Kenya is working with the United Arab Emirates to expand school meal programs in the country, according to Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, in order to increase the number of children who benefit from them.
The DP said the two countries have strong ties and Kenya is looking forward to working with the UAE to expand school-feeding initiatives when he hosted United Arab Emirates Minister for Environment and Climate Change Mariam Almheiri at Harambee House Annex.
Almheiri is leading her country’s delegation to the inaugural African Climate Summit in Nairobi.
The courtesy call on the DP came after the two met last July on the sidelines of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2 in Rome, Italy, and agreed to look into better ways of boosting the ongoing meal programs.
On Monday, the two held discussions centred around integrating Climate Friendly Actions into scaling up Kenya’s School Meals Programme.
The Deputy President highlighted that Kenya is following in the steps of other countries like UAE that have successfully rolled out school feeding programs. He said that Kenya remains committed in scaling up the number of school children under the programme from the current 1.8 Million to 10 million by the year 2030.
He lauded the UAE for ranking as the fifth largest exporter of Kenyan produce while calling for more support as the government works round the clock to elevate the Agricultural sector in the country through the reforms in different sub sectors being spearheaded by the DP.
This year, Kenya has doubled its domestic investment into the meals programmes from 15M USD to 40M USD.
He said the programmes will play a key role in increasing the number of learners in school and improving their retention in the learning institutions.
The DP also praised the partnership between the two countries in the fight against radicalisation and terrorism.
The UAE Minister said her country was exploring ways to partner with Kenya in the school feeding programmes.
The minister also lauded Kenya for hosting the Africa Climate summit terming it a good opportunity for the Global South to highlight their challenges and propose solutions on Climate Change.
