Consolidation of public policies on school nutrition
Together with FAO, Brazil supports other countries in reducing hunger and poverty.
According to the 2022 “Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition”, prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program (WFP) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), school feeding programs have improved access to nutritious food, increasing food security. Latin-America and the Caribbean is the region with the second highest coverage in this type of policies (FAO et al., 2023, p.35).
Brazil is one of the Ibero-American countries that has a National School Feeding Program (PNAE by its Portuguese acronym) which “guarantees food and nutritional security through the provision of adequate, healthy, continuous and universal school meals to 41 million students in the public education system” (FAO, 2023a). This Program is based on the identification of nutritional needs, habits and food culture required for student menus (Ministry of Education of Brazil, 2023).
Through the Brazil-FAO International Cooperation Program, Brazil and FAO have been working together since 2009 to strengthen Latin-American and Caribbean countries’ capacities in the design, implementation and operation of school feeding programs. One of the Program’s initiatives is the TC project Consolidation of School Feeding Programs in Latin-America and the Caribbean (PAE by its Portuguese acronym), which seeks to guarantee the right to food for students, promote and incentive healthy eating habits and foster the sustainable development of the local economy (FAO, 2023b).
In addition, a Sustainable School Feeding Network (RAES by its Portuguese acronym) was developed through which exchanges have been promoted and good practices have been shared, in line with the 2030 Agenda and the 2016-2025 UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (FAO, 2023a). Finally, Sustainable Schools have been implemented in 13 countries, directly benefiting more than 1,650,000 children located in 536 municipalities in 63 departments, reaching 23,385 schools (FAO, 2023c).
In this framework, the coordination between these two partners, which have supported this association for more than 10 years, is especially noteworthy. As the first provider, Brazil has been responsible for capacity building through its respective national authorities; in this case, the Ministries of Education and Health. As the second provider, FAO has supported and facilitated the various processes and steps, together with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC by its Portuguese acronym).
Finally, in November last year, a presentation was made in Brasilia of the first outcomes of the survey on the situation of Food Programs in 16 LAC countries. This process was carried out through interviews, document review and focus groups with people who participate in these projects, finding the need to “disseminate the achievements made and to continue to meet the demand of the countries by supporting the consolidation of a regional school feeding agenda through the expansion of actions and territorial expansion of the RAES to other countries in the region” (Sustainable School Feeding Network – RAES, 2023). Through this initiative, Brazil, together with other Ibero-American countries, contributes to the achievement of SDG 2 (Zero hunger).
February 2024
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Source: SEGIB based on Agencies and Directorates-General for Cooperation and FAO (2023a) (2023b) (2023c), FAO et al. (2023), Ministry of Education of Brazil (2023) and Sustainable School Feeding Network – RAES (2023).
