In November 2022, the Directors for SSTC from the Rome Based Agencies – FAO, IFAD and WFP – met in Rome with representatives from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Initiative for Food Nutrition Security in Africa (IFNA). The participants discussed the new RBA joint programme on South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) in HomeGrown School Feeding (HGSF), presented during the Global South-South Development (GSSD) 2022 Expo in Bangkok in September. The RBA joint summary of the event is accessible here.
During the meeting, participants discussed the multidimensional benefits of national school meal programmes and the unique opportunity the three agencies have to contribute to building resilience in the face of the emerging global food crisis. Key messages emerging from the discussion:
- HGSF programmes have multi-dimensional benefits, and Japan plays a role of key supporter of the Global School Meals Coalition based on its many good practices that can be shared with other countries.
- HGSF is a strategic priority for IFNA, which is increasing its efforts to support African countries, such as Nigeria and Botswana to expand their national HGSF programmes.
- Japan and the RBA share a strong political alignment on HGSF in the context of the current food crisis as HGSF enables the integration of resilience building and development work into emergency response.
- The SSTC collaboration with the RBA on HGSF provides Japan with a concrete opportunity to demonstrate its global leadership in the food crisis response.
In December the SSTC Unit in PRO attended the Inter-Agency Mechanism for South-South and triangular cooperation coordinated by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). The meeting provided an update on the country level and regional SSTC guidelines, framework for SSC measurement, the preparations for the 21th High-Level Committee on SSC in 2023 (from 30th May to 2nd June) and the LDC5 Ministerial Conference on South-South Cooperation to be held in Doha in 7 March 2023.
Originally featured in the World Food Programme’s South-South Cooperation Newsletter. To access the full newsletter, please click here.