KOICA, Education Ministry start Project for Sustainable Future of Schoolchildren

On August 22, 2025, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the Ministry of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic signed a Record of Discussion (RD) on the «Project of Establishment of Sustainable Environment for Enhancing Health and Nutrition in Schools through Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) Program in the Kyrgyz Republic».

Minister of Education Dogdurkul Kendirbaeva, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea Mr. Kim Kwang-jae, and KOICA Country Director Lim So Yeon attended the signing ceremony.

Minister Kendirbaeva noted the significant contribution of KOICA and the Korean Government to the development of various areas in Kyrgyzstan, including education and healthcare. She emphasized that this project will contribute to schoolchildren’s health through provision of fortified school meals, improved school infrastructure, and capacity building.

Ambassador Kim highlighted: «This project is of particular importance because it not only improves nutrition and sanitation in schools, but also creates a sustainable food supply system by linking local farmer cooperatives with schools.»

KOICA Country Director Lim, in her turn, mentioned that the project will directly benefit approximately 16,000 students and farmers in Osh, Jalal-Abad, Chuy, Naryn, and Batken regions.

The project with a total budget of $10 million will last from 2025 to 2028. The project objective is to improve children’s nutrition, health and equal access to education for children and to support sustainable development of rural communities in the Kyrgyz Republic by:

• Enhancing school meals in their diversity, nutrition and safety through improved facilities, equipment, ingredients and stakeholder capacity building;
• Improving access to clean/safe water and adequate, equitable, and gender-sensitive hygiene and sanitation services for children, and;
• Using agricultural products produced by local farmers in school meals.

Within the framework of the project, renovation of kitchens and dining rooms, construction of toilets and installation of handwashing facilities, capacity-building on healthy eating, school meals procurement, health and hygiene education in around 40 schools will take place. Moreover, trainings on agricultural cultivation, post-harvest management and operational capacity strengthening and establishment of model farms are planned for local agricultural cooperatives.