Call for Participants: Realizing High-Quality School Meals and Food Education for Children’s Healthier 8,000 Days
Organization: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Date: February 18, 2025
Objective:
To achieve improved health outcomes and well-being of children through enhanced school meal programs and food education.
Background:
The first 8,000 days of a child’s life are critical for their physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Nutrition plays a vital role during this period, and school meals provide a significant portion of children’s daily nutrient intake.
However, many school meal programs around the world face challenges, including limited resources, poor food quality, and inadequate nutrition education. This project aims to address these challenges and promote children’s health and well-being through the following approaches:
- Improving the nutritional value of school meals: Ensuring that meals provide children with the nutrients they need to grow, develop, and learn.
- Promoting healthy eating habits: Educating children about healthy food choices and encouraging them to adopt healthy eating behaviors.
- Strengthening the school environment for nutrition: Creating a supportive school environment that encourages and enables healthy eating.
Project Activities:
- Technical assistance: Providing support to governments and communities in developing and implementing effective school meal programs.
- Capacity building: Training educators, food handlers, and other key stakeholders in the principles of healthy school meals and food education.
- Knowledge sharing: Facilitating the exchange of best practices and lessons learned among participating countries.
Target Participants:
- Government officials responsible for education, health, and nutrition
- Educators, school administrators, and food handlers
- Representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private sector organizations involved in school meal programs and food education
- Researchers and academics working in the field of nutrition, public health, or education
Benefits of Participation:
- Gain access to cutting-edge knowledge and best practices in school meal programs and food education.
- Develop skills and capacity to design and implement effective interventions.
- Contribute to the improvement of the health and well-being of children in participating countries.
- Build networks with experts and organizations working in the field.
Application Process:
Interested candidates are requested to submit an application form, available on the JICA website, by the deadline of March 15, 2025.
Additional Information:
- The project will be implemented in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP) and other relevant organizations.
- Participants are expected to commit to the duration of the project, which is approximately three years.
- JICA will cover the costs of travel, accommodation, and other expenses for participants.
Contact Information:
For inquiries or additional information, please contact:
JICA Education and Human Resources Development Department Email: education@jica.go.jp Phone: +81-3-5352-5352
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国際協力機構 a new article on 2025-02-18 01:06 titled “【参加者募集！】子どもたちのより健康な8000日のための質の高い学校給食と食育の実現に向けて”. Please write a detailed article on this news item, including any relevant information. Answers should be in English.
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