The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will be organizing and co-organizing a series of events at the Global South-South Development (GSSD) Expo 2022 to showcase how South-South and Triangular cooperation can be an incentive to improved nutrition and food security which lie at the heart of sustainable development.

The GSSD Expo 2022 is an annual event organized by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and is co-hosted by theGovernment of Thailand and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). At the GSSD Expo, FAO will bring together high-level representatives from Member Nations, UN Agencies and partners in sharing avenues for South-South and Triangular Cooperation.

From farms to schools – collaborating across the Global South to improve lives and livelihoods

School feeding programmes across the world run, to varying degrees by national governments, are providing meals to some 368 million children at schools daily. For some children, the meal they receive in school could be the only meal they get that day.

In many countries, children in school are provided with nutritious and diverse varieties of food sourced locally from smallholders, known as home-grown school feeding programmes (HGSF), which strengthen local agricultural production and value chains. While many countries have achieved significant progress in implementing HGSF programmes, support is still required to connect smallholder farmers to local value chains linked to school feeding programmes.

To mark the UN Day for South-South Cooperation, held annually on 12 September, FAO will join the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to launch a South-South Triangular Cooperation Programme on home-grown school feeding. The programme will initially support five countries – Philippines, Kenya, Rwanda, Sao Tome e Principe and Senegal to strengthen their national home-grown school feeding initiatives.

This joint SSTC programme will be launched on 12 September (16.55 – 18.10) at the Thematic Solution Session 5, of the Global South-South Development Expo at the UN Conference Centre, Bangkok, Thailand