Government to roll out School Feeding programme on a larger scale

AGRICULTURE and Livestock Minister, Robert Sichinga said Government will soon roll-out an up-scaled School Feeding Programme in Zambia after concluding consultations with stakeholders and Cabinet approval.

This was announced on Monday at the closure of the 15th Global Child Nutrition Forum attended by Mr. Sichinga and Education Minister, Dr. John Phiri, in the state of Bahia in Brazil. The two Ministers were accompanied by Zambia’s Ambassador to Brazil, Ms. Cynthia Jangulo and First Secretary in charge of economic and trade issues, Mr. Fabiano Lukashi.

this is according to a press statement issued by Nicky Shabolyo Press secretary,Zambian Embassy in Brazil

The five day forum organised by the World Food Programme and various other donor groups, including the Swedish Government, attracted 23 other participants at ministerial level.

Mr. Sichinga noted that the Ministry of Education and his Ministry have agreed to conduct further consultations in Zambia with the aim of up-scaling the School Feeding Programme in the country after learning from Brazil’s experiences. The South American country is considered as one of the biggest success stories of the School Feeding Programme in the world.

Zambia has been running the programme at small scale level through provision of food to about 800, 000 school children for the last 10 years across the country. This is against statistics that show that there about 3.1 million vulnerable school children that need to be put on this programme in the country.

The current programme, however, is being done without any regulatory framework which would be essential in defining the applicable standards, both in terms of food and its calorific value. The regulatory framework would also define how much a child needed, the times the food should be provided, and determine whether the programme should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture or Ministry of Education or indeed be jointly run by the two ministries or completely separate entities.

Mr. Sichinga pointed out that Brazil has engaged small scale farmers as suppliers of the food, noting that this was a commendable approach as it provided the forward and backward linkages for the farmers.

“This kind of approach provides sustenance for the farmers and cooperatives as they have a ready market for their produce. The purpose was for us to come and learn how different jurisdictions in the world implement School Feeding Programmes. Further, the field trip we undertook confirmed the benefits that accrue to participating small scale farmers.”

The Agriculture and Livestock minister is also holding a series of meetings with senior Brazilian Government officials to seek ways of attracting investment in the agricultural sector in Zambia.

Mr. Sichinga said his mission took advantage of the Global Nutrition Forum to also fit bilateral meetings with Brazilian Government officials into the programme.

He said his meetings will be targeting at attracting Brazilian private sector investors into Zambia’s farming block enterprises. Zambia has established 10 farming blocks across the country, with the eleventh one to soon be put up in the newly created Muchinga province.

The Minister pointed out that as Zambia was seeking ways to diversify the agricultural sector, Government was working to determine which areas Brazil had excelled in with the aim of the two countries working together.

“Some three years ago, Zambia had entered into a number of agreements intended to establish formal areas of cooperation. It is in this context that we sought to piggy-back on the school feeding trip to establish the outstanding issues with the appropriate officials of the Brazilian Government on what each party is expected to provide in order to give effect to the several proposed agreements.”

Mr. Sichinga said there were eight bilateral cooperation agreements and three memoranda of understanding whose implementation are within the scope of various Zambian Ministries with the Zambian Embassy in Brazil playing a facilitating role.

The pending agreements include one in which Brazil has agreed to cancel 80 per cent of the US$111.3 million debt meaning Zambia would only have to pay back 20 per cent, representing US$22.7 million of the total debt.
The others are those in the field of sport; training and capacity building for health professionals; strengthening the National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS; food and nutritional security and humanitarian assistance (including the Zero Hunger Project); the production of bio-fuels, and cultural cooperation.