Foto: Karla Perez/FAO

Brasilia, May 12, 2017 - Representatives from thirteen countries in Latin America and the Caribbean will be in Vitória, from May 16 to 18, to learn about the Brazilian experience of School Feeding Programmes and purchasing from Family Farming during the international exchange mission promoted by the Internal Cooperation Programme between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the government of Brazil.

During the visit, representatives from Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, Suriname, Bahamas, El Salvador, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Paraguay will get to know schools, food distribution centres, family farming cooperatives and rural lands, as well as participating in a meeting with the Municipal Government of Vitoria to learn about the public policies executed throughout the municipalities in the area of school feeding programmes.

For the FAO representative in Brazil, Alan Bojanic's mission will contribute to strengthen knowledge about the importance of school feeding coupled with the direct purchase of products from family farming. Bojanic, also, noted that the exchange of experiences could contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), signed by the members of the United Nations. “Before we had the goal of reducing hunger and poverty, now we need to eliminate food insecurity, guarantee sustainability, resilience and the good use of natural resources, and this goal permeates various sectors of society and the production chain", says Bojanic.

This is the first time that the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Programme will visit Espírito Santo for an international technical mission. “This technical visit is an important strategy for the empowerment for the countries’ national human capacities and broadening the vision of this topic. The National School Feeding Programme (PNAE) is a reference for other countries of the region, for its organizational structure and breadth”, explains Najla Veloso, project regional coordinator.

 Najla notes, the countries have constructed a new vision of school feeding programmes, adopting the topic as a social policy under the principle of human right to adequate food, which is implemented with the provision of offering healthy and local food and with actions of food and nutrition education.

The Municipal Government and the Municipal Secretary of Education of Vitoria will be giving support to the organization so that the technical mission can learn about the Brazilian experiences.

Support for strengthening of school feeding programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The project, strengthening of school feeding programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean is executed, since 2009, jointly with the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Programme, by means of a partnership with the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE), FAO and The Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), with a focus on the right to adequate food starting with strengthening public policies on school feeding programmes.

Currently, 13 countries participate in the region, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Granada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Santa Lucia, and Saint Vicent and the Grenadines.

The project was designed with the experiences and lessons learned in Brazil with more than 60 years of execution of PNAE, a programme that provides daily food to more than 42 million students.

To contribute to the development of political policies of school feeding programmes in the region, this regional project of South-South Cooperation works with a series of actions, in these, the technical support to better the quality of programmes, as well as in the institutionalization of public policy through legislation on this subject.