Despite an increasing recognition of the importance of a conducive and aligned public procurement policy and regulatory frameworks for the implementation of public food procurement initiatives that target smallholder farmers, very little has been said about how such an alignment can be achieved, or about the various tools and legal mechanisms that can be used to do this. This publication aims to contribute to this discussion, bringing an analysis of four country experiences and of the various legal mechanisms that can be used to align the regulatory framework in pursuit of broader development goals by means of public procurement in the form of home-grown school feeding programmes.

This publication addresses some of the research gaps in the area of smallholder participation in public food procurement. It identifies good practices, reviews the global body of available literature and draws lessons learned. The findings of this paper have informed the Guidance Note on Public Food Procurement and can assist policy makers in the design and implementation of public food procurement.

Sustainable Public Food Procurement (PFP) represents a key game changer for food systems transformation. It can influence both food consumption and food production patterns. It can deliver multiple social, economic and environmental benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets. This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination and use of PFP as a development tool in particular in the case of school meals programmes. In Volume 1, researchers, policymakers and development partners can find evidence on how PFP can be used as a development tool and deliver multiple benefits for multiple beneficiaries. It argues that PFP can provide a market for local and smallholder farmers, promote the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity, and improve the nutrition and health of children and communities. Volume 2 of this publication, available at https://doi.org/10.4060/cb7969en, presents further analysis of the instruments, enablers and barriers for PFP implementation. It also provides case studies with local, regional and national experiences from Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America.

Sustainable Public Food Procurement (PFP) represents a key game changer for food systems transformation. It can influence both food consumption and food production patterns. It can deliver multiple social, economic and environmental benefits towards sustainable food systems for healthy diets. This publication aims to contribute to the improved understanding, dissemination and use of PFP as a development tool in particular in the case of school meals programmes. In this Volume 2, researchers, policymakers and development partners can find extensive evidence of the instruments, enablers and barriers for PFP implementation. It also provides case studies with local, regional and national experiences from Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America. Volume 1 of this publication, available at https://doi.org/10.4060/cb7960en, presents further analysis on how PFP can be used as a development tool and deliver multiple benefits for multiple beneficiaries. It argues that PFP can provide a market for local and smallholder farmers, promote the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity, and improve the nutrition and health of children and communities.

Food and nutrition security is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals enshrined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In an attempt to contribute to reaching this objective, school feeding programmes are serving meals to over 418 million pre-primary, primary and secondary schoolchildren around the world. The positive experience from a project supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Angola, Honduras and Peru that incorporated locally procured fish into home-grown school feeding (HGSF) programmes led to the elaboration of this toolkit. This toolkit is designed to support governments, project designers, managers and practitioners involved in the fishery value chain and school feeding, who want to incorporate locally procured, safe, nutritious and affordable fish and fish products into their existing HGSFs. Therefore, this toolkit is expected to assist them during the rapid assessment of the situation of the school feeding and fishery sector, and the identification of challenges and opportunities present while incorporating fish and fish products into HGSFs. To this end, this toolkit adopts three main approaches: the Sustainable Food Value Chain for Nutrition to enhance the consideration of nutrition lens in the value chain approach; the gender-transformative approach to support women fisherfolk in their activities and increase their participation in school feeding programmes; and local and inclusive food procurement to connect public demand for food to small-scale fisherfolk. Specifically, this toolkit proposes 4 phases and 15 flexible and adaptable tools to sustainably serve fish and fish products at schools.

Even though substantial progress has been achieved worldwide in reducing both poverty and malnutrition, much is yet to be done. There are signs that the progress made in both dimensions has stalled in recent years. Poor-quality diets have become a major driver for overweight and obesity and associated non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, and some types of cancers. Conflict and climate vulnerability have been identified as major obstacles to reaching Sustainable Development Goal targets related to malnutrition by 2030. In 2019, economic downturns and slowdowns hindered efforts even further. More recently, the COVID-19 crisis has imposed even harsher conditions to countries.Poverty and malnutrition are inevitably linked, and therefore addressing one can help address the other. Given that most of the world’s extremely poor people and stunted children live primarily in rural areas and rely mostly on agriculture, the agriculture and food systems approach can offer an opportunity to reduce both poverty and malnutrition. The food systems approach places equal emphasis on both the supply and demand dimensions that are critical for ensuring healthier diets and better nutrition for poor and vulnerable groups.This special issue of Policy in Focus is dedicated to answering a crucial question: How can a food systems approach be used to design and implement policies and investments that reach those most vulnerable to poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and suboptimal diets? We hope that the contributions contained in this volume, by leading academics and development practitioners, exploring the linkages between nutrition, food systems, and poverty, can help stakeholders and policymakers make inroads towards the promotion of food and nutrition security and the reduction of rural poverty.

A solid international consensus has emerged on the importance of nutrition for children’s development and well-being. At the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), the Member States of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) committed to developing policies, programmes and initiatives to ensure healthy diets throughout the children’s life cycle, emphasizing the potential of schools as platforms for integrated action. This Guide promotes a holistic and human rights-based approach to school food and nutrition, in which legislation is an indispensable tool to ensure the sustainability of public policy goals set by a country. In light of international law and standards, it provides practical information and guidance to develop or strengthen national legislation to improve food security and nutrition in schools as well as community development. The Guide presents a range of regulatory options and legislative examples of state practice that may contribute to building sound and coherent legal frameworks for school food and nutrition. It is a useful resource for law practitioners, policymakers, parliamentarians, and all actors who are involved in the design, implementation, or monitoring of school programmes and policies and most particularly, for those interested in taking legislative action (law-making or law reform).

The School food and nutrition - Global action plan seeks to consolidate and guide FAO’s synergistic efforts, setting out priority and concrete outputs to be achieved by 2026. Key activities are presented in the plan and organized according to the following action areas: 1. promote the uptake of and investment in holistic approaches to school food and nutrition (SFN); 2. enhance capacities to design, implement and monitor effective SFN interventions; 3. strengthen policy and legal frameworks that enable SFN implementation; and 4. mobilize resources for ensuring regular and better support to countries. These have been prioritized based on identified gaps and needs, and considering the Organization’s technical competence and organizational comparative advantage. Such activities are meant to be adapted, contextualized and implemented according to regional and national priorities. This publication is the result of a collective effort, and includes contributions from relevant technical units of FAO across global, regional and country levels. The development of this plan follows the publication and dissemination of the Organization’s School Food and Nutrition Framework, and provides the implementation roadmap to attain its expected results.

This book examines the challenges and impacts of poor diets and nutrition from current food systems and the potential contribution of biodiversity and ecosystem services in addressing these problems. There is a strong need for a multi-level, cross-sectoral approach that connects food biodiversity conservation and sustainable use to address critical problems in our current food systems, including malnutrition. Building on research from the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project (BFN), which aims to better link biodiversity, diets and nutrition, the book presents a multi-country, cross-sectoral analysis of initiatives that have promoted local food biodiversity in four countries: Brazil, Kenya, Turkey and Sri Lanka. This book offers a comprehensive summary of the BFN Project results in each of the four countries along with lessons learned and how this work could be upscaled or applied in other regions. It argues that the strategic promotion and use of food biodiversity is critical in uniting attempts to address conservation, nutrition and livelihood concerns. The book is structured around chapters and case studies encompassing the BFN Project with specific experiences related by partners who played key roles in the work being done in each country. By offering a comparative view capable of furthering dialogue between the respective countries, it is also meant to connect the individual cases for a “greater than the sum of its parts” effect. This means consideration of how localized activities can be adapted to more countries and regions. Therefore, the book addresses global issues with a foot planted firmly in the grounded case study locations. This book will be of great interest to policymakers, practitioners and NGOs working on food and nutrition, as well as students and scholars of agriculture, food systems and sustainable development.

This year’s report should dispel any lingering doubts that the world is moving backwards in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms. We are now only eight years away from 2030, but the distance to reach many of the SDG 2 targets is growing wider each year. There are indeed efforts to make progress towards SDG 2, yet they are proving insufficient in the face of a more challenging and uncertain context. The intensification of the major drivers behind recent food insecurity and malnutrition trends (i.e. conflict, climate extremes and economic shocks) combined with the high cost of nutritious foods and growing inequalities will continue to challenge food security and nutrition. This will be the case until agrifood systems are transformed, become more resilient and are delivering lower cost nutritious foods and affordable healthy diets for all, sustainably and inclusively.