From 8 to 12 June, a delegation from five countries — Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Lesotho and Tanzania — will travel to Brazil for a study visit aimed at exchanging knowledge on school feeding programmes. The visit will take place in the state of Pernambuco, in the cities of Recife and Caruaru.
Brazil is an international reference in school feeding, with the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE) widely recognised as a global model that integrates nutrition, education, procurement from family farming, decentralised governance and environmental sustainability, providing meals to more than 40 million students every day.
The visit will foster dialogue between Brazilian experts and representatives from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Lesotho on shared challenges and solutions related to the implementation of sustainable and climate-resilient school feeding programmes.
The agenda will be supported throughout by the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil, with the participation of representatives from the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and the National Fund for Educational Development (FNDE). In addition to representatives from the African countries, the international delegation will include participants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Pernambuco State Department of Education, and the Municipal Secretariat for Rural Development of Caruaru.
The programme will include meetings to present the status of school feeding in each country, as well as visits to schools, smallholder farms supplying food to the PNAE, and initiatives related to agroecology and climate-resilient practices.
Caruaru was selected due to its strong commitment to procuring food from family farmers for school feeding and is one of the municipalities participating in the agroecological PNAE project, managed by the Instituto Comida do Amanhã.