Every year seems to be a big, huge year for the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger, and 2018 was not different. We have done so many interesting activities that revisiting some of them and the results we achieved is worth the exercise. By continuously supporting 30 country governments, The Centre has contributed to strengthening school feeding programmes, benefiting around 4 million children and thousands of smallholder farmers.
The WFP Centre has provided specific support to seven countries in taking ownership of their school feeding programmes through South-South and triangular cooperation initiatives. It also started to support four African countries in connecting smallholder farmers producing food along with cotton to institutional markets, including school feeding programmes. The WFP Centre organized, co-organized or participated in around 20 high-level events to strengthen advocacy for South-South cooperation, Zero Hunger and school feeding.
The WFP CoE continuously supports 30 countries in developing capacity to achieve Zero Hunger. Depending on the national contexts and demands, some countries require even closer technical assistance and remote support. In 2018, 14 countries were directly supported by the WFP Centre to strengthen national capacities to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. Concrete outcomes from this capacity strengthening support enhanced 18 national school feeding programmes policies, programmes, and system components, which benefited around 4 million children, as well as thousands of smallholder farmers.
With the support from WFP Centre, Kenya approved a National School Meals and Nutrition Strategy¸ which aims to reach 1.6 million children in the next five years. Benin improved its programmatic frameworks and components which contributed for the mobilization of USD 80 million from the government budget to catalyze the WFP school feeding programme phase-out in the next four years.
Benin, Mozambique, Kenya, and Tanzania are part of the Beyond Cotton project. The Beyond Cotton project is an initiative of the WFP Centre of Excellence and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency in partnership with the Brazilian Cotton Institute. It encompasses a view of the whole cotton farming system, linking regenerative agriculture, nutrition, poverty reduction and local development. The project is supporting cotton producers and public institutions these four African countries to commercialize cotton by-products, such as oil, and associated food crops, such as corn, sorghum, and beans.
The high-level events that the WFP Centre supported in different ways aimed to strengthen South-South cooperation for Zero Hunger, leading to the establishment of new partnerships. For example, the Global Child Nutrition Forum took place Tunisia, with 350 participants from 50 countries. The Beyond Cotton project was presented at the Textile Exchange Sustainability Conference in Milano. The African Day of School Feeding was held in in Zimbabwe, to mark the continent’s commitment to advancing school feeding.
The WFP Centre is a member of the African School Feeding Cluster, and attended the 2018 meetings. It also participated in the Brazilian side event on South-South cooperation for school feeding at the WFP Executive Board meeting in December and in the Committee on Food Security side event on Integrated School Meals Programmes for Multiple Contributions to the SDGs. These events lead to increasing senior level commitment from governments for delivering SDG 2 – Zero Hunger.