Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the UN Food Systems Summit+4 Stocktake (UNFSS+4) School Meals Coalition Featured Event: “Unlocking Sustainable Investments for Home-Grown School Meals”, in Addis Ababa:

The progress we witness is being driven by Governments, but they are not walking alone. Partners across the School Meals Coalition are working hand in hand with Governments to deliver on their national commitments.

But, why is there so much momentum behind school meals? Why are so many Governments and partners making this a priority? Because school meals are more than just a plate of food. They are a lever to building more inclusive, sustainable food systems, and to equipping the next generation with the health, nutrition and education they deserve to reach their potential.

To truly pull that lever — to unlock its full power — we must focus on four key priorities.

First: Expand coverage and raise collective ambitions. As we’ve just heard from our distinguished speakers, momentum is building. Next to our Governments on stage, countries like Rwanda, which has achieved near-universal primary school coverage, and Indonesia, which is scaling up at an unprecedented pace, are showing what’s possible.

Now, the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty has joined forces with the School Meals Coalition to rally Governments and development partners behind a bold global target: to reach an additional 150 million children in low- and middle-income countries by 2030, as agreed at the Group of 20 (G20) last year. This means moving from commitment to delivery with the School Meals Coalition and the Global Alliance working with countries ready to lead the way.

Second: Pull the lever — use procurement to transform food systems. Countries continue to harness the potential of school meal programmes to catalyse food systems transformation, including ambitious targets regarding procurement from smallholder farmers, but we must go further by aligning school-meal menus and procurement with nutrition, sustainability and social goals; by using clean cooking solutions in schools; by reducing food loss and waste; and through food, nutrition and climate education in schools.

Third: Integrate school meals into climate finance. When rooted in sustainability, school meals have enormous potential to advance climate mitigation and adaptationm and to promote biodiversity. The thirtieth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) in Brazil offers us a chance to move school meals from a climate blind spot to a climate solution. Let’s work to ensure these programmes are included in future Nationally Determined Contributions and embedded in climate financing pipelines where they belong.

Fourth: Plug the financing gap. The Sevilla Commitment, adopted a few weeks ago, calls on all of us to close the gap between ambition and means. But, with 35 low- and middle-income countries in high risk of or in debt distress, we must explore innovative financing solutions to ensure an economically stable future for those countries– from health taxes and natural resource revenues to debt swaps and Multilateral Development Bank investments.

We have much to learn from the innovation that has taken place in countries for the last two years since we last met in Rome as reported in the UNFSS+4 Report of the Secretary-General. Let’s make sure we use the momentum of the Sevilla Commitment to attract the finance that is needed.

Let me close with a powerful motto from a dear friend and leading advocate, Ndidi Nwuneli of the ONE Campaign. “Our job is not to scale our work. It’s to scale what works.” This is what we see across the School Meals Coalition: Governments and partners coming together to expand a solution that works.

So, let’s build on the progress we’ve made — and finish what we started in 2021: by 2030, every child receiving a healthy, nutritious meal in school. Let’s feed the future together.