Foreword
At least 368 million children in the world are fed daily at school through school feeding programmes that are run in varying degrees by national governments. School feeding not only nurtures children and improve their health, but they are also key in facilitating access to education as they increase school enrolment, attendance and completion. In addition, the health and educational benefits of school feeding have a lifelong impact.
Many governments are increasingly sourcing food for school feeding locally from smallholder farmers in a bid to boost local agriculture, strengthen local food systems, and move people out of poverty. As this so-called Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) effectively augments the impact of regular school feeding programmes with economic benefits for local communities, governments have identified HGSF as a strategy to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty (SDG1) and hunger (SDG2). HGSF also facilitate inclusive and equitable quality education (SDG4) and contribute to the empowerment of girls (SDG5), inclusive and sustainable economic growth (SDG8), and the reduction of inequality within and among countries (SDG10). Finally, they help forge partnerships for sustainable development (SDG17).
However, designing and implementing a HGSF programme is a complex task. As more national governments initiate and scale up investments in HGSF programmes, global partners are responding to the need to provide technical assistance for delivering effective, efficient and high-quality programmes.
The World Food Programme (WFP), the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger (WFP CoE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF), the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) have joined forces to create a Resource Framework for the design, implementation and scale up of government-led HGSF programmes.
The Resource Framework harmonizes the existing knowledge, tools and expertise of the partners. It is therefore a great example of a collaborative effort to help governments achieve their goals.