This guide is designed to assist those engaged in the process of creating new SFPs or seeking to improve the effectiveness of on-going ones. It is based on a review of the SFP research and program literature from the last decade. The guidelines include:

• A brief rationale for addressing nutrition and health in schoolchildren. This section provides the context for this guide by briefly summarizing the role that health and nutrition of school children can play in learning. The reader is referred to Class Action: Improving School Performance in the Developing World through Better Health and Nutrition, to Malnutrition and Infection in the Classroom and to the World Bank’s School Health Website (http://www.ceid.ox.ac.uk/schoolhealth) for a more detailed discussion of this subject.

• A summary of the potential benefits of SFPs for education. This section reviews the research literature that provides evidence that SFPs can improve educational quality and efficiency. References to the key literature documenting the benefits of SFPs to education are provided. Annex 1 contains an annotated bibliography of most of the literature related to SFPs from the last decade.

• Seven recommendations for building effective SFPs as an integral part of a package of nutrition and health interventions for school-age children. This section is the core of the guide, discussing the steps to take to implement the seven recommendations, which aim to enhance the impact of SFPs on education. Program examples, both successes and failures, are presented to assist the reader in understanding the potential advantages and caveats in implementation. Specific data are provided on the costs and rations of actual programs to provide a point of reference for other programs.