Championing healthy, nutritious school meals in Tanzania

Neema Lugangira MP founded Agri Thamani Foundation in Tanzania, which aims to end malnutrition through community and school workshops (pictured here), advocacy and climate action. Photo credit: Agri Thamani Foundation.

• This case study from Neema Lugangira MP in Tanzania is part of a campaign profiling parliamentary action on education as part of World Parliament Day, held every year on 30th June.

• This year, on Monday 30th June, IPNEd is hosting an online event to hear from members of parliament who are taking action to ensure more children are in school and receiving a quality education.

• Neema Lugangira MP has been actively working towards sustainable school feeding in Tanzania to ensure children nationwide have access to a nutritious meal in primary and secondary school.

Providing children with a healthy, nutritious meal at school is vital to improving the quality of education, reducing absenteeism, and increasing child health and learning. 

Although there is not yet a nationwide school meals programme in Tanzania, momentum is increasing.

Neema Lugangira MP, a member of the National Assembly of Tanzania, is on the frontline of this momentum to make school meals a national priority. She has been championing school meals nationwide and internationally in a number of ways, both prior to and during her term as a parliamentarian, and her dedicated advocacy is paying off globally. 

Ms. Lugangira’s most recent success is the recognition of the importance of nutrition in her political party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi or CCM’s, manifesto for 2025-2030. The ruling party reaffirms its commitment to overseeing the availability of nutritious food, through ensuring school meals are provided in primary and secondary schools across Tanzania.

This reaffirmation signals a 5-year commitment to school feeding and recognises such as a key way to strengthen the health of Tanzania’s population. 

Championing school meals across Tanzania

Evidence shows that 30% of children under the age of 5 are affected by stunting in Tanzania, meaning that roughly one in three children are not reaching their full growth potential due to malnutrition and other factors.

School meals can help to reduce malnutrition by providing a healthy meal every day. School meals also improve the quality of education, as a hungry child cannot concentrate, and can find it more difficult to concentrate and participate in school life. 

A child who is healthy, skilled and knowledgeable is able to contribute to their nation’s human capital, fostering economic growth and national development.

Ms. Lugangira established the Agri Thamani Foundation in Tanzania in 2017. This national NGO aims to end malnutrition through advocacy, school and community nutrition, food safety, clean cooking and climate action. 

Through community workshops, the team at Agri Thamani Foundation provides nutrition education to breastfeeding mothers, elders, students in school, and others in the community to raise awareness of nutrient-rich foods that can strengthen their health and protect them against diseases caused by poor nutrition. 

Advocating for school meals internationally                     

On the international stage, Ms. Lugangira has championed school meals in various high-level forums and networks as a globally recognised advocate. 

As an Executive Committee member of IPNEd, she has been key to helping drive wider parliamentary support for school meals. She was a central part of the team that contributed to and launched IPNEd’s School Meals Toolkit for Parliamentarians, which makes the case for school meals and provides actionable advice to members of parliament. 

“School meals improve children’s nutrition, support their physical development, provide an incentive for children to attend school and can be used to support local agriculture,” shared Ms. Lugangira, “Parliamentary support for school meals can go a long way to ensuring well-designed and effective interventions are implemented so all children are receiving a healthy, nutritious meal in school every day.”

The School Meals Coalition was launched during the UN General Assembly in September 2021. It aims to urgently improve and scale up school meal programmes so that every child in school receives a healthy, nutritious meal by 2030.

Tanzania is one of the Coalition's 105 member countries. Ms. Lugangira’s commitment to the issue was a significant factor in securing Tanzania’s signature to the Coalition, which President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced in September 2022. 

Ms. Lugangira’s actions demonstrate the achievements that can be made as a parliamentary champion for school meals.

Parliamentary action is vital to driving change in the quality of education, and ensuring governments provide a healthy, nutritious school meal for all children is a key ingredient to this work.