Côte d’Ivoire is committed to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and has established the elimination of hunger and malnutrition as the country’s priority. The World Food Programme is supporting government’s efforts to promote inclusive growth and reduce poverty and vulnerability, and the WFP Centre of Excellence in Brazil is providing technical support in areas such as Zero Hunger, school feeding, and South-South cooperation.
The WFP Centre of Excellence’s deputy director, Peter Rodrigues, attended the regional meeting of WFP country offices directors of West Africa in Côte d’Ivoire, on 12 February. Participants discussed the importance of South-South cooperation and school feeding to achieve the Sustainable Developoment Goal 2 – Zero Hunger.
Process
Côte d’Ivoire made its first study visit to Brazil in 2013. Since then, the WFP Centre of Excellence has been providing technical assistance to the government in Zero Hunger and school feeding. In December 2017, another study visit happened, led by the country’s vice-president, Daniel Kablan Duncan.
The goal of the second study visit was to strengthen knowledge exchange with Brazil in the areas of school feeding, food security, and social protection, and the possibility of creating a centre of excellence in Abidjan was discussed. The new centre will be part of the partnership between the Ivorian government and the World Food Programme to eliminate hunger and malnutrition.
From 15 January to 5 February, Christiani Buani, head of Programme of the WFP Centre of Excellence in Brazil, undertook a technical mission to Abidjan, and a second mission will happen from 17 February to 17 March. Christiani, along with several other professionals, is providing technical inputs and assisting the discussions for the finalization of Côte d’Ivoire’s school feeding policy and strategy and for the country’s Zero Hunger review.
Another objective of the technical assistance is to facilitate working sessions to define the purpose and the framework of a new centre of excellence that will replicate in West Africa the successful South-South cooperation experience of the WFP Centre of Excellence based in Brazil.
The experts will assist in organizing the framework of the Ivorian Centre of Excellence, including a strategic planning process. They will develop a workplan, set objectives and milestones, develop a budget, maintain a list of stakeholders, and lead the organization of the process of creating the new centre. Taking advantage of the Brazilian experience of creating a joint centre of excellence, they will help define the partnership between Côte d’Ivoire and WFP and establish objectives, roles and responsibilities of both parties.
The WFP Centre of Excellence in Brazil works with 16 countries in the West Africa region. The new centre in Abidjan will be an important tool for WFP to meet the growing demand of these countries for capacity strengthening and South-South cooperation in Zero Hunger and school feeding.