Photo Credit: ©FAO

FAO, Government and local stakeholders in Ethiopia are working towards strengthening the linkages between school feeding programmes and local agricultural production.

As part of the activities undergoing, during a multi-stakeholder Workshop held by FAO in Addis Ababa in March 2022, the Ethiopian Government National School Feeding policy and strategy was discussed and recommendations on its implementations proposed for government enactment.

The event was organized under the FMM sub-programme “Nutrition sensitive agriculture and social protection project” that FAO is implementing in four countries to increase access to income-generating opportunities and better nutrition for smallholder producers and their communities.

The consultative workshop aimed not only to promote the policy and strategy but also to generate relevant implementation approaches and recommendations to develop regional food procurement guidelines for the Home-Grow School Feeding (HGSF) programme, as well as to create awareness and share experiences in implementing HGSF.

Calling for more inclusive HGSF programmes

The workshop participants discussed HGSF practices and experiences, public procurement rules and regulations, and agro-ecological-based sustainable production of nutrient dense foods.

One of the key outcomes of the workshop is a set of recommendations for implementing Ethiopia's School Feeding Policy and Strategy, and developing regional food procurement guidelines to implement the HGSF Programme successfully and make it inclusive.

All stakeholders called for more inclusion of smallholder producers as key actors in building and sustaining HGSF programmes. They highlighted that HGSF programmes benefit a significant part of local communities, beyond school students and farmers. Including traders, processors, and suppliers of nutritious food, they generate social and economic benefits for a range of actors along the value chain, including traders, processors, and suppliers of nutritious food.

In relation to the development of smallholder farmers capacities to produce and make available nutritious food, Jateno Workicho, Assistant FAO Representative, highlighted that “Regular and predictable demand for smallholder farmers’ products from school feeding programmes, can encourage farmers to increase and diversify their agricultural production”.

FMM sub-programme aims and activities 

The activities implemented by FAO and local stakeholders in Ethiopia are part of a FMM sub-programme targeting four countries: Ethiopia, Grenada, Guayana, and Kyrgyzstan.

The sub-programme aims to increase access to income-generating opportunities and better nutrition for smallholder producers and their communities. It counts many achievements so far, thanks to the work FAO and local stakeholders are carrying out to support the sustainable production of healthy and diversified food, as well as through strengthening the gender- and nutrition-sensitive social protection and agriculture.