Members of the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger team in Brazil contributed to an article for the special edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review Brazil, which examines the role of South-South cooperation in strengthening school feeding as a structural policy for tackling hunger and food insecurity in the Global South.
In the article, entitled “School feeding as a policy for the future: South-South cooperation and social innovation”, the authors Vinícius Limongi, Ana Clara Cathalat, Livia Martins and Letícia do Vale, from the Centre of Excellence’s Programmes team, presented examples of knowledge exchange and public policy between Brazil and countries such as São Tomé and Príncipe and Benin.
In São Tomé and Príncipe, school feeding has progressed as an institutionalised policy with national coverage. Benin, meanwhile, has been using technical cooperation to strengthen national capacities, integrate local procurement and improve the nutritional quality of school meals.
In both cases, the work of the Centre of Excellence, in conjunction with the Brazilian government, appears as a central pillar of this process, supporting local governments in the design, adaptation and consolidation of school feeding policies linked to local agriculture, child nutrition and territorial development.
Livia Martins, a nutritionist and one of the article’s authors, highlighted the importance of effective and sustainable solutions in the fight against hunger. “By promoting horizontal, evidence-based exchanges, the Centre helps countries to strengthen their own public policies, transforming school feeding into a strategic tool for health, education and development.”
The special edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review Brazil, dedicated to the theme of food security, will be launched on 29 April in Brasília, and a digital version will be available from the same day via this link.