Review of the process leading to the formation of the School Meals Coalition (SMC)

School meals are delivered to more children than at any time in human history, making school feeding the most extensive social safety net in the world. School meal programs contain positive spin-off effects in various areas of global development (e.g. gender equality, local agriculture, green transition, public infrastructure, funding efficiency) and contribute to various Agenda 2030 SDGs. There is a rapid growth in programmes, reflecting both the global attention and appreciation of this instrument but also its national nature – more than 90 per cent are domestic funds. Yet despite the importance of domestic interest and investment, global coalitions such as the global School Meals Coalition (SMC) continue to play a significant role. The SMC was officially launched in 2021. It is a Member-State-led platform for governments and supporting partners to improve the quality, sustainability and scale of national school meals programmes and complementary interventions. So far, about 80 countries from the global North and South and about 90 partners have joined the coalition. Why do they join? What do they gain from a coalition? This review was initiated by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Finland to investigate the forming process of the SMC: how and why the SMC emerged, its key features, structure, major achievements and key elements that have contributed to successes so far.