Introduction

Based on an evaluation of school feeding in Mongolia by WFP and UNICEF, it was recommended that Mongolia should apply Her Royal Highness’ project on ‘Agriculture for School Lunch’ to the future school feeding program in Mongolia. Consequently, the first study visit to Her Royal Highness’ project was undertaken in early 2007 by a multisectoral team, led by the Vice Minister of the Mongolian Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (MECS), which thereafter planned to conduct a pilot school feeding project in Altanbulag soum (district), Tuv aimag (province).Subsequently, the working group of the pilot school, led by the Governor of Altanbulag soum, undertook a visit to Thailand in January 2009.

A five-year collaborative pilot project was established in the secondary school of Altanbulag soum with the intention of developing a comprehensive model for the future scaling-up of a school feeding program. This program would apply Her Royal Highness’ practical experience in improving school children’s nutrition and health, and thus facilitate their learning. The project promotes ‘learning by doing’ in food production, nutrition, basic sanitation, and food hygiene, thus ensuring food security and livelihood. It also promotes participation by multisectoral teams at central, local, and community levels.

The project consists of four main components: (1) personnel capacity building, (2) vegetable and fruit tree plantations and dairy cows for milk production as a learning experience for food production and food preservation, (3) nutrition and health promotion by providing school meals and snacks, as well as monitoring child growth, and (4) basic sanitation and hygiene by improving water supply and waste systems. The ongoing project involves 464 students, 30 teachers, and community members of Altanbulag soum.

On August 25, 2009, Her Royal Highness paid her first visit to the secondary school of Altanbulag soum. The pilot school showed good progress. The school could produce food and store it in an appropriate storage facility for the winter time. Thereafter, in the year 2014, the Mongolian Ministry of Education, Culture and Science Mongolia decided to expand Her Royal Highness model to another 4 schools in Tuv, Dundgobi, Central and Sukhbaatar provinces.

Development Activities