FAO Regional Office for Africa

FAO and Brazil support the School Feeding Program in Sao Tome and Principe

Photo credit: Mauricio Mireles

Sao Tome and Principe, 21 August 2014- A delegation of experts from the Brazilian Agency for Cooperation (ABC), the National Fund for School Development (FNDE) and FAO met with representatives from the government of Sao Tome and Principe in order to discuss strategies for strengthening the local School Feeding Program.

“We are currently facing a process of transition in which the government is gaining greater control over the mechanisms that warranty the food security and nutrition of our population, Brazil´s example and FAO´s technical knowledge will certainly help us in this process of consolidation of our own public policies”, said Alexandrina Vera Cruz, National Coordinator of National Program of School Feeding in Sao Tome and Principe (PNASE).

The regional project will support the development of pedagogic material for the creation and maintenance of school gardens. As partners of a regional project “Strengthening school feeding programs in Africa: Nutrition strategies and programs in schools”, FAO and Brazil collaborate in order to provide technical support in the area of School nutrition education.

Enhanced South-South Cooperation

With the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE), Brazil has acquired an experience of over 50 years in running successful programmes. The country has developed a strong policy for food and nutritional security and has become a world reference on healthy eating in school.

Since 2007, through South South cooperation, the Brazilian government has been providing technical support to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Portuguese speaking countries in Africa end East Timor. 

In partnering with FAO, Brazil will contribute to the strengthening and sustainability of School Feeding Programmes (SFPs) through specific actions, such as providing technical assistance strategically focusing on the formulation and implementation of nutrition strategies and programmes in schools.

Contributing to good and sovereign Governance

By strengthening institutional capacities and initiate a regulatory Framework for the National Law on School Feeding, the project will align with the Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security (Right to Food Guidelines), and capacitate local stakeholders to consolidate the constitution of regional school feeding councils in order to promote greater accountability and ownership.  

According to the Minister of Education, Jorge Bom Jesus: “The government of Sao Tome and Principe and the Minister of Education is thrilled to receive the technical support of Brazil and FAO. We are confident that throughout this collaboration we will be able to consolidate our still very young school feeding program”.

On August 18 and 19 more than 40 representatives from diverse governmental institutions, members of the international community, civil society, professors and school directors gathered in the city of Sao Tome, in order to design the main lines of intervention of the country-project. Thus, during the implementation the project in Sao Tome and Principe, the stakeholders have mainly agreed to support the design of a regulatory framework for the National Law on School Feeding, to develop materials in the area of school nutrition and school gardens and to promote knowledge exchanges with Brazil and other participating countries.

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Contact: Mireles Mauricio, Regional Project Coordinator, email: [email protected]