This FAO’s project promotes public food procurement as a catalyst to boost local agriculture, strengthen local food systems and move people out of poverty. The project has activities at global, regional (Africa) and national levels. Nationally it is implemented in Ethiopia and Senegal, supporting governments in the design and implementation of efficient and inclusive public food procurement for school feeding initiatives. It is financially supported by the Government of Italy.
FAO
Implemented in
- Africa
- Ethiopia
- Senegal
Sectors of activity
Agricultural and Fishery, Food & Beverage, Public Procurement
Type of initiative
Capacity Building & Implementation, Policy Frameworks & Tools, Research, Analysis, Assessment
Start date
01/12/2017
End date
20/11/2020
Submitted on:
13/01/2020Objectives
The aims to foster a global framework and rationale on preferential public food procurement as a business opportunity for smallholder farmers’ participation in institutional markets, while contributing to an improved food security and meals’ diversity at schools and improved food security of smallholder farmers.
This will be achieved by enhancing the technical capacity of concerned Governments to operate their current HGSF initiatives and provide additional options for decision making on supply chain and business models, operational modalities, and adapted public procurement regulatory frameworks and contractual options for an inclusive public procurement of a diversified food basket.
Activities
As collected through the One Planet Reporting
Output level
Training for SCP
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Africa Regional Knowledge Sharing & Capacity Development Workshop:
Designing and Implementing Sustainable Public Food Procurement Programmes for Home – Grown School Meals
Africa Regional Knowledge Sharing & Capacity Development Workshop: Designing and Implementing Sustainable Public Food Procurement Programmes for Home – Grown School Meals
Regions
Africa
Lead organization
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Objective
The regional workshop was focused on the procurement and supply chains of school meals to support governments to design, implement and expand sustainable strategies for public food procurement from smallholder farmers for school meals. The workshop provided participants with the principles, benefits and a logical framework for understanding key concepts on preferential public procurement and its potential benefits. Participants have been introduced to the main planning steps and policy options to design initiatives for public food procurement from smallholder farmers. Key areas of the capacity building included: public procurement, food baskets; modalities for smallholder procurement; support to supply chain; cross-sector coordination; and basic principles of nutrition guidelines for context-based diversified school meals. Considerations for scaling-up sustainable public procurement of locally grown foods was also addressed through an introduction of basic concepts of monitoring and evaluation, legal frameworks and by the presentation of available tools and key indicators on policy sustainability and public food procurement good practices. Common challenges have been discussed together with approaches for overcoming these difficulties.
Achievements
From the "Action Plans" prepared by the Government representatives and evaluation form compiled by participants, it could be identified three key areas of work that have the potential to be further developed within FAO and the Nutrition and Food System work. These are: • Value chain development for Home-Grown School Feeding programmes • Adaptation of public procurement system (including regulatory frameworks) to support the inclusion of local smallholder food producers • Impact evaluation In addition, 90% of the participants that compiled the evaluation forms affirmed that the training lived up to their expectations; 96,5% that the overall content was relevant to their jobs; 96,6% that the lectures were well prepared; and; 96% that the knowledge gained can contribute to improve their everyday work (sum of notes 5-strongly agree and 4-agree). Among the suggestions for improvement, participants highlighted the wellness to have additional time, including one additional day for the workshop and, particularly, additional time for further exchanging among countries. Due to the successful results of the workshop, a similar initiative with other African Countries is being planed to be developed in early 2020.
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On-line course on sustainable public procurement for home-grown school feeding
On-line course on sustainable public procurement for home-grown school feeding
Regions
Online activity
Lead organization
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Objective
The objective of the training is to support Governments in the design, implementation and expansion of sustainable public food procurement from smallholder farmers for school meals. The content focus on the procurement and supply chains of school meals programs.
Achievements
The training was designed for senior government officials from African countries involved in the design and implementation of home-grown school feeding (HGSF) programs. It was developed in partnership with the African Union and the ITC-ILO and with the support of other UN agencies, such as the WFP and UNEP. Taking a multi-sectorial approach, the training aimed to build capacity and promote exchanges among officials from different areas of work (e.g. representatives from Min. of Agriculture, Education, Public Procurement Authorities) on the topic of sustainable public food procurement. Main expected outcomes include enhanced capacities and information for supporting the implementation of HGSF programs based on sustainable public food procurement. The course was also a good opportunity to promote the interaction and exchange between professionals from the different areas (such as education and public procurement) that often lacks and that is crucial for linking and recognizing public food procurement for schools as a key component of the sustainable public procurement agenda. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the course was implemented online. It combined online sessions with individual online learning modules. The training was implemented both in English and in French.
Knowledge resource and technical tool
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Aligning public procurement rules and practices to support the implementation of home-grown school feeding initiatives: The case of Ethiopia.
Aligning public procurement rules and practices to support the implementation of home-grown school feeding initiatives: The case of Ethiopia.
Regions
Africa
Lead organization
FAO
Objective
This report aims to inform on the alignment of public procurement rules and practices to support the implementation of government-led Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) initiatives in Ethiopia. HGSF can be understood as a school feeding model that is designed to provide children in schools with safe, varied and nutritious food which is sourced locally from smallholders (FAO and WFP, 2018). The report builds on the experiences of various countries and is based on a recognition that building a linkage between school feeding programmes and local and smallholder agriculture production requires adjustments and reforms at the institutional, policy and regulatory levels. These include the alignment of public procurement laws, regulations and related practices. The report is part of the project GCP/GLO/775/IT on 'Policy Support for Public Food Procurement for Government-led Home-Grown School Food initiatives' and of the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) support for the 'HGSF procurement guideline development' Core Team Committee established in Ethiopia. This Committee has the objective of supporting the development of a conducive and appropriate regulatory framework for HGSF – which enables farmer cooperatives or associations to supply quality food products to schools on time while complying with national public procurement rules and principles – by developing or adapting public procurement directives at the federal and regional levels.
Achievements
The report was presented and validated by the Government (Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education and Public Procurement Authority). It is being used by the 'HGSF procurement guideline development' Core Team Committee to support the development of a proposal for an amendment to the Federal Public Procurement Proclamation.
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Report on "Aligning public procurement rules and practices to support the implementation of home-grown school feeding initiatives: The case of Senegal"
Report on "Aligning public procurement rules and practices to support the implementation of home-grown school feeding initiatives: The case of Senegal"
Regions
Africa
Lead organization
FAO
Objective
This report aims to inform about the alignment of public procurement rules and practices to support the implementation of government-led home-grown school feeding (HGSF) initiatives in Senegal. HGSF can be understood as a school feeding model that is designed to provide children in schools with safe, varied and nutritious food which is sourced locally from smallholders. The report builds on the experiences of various countries and is based on a recognition that building a linkage between school feeding programmes and local and smallholder agricultural production requires adjustments and reforms at the institutional, policy and regulatory levels. These include the alignment of public procurement laws, regulations and related practices. The report is part of the GCP/GLO/775/IT project on 'Policy Support for Public Food Procurement for Government-led Home-Grown School Food Initiatives,' which includes a similar study developed on Ethiopia. provides specific recommendations for the alignment of public procurement rules and practices with the implementation of HGSF initiatives in Senegal.
Achievements
The report has received very positive feedback from the government, and in particular from Ministry of Education and Public Procurement Regulatory Agency (ARMP). The report constituted the bases for the development of a collaboration with ARMP to, among others: i) Identify the various opportunity (instruments) offered by the current public procurement code (PPC) to facilitate the access of producer's organizations (PO) to public markets; (ii) develop a simplified practical guide adapted to the context of school feeding and local agricultural production, integrating all the instruments available in the CMP to connect POs to public food markets; (iii) provide training to build capacities and sensitize contracting authorities and local suppliers.
Outreach and communication for SCP
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Validation Workshop - Methodology Guidelines Impact Evaluation of Home Grown School Feeding Programmes
Validation Workshop - Methodology Guidelines Impact Evaluation of Home Grown School Feeding Programmes
Regions
Global / All regions
Lead organization
FAO
Objective
This workshop was organized to discus and validate the final draft of the Methodological Guidelines on Impact evaluation for Home Grown School Feeding Programs.
Achievements
FAO is generating evidence on the impacts of Home-Grown School Feeding programs (based on inclusive public food procurement from local producer) on food security and agricultural development in different countries. The guidance note presented in this workshop meets the need for methodological instructions on how conduct evaluation of HGSF programs. The proposed Guidelines aims to provide an answer to the following questions: What is the rationale behind HGSF programs? What are the main challenges in designing rigorous evaluations for HGSF programs? What is the theory of change behind HGSF? How school meals and public food procurement should affect beneficiaries? How an adequate research design to conduct an impact evaluation of HGSF can be chosen? What are the most common experimental and non-experimental evaluation designs that can be implemented? What are the most suitable sampling strategies in face of different food procurement models? What are the outcomes to be measured to assess program effects? What are the implications for external validity of the evaluation's results? The feedback received at the validation workshop is being integrated and a final version of the Methodological Guidelines will be published in 2020.
Impact and Results
The project will deliver three main outputs:
Output 1. Policy dialogue is promoted and knowledge is produced through a benchmarking framework for data collection and analysis for facilitating the identification of key aspects of public food procurement.
Output 2. Impact assessment methodology of HGSF programs is designed to be applied to different contexts, pilot tested and results used to inform national scaling-ups, and regional and global policy dialogue. A baseline for one or both countries will also be undertaken in either of the two countries.
Output 3. Governments have strengthened capacity to operate their current HGSF programmes, including adapted regulatory frameworks and contractual modalities for inclusive public procurement of a diversified food basket (i.e. including dry and fresh food) to be tested in selected areas in one of the two countries.