United Nations Rome-based Agencies’ field-level collaboration in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for SDG 2: Leveraging South-South and Triangular Cooperation to Unlock the Potential of National Home-grown School Meals Programmes to Transform Local Food Systems
- When: 12 September 2022 | 16:45-18:00 | Bangkok, Thailand.
- Registration: To register for this event, please click here.
- Language: The event will be held in English, with simultaneous interpretation to French and Portuguese.
- RBA Brochure: To download the joint RBA Brochure for UN Day for South-South Cooperation, please click here.
On 12 September 2022, on the occasion of the Global South-South Development Expo 2022 Thematic Solutions Forum , the Rome-based Agencies (RBA) – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) – are jointly organizing a session on highlighting their field-level collaboration on South-South Cooperation for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 (Zero Hunger). The hybrid event will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, and will be broadcast live.
Background
The world is facing an unprecedented global food crisis in recent history with over 345 million people currently estimated to be acutely food insecure or at high risk. The overlap of major challenges, including the climate crisis, conflicts, and the COVID-19 pandemic, have contributed to putting national food systems – especially the ones in the Global South – under pressure to respond and prevent it from becoming even worse in 2023 and the coming years.
Food systems are central to protecting vulnerable people from the impact of the global food crisis. Concerted efforts must be made to strengthen these systems not only to respond to current crises, but also to enhance their resilience and capacity to become more self-reliant in the long term. This is key to protecting development gains from being lost amidst this urgent need.
In line with the outcome document of the UN Food Systems Summit, national home-grown school feeding programmes (HGSF) have been recognized as an effective means to reach the most vulnerable people living in hunger and as a strategic pathway toward a food system transformation. HSGF can support strengthening local value chains for the global food crisis response and generate longer-term multisectoral benefits in education, health and livelihoods of children and communities.
While many countries have achieved significant progress in implementing HGSF programmes, a number of them still face challenges in effectively connecting smallholder farmers to local food value chains linked to school feeding programmes. South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) can play a pivotal role in enabling countries to share their knowledge and experience to help each other enhance the capacity of HGSF programmes to reach the most vulnerable.
Recognizing the urgency and importance of sharing lessons learned and leveraging its complementarities, the RBA have come together to develop a joint SSTC programme aimed at responding to the demands of five countries – Kenya, Rwanda, the Philippines, Sao Tome e Principe and Senegal – all part of the Global School Meals Coalition. The programme aims at supporting the implementation of their respective HGSF programmes, benefitting from the knowledge and expertise of a wide range of partners in the Global South. Whilst these five countries are provisionally identified as the initial set of participants, the RBA aim at expanding the programme to respond to increasing country demands.
This session at the Thematic Solution Forum (TSF) of the Global South-South Development (GSSD) Expo will enable the RBA to officially launch this RBA SSTC initiative by facilitating a dialogue between Member States, UN Agencies, and partners on how HSGF programmes can support achieving food security and nutrition for all, especially in the context of the global food crisis.
Objectives
- Launch the first RBA joint field-level collaboration on SSTC in HGSF and demonstrate the RBA contribution to brokering SSTC in the field.
- Provide a platform for countries from the Global South to share experiences, good practices and lessons learned in HGSF, showcase their commitment to improving national HGSF programmes and share their views on how they can benefit from SSTC in this area.
- Enable dialogue between governments, development agencies, international organizations, regional entities, IFIs, and other stakeholders to build partnerships and scale-up solutions to strengthen national HGSF through SSTC.
Outcomes
- Identified opportunities for cross-fertilization and collaboration with other global and regional level initiatives supporting the Global School Meals Coalition.
- Identified potential partners (regional entities, IFIs, triangular partners, etc.) for the RBA joint SSTC initiative in HGSF to support national capacity strengthening in designing and implementing national sustainable HGSF programmes.
- Summary report with key takeaways of the session to be disseminated to relevant stakeholders.
Agenda
1. Introductory Remarks from the Moderator
- Mr. Ron Hartman, Director, Global Engagement, Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Division, IFAD
2. Opening Remarks
- Mr. David Kaatrud, Director of the Programme – Humanitarian and Development Division, WFP
3. Panel: Voices from the field – Reaching the most vulnerable through SSTC for home-grown school feeding programmes
a. Country perspective from Kenya:
- Ms. Nerreah Anyango Olick, Director of Primary Education, Ministry of Education Kenya
- Ms. Lauren Landis, Country Director in Kenya, WFP
b. Country perspective from São Tomé and Príncipe
- H.E. Francisco Martins dos Ramos-Pardal, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development, São Tomé and Príncipe
- Ms. Rachel Senn, Country Representative in São Tomé and Príncipe, IFAD
c. Country perspective from Senegal
- Mr. El Hadji Seck, Director of School Canteens at the Ministry of National Education, Senegal
- Mr. Robert Gouantoueu Guei, Country Representative in Senegal, FAO
d. Relevance of building partnerships and supporting SSTC for accelerating HGSF to help achieve zero hunger for all.
- Mr. Shunichi Nakada, Senior Advisor, Economic Development Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
4. Q&A
5. Key Takeaways and Closing Remarks
- Mr. Ye Anping, Director of the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division, FAO