The World Food Programme in Brazil, the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and the National Fund for the Development of Education (FNDE) held a retreat to discuss and strengthen their joint initiatives. The WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger was created from the partnership between the three institutions and since 2011 has been supporting developing countries to create their own public policies to fight hunger and poverty.

For the director of the WFP Centre of Excellence, Daniel Balaban, Brazil has been an inspiration for other countries to develop their policies, mainly because of the innovative nature of the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE). “The African Union has a determination that countries must create national school feeding programmes and take ownership of them, and most of the countries are working on this. Brazil has been a source of inspiration for these countries to create their programmes, which demonstrates the success of our partnership and the results we are achieving,” said Balaban.

ABC’s International Co-ordinator for Technical Cooperation with International Organizations, Cecilia Malaguti, reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to the partnership: “In these seven years both ABC and the WFP Centre have developed capacities so that our results are increasingly tangible and recognized globally as an innovative initiative.”

Since its inception, the WFP Centre of Excellence has supported more than 30 countries in the development of national school feeding policies and programmes. FNDE Chief of Staff Rogério Lot stressed the effectiveness of the partnership in a context where resources are limited: “The efficiency, effectiveness and good results of the programmes are decisive, in a time of financial constraints, so that we can guarantee continuing resources for our international cooperation initiatives. The Brazilian government has a model that can be shared with the entire world.”