Distributional Impacts Of Home Grown School Feeding And Conservation Agriculture In Zambia

The aim of this study is to explore the distributional impacts on poverty and income of two programmes in Zambia, the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme and the Conservation Agriculture Scale-Up (CASU) project, complementing the impact evaluation findings by Prifti & Grinspun (2019). These programmes target different parts of the population but are partly overlapping; they aim to influence poverty and food security through different channels. In the World Food Programme (WFP)’s HGSF modality, school feeding or provision of free meals for schoolchildren is complemented with procurement of food used for the meals from local smallholders. The purchase scheme aims to provide market access for smallholders, hence improving income stability and incentives to invest, ultimately increasing their productivity and reducing poverty. The objectives of school meals alone are improvement in schoolchildren’s nutrition as well as improvement in school attendance and hence human capital accumulation. Conservation agriculture (CA) consists of production methods that reduce farmers’ vulnerability to climate risks and improve productivity. The CASU programme promoted the use of such methods among smallholders through training and demonstration and provision of inputs, aiming for adoption of more sustainable farming which increases farm productivity in the long run.

This impact evaluation report quantifies the impacts of Zambia’s Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme – one of the country’s biggest social protection programmes – and the Conservation Agriculture Scale Up (CASU) project, both alone and in combination with each other. The report looks at how the programmes affected farm production and other livelihoods, the food security situation of the household and of school-going children and the educational outcomes of the latter. The report concludes that each programme or programme component considered in isolation meets their strictly defined objectives, but their combination leads to unintended conflicting influence on certain outcomes, thus highlighting the need for increased coherence between programmes. The household and community surveys for the evaluation of the programmes took place between October 2017 and January 2018. The total sample size is 3 636 households and a total of 72 community interviews were also conducted.

This in-depth qualitative study in Zambia is integral to a mixed method impact evaluation of the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) and the Conservation Agriculture Scale Up (CASU) programmes. Zambia’s HGSF (launched in 2011, and institutionalized in 2012, by the Government of Zambia in collaboration with the World Food Programme, WFP) provides nutritious cooked meals to almost one million schoolchildren and WFP’s Purchase for Progress (P4P) programme procures the commodities that make up the school meals provided by HGSF. P4P aims to improve livelihoods and address food insecurity by expanding local market opportunities for smallholder farmers in rural areas. The CASU programme (implemented between 2013 and late 2017 by FAO) aimed to provide solutions to declining crop production among small- and medium-scale farmers, strengthen partnership and networking between the Zambian government and cooperating partners, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector, and reduce hunger, improve food security and income by increasing crop production, diversification and productivity. The aim of the qualitative study is to contextualise the findings of a quantitative impact evaluation conducted between October 2017 and January 2018, and deepen understanding of how and why specific findings and impacts transpired.

This catalogue aims to improve the dissemination and outreach of FAO’s knowledge products and overall publishing programme. By providing information on its key publications in every area of FAO’s work, and catering to a range of audiences, it thereby contributes to all organizational outcomes. From statistical analysis to specialized manuals to children’s books, FAO publications cater to a diverse range of audiences. This catalogue presents a selection of FAO’s main publications, produced in 2021 or earlier, ranging from its global reports and general interest publications to numerous specialized titles. In addition to the major themes of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, it also includes thematic sections on climate change, economic and social development, and food safety and nutrition.

The aim of this study is to explore the distributional impacts on poverty and income of two programmes in Zambia, the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme and the Conservation Agriculture Scale-Up (CASU) project, complementing the impact evaluation findings by Prifti & Grinspun (2019). These programmes target different parts of the population but are partly overlapping; they aim to influence poverty and food security through different channels. In the World Food Programme (WFP)’s HGSF modality, school feeding or provision of free meals for schoolchildren is complemented with procurement of food used for the meals from local smallholders. The purchase scheme aims to provide market access for smallholders, hence improving income stability and incentives to invest, ultimately increasing their productivity and reducing poverty. The objectives of school meals alone are improvement in schoolchildren’s nutrition as well as improvement in school attendance and hence human capital accumulation. Conservation agriculture (CA) consists of production methods that reduce farmers’ vulnerability to climate risks and improve productivity. The CASU programme promoted the use of such methods among smallholders through training and demonstration and provision of inputs, aiming for adoption of more sustainable farming which increases farm productivity in the long run.

This report aims to provide an illustrative and insightful overview of FAO’s work in social protection across Africa. [Author] Produced by the FAO Regional Office for Africa, the publication showcases a range of innovative and impactful projects that have contributed to enhancing the livelihoods and resilience of vulnerable populations. [Author] It features examples from Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Somalia, Uganda and Zambia. [Author] The report explores how FAO’s initiatives have effectively integrated social protection with agriculture and rural development, addressing challenges such as food insecurity, poverty and climate change. [Author] Aimed at policymakers and practitioners, the publication’s intent is to foster knowledge-sharing, stimulate dialogue and encourage the replication of successful models in other countries and contexts. [Author]

Sustainable Public Food Procurement (PFP) represents a key game changer for food systems transformation. It can influence both food consumption and food production patterns. It can deliver multiple social, economic and environmental benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets. This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination and use of PFP as a development tool in particular in the case of school meals programmes. In this Volume 2, researchers, policymakers and development partners can find extensive evidence of the instruments, enablers and barriers for PFP implementation. It also provides case studies with local, regional and national experiences from Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America. Volume 1 of this publication, available at https://doi.org/10.4060/cb7960en, presents further analysis on how PFP can be used as a development tool and deliver multiple benefits for multiple beneficiaries. It argues that PFP can provide a market for local and smallholder farmers, promote the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity, and improve the nutrition and health of children and communities.

This framework fosters the replication and scaling up of home-grown school feeding models and the mapping of opportunities for linking such programmes with relevant agricultural development and rural transformation investments.