Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and FAO officially roll out One-Child, One-Egg Initiative in Bhutan

Coinciding with the 45^th birth anniversary of His Majesty The King, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock officially rolled out the One-Child, One-Egg initiative at Zunglen primary school in Drepong gewog, Mongar today.

The Minister for Agriculture and Livestock (MoAL) Younten Phuntsho and representatives from the relevant stakeholders joined the event with 180 students.

Launched earlier this month by the Prime Minister of Bhutan Dasho Tshering Tobgay and Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Director-General Dr QU Dongyu, the One-Child, One-Egg initiative will help fill significant nutritional gaps among school children by providing one egg per day to every student in Bhutan’s school feeding programme.

According to the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Report 2022, 20.7 percent of children in Bhutan live below the poverty line, making this initiative a critical intervention.

Initially, 300 pilot schools with about 32,000 students will be supported to establish proof of concept before scaling nationwide.

The initiative aims to ensure all schoolchildren receive adequate protein and micronutrients, reducing stunting, malnutrition, and anemia. It is also expected to build the capacity of farmers to adopt sustainable, climate-smart egg production practices, and create robust supply chains to connect schools with local producers while leveraging bioeconomy practices such as utilizing food waste for poultry feed to reduce environmental impact.

In collaboration with FAO Bhutan, MoAL is working with the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Bhutan Livestock Development Cooperative, farmer groups, and cooperatives.

FAO has committed USD 2M for the operationalization of the initiative by the first quarter of 2025, aligning with Bhutan’s new academic year.

Background

This initiative is a result of high-level discussions between the the Prime Minister of Bhutan Dasho Tshering Tobgay and the FAO Director-General Dr QU Dongyu at the 79th UN General Assembly. The Prime Minister announced the initiative during the opening session of the World Food Forum 2024 in Rome.

Currently, Bhutan’s school feeding programme benefits 88 784 students, many of whom rely on school meals as their primary source of nutrition. Integrating eggs into daily school meals is a simple yet impactful way to address existing nutritional gaps, especially for the 22 089 students who receive only one meal per day.