WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil
The WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger launched its 2018 annual report. The document highlights the impacts of the activities in partner countries. Throughout the year, the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger has made concrete contributions to strengthening school feeding programmes in 17 countries, benefiting around 4 million children and thousands of smallholder farmers.
The WFP CoE continuously supports 30 countries in developing capacity to achieve Zero Hunger. Depending on the national contexts and demands, some countries require even closer technical assistance and remote support. In 2018, 17 countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Lao, Liberia, Mozambique, Nepal, Kenya, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Togo) were directly supported by the WFP Centre to strengthen national capacities to promote sustainable development. Concrete outcomes from this capacity strengthening support enhanced national school feeding policies, programmes, and system components.
Some countries are good examples of the kind of impact the South-South cooperation activities of the WFP Centre can generate. With technical support from the WFP Centre, Kenya approved a National School Meals and Nutrition Strategy¸ which aims to reach 1.6 million children in the next five years. Benin improved its programmatic frameworks and components, which contributed for the mobilization of USD 80 million from the government budget to catalyse the WFP school feeding programme phase-out in the next four years. Côte d’Ivoire approved a school feeding policy and a strategy to transition from a WFP-operated programme to a national one. Burundi approved its national policy, and Burkina Faso is elaborating a school feeding strategy.
Cotton and food security
Benin, Mozambique, Kenya, and Tanzania are part of the Beyond Cotton project, which aims at strengthening food and nutrition security of smallholder cotton farmers. The Beyond Cotton project is an initiative of the WFP Centre of Excellence and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency in partnership with the Brazilian Cotton Institute. It encompasses a view of the whole cotton farming system, linking regenerative agriculture, nutrition, poverty reduction and local development. The project is supporting cotton producers and public institutions in these four African countries to commercialize cotton by-products, such as oil, and associated food crops, such as corn, sorghum, and beans.
Advocacy
The high-level events that the WFP Centre supported in different ways aimed to strengthen South-South cooperation for Zero Hunger, leading to the establishment of new partnerships. For example, the Global Child Nutrition Forum took place in Tunisia, with 350 participants from 50 countries and a bold call to action: countries should take ownership of their school feeding programmes. The Beyond Cotton project was presented at the Textile Exchange Sustainability Conference in Milano, which opened a variety of opportunities for the initiative to expand its reach and impact.
The third African Day of School Feeding was held in Zimbabwe, to mark the continent’s commitment to advancing school feeding. The WFP Centre, a member of the African Union School Feeding Cluster, has been collaborating with the African Union since 2015 and has co-hosted the African Day of School Feeding since 2016, when it was celebrated for the first time.
Check the full report in English here
Confira o relatório completo em Português aqui
Consultez le rapport complet en Français ici
