This policy guidance note is part of a series that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partners are producing to support policy makers address the food security and nutrition situation in their country. Each note provides guidance on how to sharpen the focus of sector policies in order to achieve sustainable food security and nutrition outcomes. By supporting countries to formulate and adopt policies and programmes to eradicate hunger and attain food security, FAO contributes towards its Strategic Programme 1: help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. Public procurement has been commonly used as a tool to pursue social, economic and environmental outcomes. Governments in all parts of the world use their market power to drive different policy goals. In a similar vein, public food procurement can also be an instrument to foster agricultural development by directing government food demand to domestic suppliers, particularly smallholder farmers. This guidance note provides a stepwise approach to guide the design and implementation of public food procurement programmes based on best practices found in the existing literature. It focuses on ways to foster stronger links between public food procurement, smallholder livelihoods and food security and nutrition.