Home Grown School Feeding Resource Framework

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.

This synopsis summarizes the content and structured process of the Resource framework and provide guidance on the main considerations and elements relevant for home grown school feeding programmes. This publication is intended to support policy-makers, development partners and governments, as well as civil society and community based organisations and the private sector to design, implement and scaling up school feeding models designed to provide children in schools with safe, diverse and nutritious food, sourced locally from smallholders. It is based on a comprehensive review, and wide consultations among the partner organizations at global, regional and country level, as well as with experts and members of various governments and relevant stakeholders at Global Child Nutrition Forums and other relevant venues for learning and policy dialogue. The Resource Framework is a knowledge product that harmonizes the existing knowledge and tools, and builds on the wealth of expertise of the partners. This publication is the result of a broad based collaborative effort initiated, coordinated and facilitated by the World Food Programme, involving collaboration of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Global Child Nutrition Foundation, the Partnership for Child Development , the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the World Food Programme Centre of Excellence in Brazil.

This publication seeks to support practitioners by providing methodological guidelines for conducting rigorous impact assessments of Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programmes. It presents an overview of the main technical issues to be addressed depending on the characteristics of the context and of the intervention itself. While these guidelines are mainly designed for monitoring and evaluation officers working for United Nations agencies, local governments or non-governmental organizations, its contents can be of interest to a wider audience of policymakers, researchers and practitioners interested in multi-sectoral, complex programmes linking agriculture and nutrition.

Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programmes have seen a considerable growth around the world in recognition of their crucial role as boosters of children's health and educational outcomes, as well as of countries' overall growth potential through stimulating economic activities and developing markets through local procurement. School feeding programmes have been implemented in Ethiopia for 20 years. The scope of this report is to present the results of a 2019 baseline study of a HGSF programme implemented by the Government of Ethiopia. The impact evaluation, whose results are presented in this publication, was designed to capture the impacts of the HGSF programme on farm production, food security and schooling. The evalutation is based on a post-test-only, non-equivalent control group design, and on two rounds of data collection: the first took place in June – July 2019 at the end of the school year, while the second was planned forthe same period in 2020, but did not materialize owing to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Despite an increasing recognition of the importance of a conducive and aligned public procurement policy and regulatory frameworks for the implementation of public food procurement initiatives that target smallholder farmers, very little has been said about how such an alignment can be achieved, or about the various tools and legal mechanisms that can be used to do this. This publication aims to contribute to this discussion, bringing an analysis of four country experiences and of the various legal mechanisms that can be used to align the regulatory framework in pursuit of broader development goals by means of public procurement in the form of home-grown school feeding programmes.

The School food and nutrition - Global action plan seeks to consolidate and guide FAO’s synergistic efforts, setting out priority and concrete outputs to be achieved by 2026. Key activities are presented in the plan and organized according to the following action areas: 1. promote the uptake of and investment in holistic approaches to school food and nutrition (SFN); 2. enhance capacities to design, implement and monitor effective SFN interventions; 3. strengthen policy and legal frameworks that enable SFN implementation; and 4. mobilize resources for ensuring regular and better support to countries. These have been prioritized based on identified gaps and needs, and considering the Organization’s technical competence and organizational comparative advantage. Such activities are meant to be adapted, contextualized and implemented according to regional and national priorities. This publication is the result of a collective effort, and includes contributions from relevant technical units of FAO across global, regional and country levels. The development of this plan follows the publication and dissemination of the Organization’s School Food and Nutrition Framework, and provides the implementation roadmap to attain its expected results.

This book critically assesses the role of agrobiodiversity in school gardens and its contribution to diversifying diets, promoting healthy eating habits and improving nutrition among schoolchildren as well as other benefits relating to climate change adaptation, ecoliteracy and greening school spaces. Many schoolchildren suffer from various forms of malnutrition and it is important to address their nutritional status given the effects it has on their health, cognition, and subsequently their educational achievement. Schools are recognized as excellent platforms for promoting lifelong healthy eating and improving long-term, sustainable nutrition security required for optimum educational outcomes. This book reveals the multiple benefits of school gardens for improving nutrition and education for children and their families. It examines issues such as school feeding, community food production, school gardening, nutritional education and the promotion of agrobiodiversity, and draws on international case studies, from both developed and developing nations, to provide a comprehensive global assessment. This book will be essential reading for those interested in promoting agrobiodiversity, sustainable nutrition and healthy eating habits in schools and public institutions more generally. It identifies recurring and emerging issues, establishes best practices, identifies key criteria for success and advises on strategies for scaling up and scaling out elements to improve the uptake of school gardens.