School feeding programmes reach over 466 million children globally, making them one of the largest social safety nets worldwide. Beyond providing immediate nutritional benefits, school feeding programmes increasingly aim to strengthen local food systems through procurement from smallholder farmers, support for sustainable agriculture, community kitchen involvement and broader development outcomes. However, evidence on how school feeding programmes can simultaneously improve nutrition and educational outcomes while transforming food systems in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) remains fragmented. This systematic review will synthesise evidence on the effects of school feeding interventions with explicit food system components on health, nutrition, education and food system outcomes among school-age children and adolescents in LMICs.

We conducted comprehensive searches in MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase (Ovid), CENTRAL (Cochrane Library), Web of Science, Google Scholar, completed on 18 February 2026, with grey literature searches ongoing and to be completed subsequently. We will include randomised controlled trials (RCTs), non-RCTs and quasi-experimental studies with comparison groups examining school feeding interventions with food system components among school-age children and adolescents (5–19 years) in LMICs. Two reviewers will independently screen titles and abstracts, review full texts, extract data and assess study quality using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tools (RoB 2 for RCTs and Risk Of Bias In Non-Randomized Studies - of Interventions (ROBINS-I) for non-randomised studies). Certainty of evidence will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) framework. We will conduct narrative synthesis using the Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) guidelines and meta-analysis where appropriate.

Ethical approval is not required for this systematic review as no primary data will be collected. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication, conference presentations and policy briefs targeting international organisations, governments and development partners working on school feeding and food systems in LMICs.

Registration: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/p83tb/

Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at high risk of harmful sexual and reproductive health (SRH) practices due to limited knowledge, low availability or acceptability of modern contraceptives, gender inequality and cultural practices like child marriage. Preventive and educational interventions by lay health workers or through technological means are a cost-effective and scalable solution. Unfortunately, too little is currently known about the scope, content and conditions of the effectiveness and sustainability of these approaches and synthetic evidence on this topic is scarce. To help fill this knowledge gap and to identify where further research is needed, we will conduct a scoping review of technology-based or lay health-worker delivered preventive and educational SRH interventions targeting AYAs in LMICs. This information is valuable to both policymakers and researchers as it provides a synthesis of existing interventions, highlights best practices for their implementation and identifies potential avenues for future research.

This review will include studies on SRH preventive and educational interventions targeting AYAs aged 10–24 years in LMICs. It encompasses interventions delivered by lay health workers or via technological means, assessing various outcomes including but not limited to SRH literacy, sexual risk behaviours, pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and gender-based violence. Key databases, including PubMed via MEDLINE and Embase, will be searched from 1 January 2000 up to 23 January 2024, using a comprehensive search strategy. Screening will be conducted using Covidence software. Data extraction will cover study details, methods, intervention strategies, outcomes and findings. A narrative synthesis will be conducted following synthesis without meta-analysis guidelines.

The scope of this scoping review is limited to publicly accessible databases that do not require prior ethical approval for access. The findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journal publications, as well as presentations at national and international conferences and stakeholder meetings in LMICs.

The final protocol is prospectively registered with the Open Science Framework on 7 May 2024 (osf.io/vna2z).