São Paulo – A delegation of ministers and authorities from the Sudanese government will be in Brasilia, from March 2nd to 6th, to be introduced to the Brazilian school feeding program. The goal is to take the national experience as basis for the development of the Arab country’s own school food program.
The delegation will be headed by Badreldin Mahmoud Abbas, minister of Finance and National Economy, followed by Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid, minister of Agriculture and Irrigation; Masha’er Al-Dawallab, minister of Social Welfare; Adam Abdalle Al-Nour, minister of Education; Isam Abdalla, undersecretary of the Federal Ministry of Health; Habib Makhtoum, president of the Agricultural Committee of the National Assembly; Majzoub Musa Majzoub, minister of Agriculture of Kassala State; Anwar Khalifa, executive director of the minister of Agriculture’s Cabinet; and Mansour Fath Elrahman Mansour, director of the General Directory of Investments.
“This is an answer of the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations to an assistance request made by Sudan for the formulation of a policy for fighting hunger and poverty”, explained Abd Elghani Elkarim, Sudan’s ambassador, about the visit of his country’s delegation to Brazil. “Sudan started a very serious program about school food and the World Food Programme believes that Brazil is a great example of this initiative”, he stated.
The coming of the Sudanese delegation is being coordinated by a team from the Centre of Excellence against Hunger, which is a partnership between WFP and the Brazilian government. According to information from the centre, the main focus of the visit is to show to the Arabs the link between family agriculture and school feeding program in Brazil to help the Sudanese develop its own program in the area.
Included in the schedule of the Sudanese authorities are visits to the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger, the National Council of Food and Nutritional Security, the Ministry of Agrarian Development, National Fund for Education Development, National Supply Company and Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation.
“Normally, in a second phase, the Centre of Excellence sends advisors to the countries to help them on the development of policies of school feeding according to the specific demands of the government”, tells Daniel Balaban, director of the Centre of Excellence, about the continuation of the technical cooperation between Brazil and Sudan, in an email interview to ANBA.
“We also work together with countries in national consultations about the policies, so all the relevant players can argue and contribute to the creation and improvement of public policies in the area of food security. The help to be offered to Sudan will be defined in the action plan that the delegation will prepare at the end of the studies visit”, said Balaban.
The director pointed out that a total of 34 countries already participated in study visits to Brazil, with 18 being for the development, approval or discussion of new public policies of food and nutritional security, most of them related to school feeding linked to local family agriculture.
“School feeding is a highlight of the Centre’s cooperation work because it brings benefits to education, [since] school feeding encourages families to enroll and keep children in school, and well-nourished children learn better”, stated Balaban.
He emphasized that school lunches also promote “nutrition of children and youngsters, social protection and local economic benefits, with income generation to family farmers when linked to the purchase of food produced by them”.
Tunisia
The Sudanese mission is not the first one coming from an Arab country to study the Brazilian school feeding program. In April of 2014, the Centre of Excellence hosted a delegation from Tunisia, with representatives of the ministries of Education, Agriculture, Social Issues, Health and Foreign Relations, besides members of the WFP office in Tunisia.
“The visit focused mainly on the Brazilian experience of school feeding, since Tunisia is interested in reviewing its national school feeding program to develop and adopt a more sustainable model. The next step will be conducting a national seminar about school feeding in Tunisia”, said Balaban.
Changes
According to the director of the Centre of Excellence, the technical cooperation work with other countries has been generating good results already. “Mozambique is in the final stages of a pilot project of school feeding linked to family agriculture, with very positive results and the perspective of expanding the initiative across the country”, revealed Balaban.
“Bangladesh is also in the implementation stage of a pilot project to replace fortified biscuits with warm meals in some of its schools, with excellent results and positive impacts in student attendance, school performance and nutrition. The government perspective is also to expand the initiative for every school in the country. Pakistan, which visited Brazil in 2014, is in discussions for the final version of its national Zero Hunger policy, which brings a component of school feeding linked to family agriculture”, he added.
The Centre
According to information from the United Nations website, the Centre of Excellence against Hunger was founded on November 7, 2011, with the goal of being a world place for the exchange of experience, developing of capabilities, promotion of South-South cooperation and of effective social protection networks.
The centre is located in Brasilia and its main financial supporters are the Brazilian government, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Department for International Development from the British government.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
