afar, the challenges are even more acute. The report describes community-led sustainability in pastoralist areas as “unrealistic,” citing recurrent drought and infertile land as barriers to local food production. Stakeholders warn that a premature withdrawal by WFP could lead to the collapse of school feeding in the region.
Beyond nutrition, the implications extend to education outcomes. The study finds that more than 65 percent of students in project areas are classified as non-readers. While school meals have helped improve attendance, experts say parallel investments in teacher training, learning materials, and books remain insufficient.
They warn that a disruption in feeding programs could lead to declining attendance and further deterioration in already fragile literacy levels.
The report outlines a phased gradual scale-down of WFP support beginning in 2027, intended to test the government’s readiness to take full ownership. Whether Ethiopia can bridge the financial, institutional, and structural gaps before the 2029 deadline will determine not only the future of school feeding, but also hundreds of thousands of children’s access to education.
The government spends heavily on school feeding programs, and some regional administrations have extended meal plans to teachers.
