Evaluation of the school feeding scheme in Nigeria: a scoping review of its impacts, challenges, successes, implications, and solutions to achieving Sustainable Development Goals

The National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) is Nigeria’s flagship school feeding intervention designed to reduce child hunger, improve school participation, and stimulate local agricultural production. This systematic review synthesizes evidence on its impacts, implementation challenges, successes, and contributions to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 4 (Quality Education). A systematic search of PubMed, AJOL, Scopus, ScienceDirect, BMC, Frontiers, and grey literature was conducted for studies published between January 2010 and March 2026, following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Eligible studies included quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research reporting primary data on NHGSFP outcomes in Nigeria. Risk of bias was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute tools. Out of 312 records, 8 studies met the inclusion criteria. Evidence from the included studies indicates that NHGSFP is associated with improved school enrollment (11-42% relative gains), increased attendance, and enhanced household food security among participating smallholder farmers (40% food security among beneficiary farmers; 20% non-beneficiaries). Successes included local economic multipliers via smallholder procurement. However, nutritional outcomes remain inconsistent due to variability in meal quality, funding constraints, and limited integration of complementary health services such as deworming and water, sanitation, and hygiene. Implementation challenges include inadequate financing, weak monitoring systems, regional disparities, and governance inefficiencies. Despite these constraints, the program demonstrates economic benefits through local procurement and employment generation, particularly for smallholder farmers and women. Overall, NHGSFP contributes to multiple SDGs, but its impact is constrained by systemic and contextual challenges. Strengthening financing, governance, and integrated service delivery is essential to improve effectiveness. Further longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to establish causal impacts on health and education outcomes.