Reinforcing the historical cooperation between Brazil and Angola, the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger organised, on Wednesday, 9 August, an online meeting to discuss technical cooperation between the two countries in the field of school feeding. The meeting discussed possible ways to support the Angolan school feeding programme, especially in the areas of intersectoral coordination, data collection and processing, monitoring, evaluation and accountability.
In her speech, the National Director of Pre-school and Primary Education of the Angolan Ministry of Education, Soraya Kalongela, presented the School Feeding Programme, launched in 1990 in partnership with the WFP. The programme is decentralised and implemented at municipal level, with the 164 municipalities being responsible for providing free school meals with funds from the provincial government. “In terms of the needs that the programme still has, we need to make a diagnosis to monitor indicators. Our data indicates that we currently have a coverage rate of 32 per cent,” Soraya said.
In addition to the development of monitoring and evaluation actions, the director pointed out the importance of further studying the Brazilian experience, with emphasis on school feeding made with local purchases, in partnership with family farming. Currently, in Brazil, the legislation defines that at least 30% of the amount transferred to states and municipalities by the National Education Development Fund (FNDE) must be allocated to the purchase of food from family farming.
Among those present were representatives of the Angolan Ministry of Education, the Brazilian government, represented by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), FNDE and the Brazilian Embassy in Luanda, the World Food Programme (WFP) Centre of Excellence against Hunger and the WFP country office in Angola. Bilateral initiatives involving Brazil and Angola are planned for later this year, as a way to deepen the partnership and promote new exchanges of experiences and knowledge between the two countries.
The meeting follows the National Seminar “Systems approach for better education outcomes: school feeding”, held in Luanda in 2021, and the 2nd International Good Practices in School Feeding Seminar of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which took place in the same capital in 2023. The bilateral meeting also continues the dialogue articulated with the “Virtual Study Visit: Brazil”, promoted by the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil, in partnership with ABC and FNDE, and the WFP country office in Angola, which took place in August 2022.