Report Of The Regional Study On The State Of The Art Of National School Food And Nutrition Programmes In Africa

Using the Brazilian National School Feeding Programme (PNAE) as reference, this study highlights the need for greater multisectoral collaboration, while addressing specific issues such as coverage, targeting, nutrition standards and guidelines, local procurement, food and nutrition education (FNE), policy frameworks and institutional arrangements. All of these are essential for the best implementation strategy of school food and nutrition (SFN) programmes in Africa.

Setting nutrition guidelines and standards has been recommended internationally to ensure that school meals are in line with children’s nutrition needs and adequate to their context. This report provides a descriptive overview of the situation of school meal nutrition guidelines and standards in 33 low and middle-income countries as reported through a global survey. The report identifies key aspects to consider for stakeholders who are planning to develop or update their guidelines and standards in the context of school meal programmes.

The first live broadcast Learning Route “Successful practices, tools and mechanisms to design, implement and monitor Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programmes in Africa” jointly promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Procasur took place from the 7th to the 12th of December 2020 in Kenya. Twenty-two government officials and decision-makers attended this Learning Route; amongst them: seven (07) Kenyan government officials travelled from Nairobi to Busia and Siaya Counties to visit and share knowledge with local HGSF initiatives, such as: the BFN Project developed in Busia and the Nyamninia Primary school in Siaya County. The remaining fifteen participants from selected African countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Lesotho, Rwanda and Uganda) experienced the same learning journey on a virtual modality through live broadcast connections and direct interactions with key actors in the field. Kenya thanks to its well-established HGSF model was an inspiring host, showcasing the differentiated approaches and strategies developed at national level to facilitate small farmers’ inclusion in the school meals. The “direct cash transfers to school” as a food procurement mechanism, the multisectoral and multi-actors engagement, the nutritional and biodiverse provision of school meals are some of the innovations analyzed during the Learning Route. This final report presents main lessons extracted during the case analysis workshops as well as innovative solutions that participating African Governments intend to adopt and scale-up in their respective countries as a follow-up of their participation to the learning route.

The State of Africa's Children 2008 is a regional edition of UNICEF's The State of the World's Children 2008 report. Complementary to the global report, it examines the state of child survival in Africa and highlights the need to position child health at the heart of the region's development and human rights agenda. It also outlines possible solutions - programmes, policies and partnerships - to accelerate progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.--Publisher's description.

New evidence this year corroborates the rise in world hunger observed in this report last year, sending a warning that more action is needed if we aspire to end world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Updated estimates show the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to prevailing levels from almost a decade ago. Although progress continues to be made in reducing child stunting, over 22 percent of children under five years of age are still affected. Other forms of malnutrition are also growing: adult obesity continues to increase in countries irrespective of their income levels, and many countries are coping with multiple forms of malnutrition at the same time – overweight and obesity, as well as anaemia in women, and child stunting and wasting.

Contains an inventory of evaluation reports produced by and for selected Federal agencies, including GAO evaluation reports that relate to the programs of those agencies.