Angelline Rudakubana
The WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger went on a mission to Addis Ababa for a series of meetings with the World Food Programme Africa Office and the African Union Commission. The goal of the mission was to discuss upcoming joint initiatives and events and the implementation of the School Feeding Cluster within the African Union.
The director of the WFP Centre, Daniel Balaban, and the head of Programme, Christiani Buani, were in Addis Ababa from 4 to 6 July and had meetings with H.E. Sarah Mbi Enow Anyang, AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology; and H.E. Josefa Leonel Correa Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture. Angelline Rudakubana, director of WFP Africa Office, facilitated the agenda and participated in the meetings. The WFP liaison office to African Union has been crucial with their presence and efforts to keep the valuable partnership.
Among the topics discussed was the implementation of the School Feeding Cluster Strategy, as part of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa, within the African Union. The cluster will hold a meeting in October, and before that a strategy and work plan must be developed. The African Union technical team and the WFP Centre technical team will work together with the WFP Africa Office to design a draft strategy, based on previous experiences supporting the development of school feeding strategies.
Other issues, such as the participation of the African Union in the Global Child Nutrition Forum and other high-level events related to food and nutrition security, were also discussed during the mission. They also talked about the next steps for the activation of the on-line school feeding exchange platform that WFP Centre of Excellence is supporting.