Country Brief: Integrated programming to strengthen social protection and jobs in Burundi

Burundi’s integrated approach to school meals and social protection connects local food systems, cash-based assistance and human capital development. Anchored in the Home-Grown School Meals (HGSM) programme and the World Bank-funded Cash for Jobs project locally known as Merankabandi, the model stimulates rural markets, strengthens local food chains, supports vulnerable households (including refugees) and could create up to 161,000 jobs in the country. 

For the Global Accelerator, Burundi’s experience offers a scalable, integrated model that is highly relevant for low-income, fragile and displacement-affected settings of the kind faced by many countries nowadays.