Dakar — MORE than 1,5 million children in Central and West Africa risk failure to finish education as a result of lack of money to finance school meals. The regions face a funding gap of US$76 million, it was announced on Monday (yesterday) at the start of the 2017-2018 school year. World Food Programme regional director, Abdou Dieng, said the repercussions were dramatic. "By failing to fully fund school meals, we are collectively short-changing the next generation and Africa's future," he said in Dakar. In conflict-torn Central African Republic, WFP's school meals programme aimed at reaching more than 200 000 youngsters, is only half funded. WFP cannot reach 83 000 children in Burkina Faso as the nutrition programme is 0 percent financed. In Niger, where WFP school meals reach more than a quarter of a million pupils, the programme is only 19 percent funded. Senegal's programme only 5 percent financed. Other particularly at-risk countries include Liberia, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. "We are talking about some of the hungriest and most vulnerable children. This is a crisis for education and a crisis for nutrition and food security which are the fundamental pillars of development," Dieng said. Studies show that meals help improve attendance and performance rates. They are also a key incentive for impoverished parents to send their children to school.