Future resilience of home-grown school feeding system in urban Zambia and Malawi (FRESHGROWS)

 

In Zambia and Malawi, school feeding programs based on local food procurement are building bridges between rural food system actors where food is produced and the urban areas where most students receive school meals. However, challenges remain, including weak linkages among actors, a lack of evidence about their performance, and the relatively low capacity of local farmers to meet the urban school demand for climate-resilient food. Research is needed to understand how school food procurement systems can incentivize consistent and adequate supplies and create a school feeding ecosystem that contributes towards gender equality and inclusion, co-prosperity and resilience across rural-urban settings.

This research aims at identifying, testing and scaling pathways that can transform school feeding programs in Zambia and Malawi. Using participatory methods, the project will scrutinize the school feeding programs at the social, economic and environmental level, examine the role, interests and interactions among the various stakeholders (including women and marginalized groups) involved or excluded from the school feeding ecosystem, and assess the linkages between agroecological production and school food procurement. Research findings will inform the piloting of co-created innovations in three different city-regions, which will comprise new ways of collaborating among actors to increase effectiveness and fairness; new incentives to increase local, climate-resilient food procurement; and gender-responsive solutions to increase participation, power and benefits of women and marginalized groups. Evidence-based recommendations will be generated and disseminated among policymakers, practitioners and other school feeding stakeholders for use.

This project is part of the School Food Catalyzing Climate Resilient, Inclusive, and Sustainable Procurement initiative (CRISP), an initiative led by IDRC which seeks to catalyze the equitable and inclusive adoption and scaling of sustainable practices throughout the school meal procurement system that could ultimately result in broader positive improvements in local or national food systems, including agroecological practices.