Sustainable local sourcing models for school meals in Benin

 

In Benin, school meal programs prioritize locally produced foodstuffs, providing an opportunity to leverage them for transforming local food systems. Yet few studies to date have looked at the impact of the various dimensions of school meal supply systems on local economies, gender equality, social inclusion and the environment, limiting the development of more resilient, sustainable and inclusive supply models.

This research project aims to promote healthier, more sustainable diets, boost incomes and strengthen the resilience of local farming communities, particularly women and marginalized people, by designing, piloting and scaling agroecological, economically viable and inclusive supply systems for school meals in Benin.

A typology of the supply systems currently in place in Benin will first be drawn up using a multidimensional analysis, looking at their economic, ecological, social, political and gender dimensions, as well as the place occupied by local agroecological foods. Based on this analysis, new supply models that test different modalities of financing, structure, the integration of local and agroecological foods, and the integration of women and marginalized people, will be tested.

These models will be co-constructed with local communities, in a participatory approach, and will be evaluated on the basis of their economic benefits, their effects on gender and inclusion, their ability to ensure a constant and sufficient supply of quality local and agroecological food to schools, and their potential to foster the agroecological transition among local food system stakeholders.

This project will help improve the resilience of local food systems through support for agroecology, stabilize supply sources over time, and identify ways to make school meal systems more resilient, inclusive and beneficial for women and marginalized people.

The project is part of a cohort of projects that aim to catalyze the adoption and scaling-up of regenerative, equitable and inclusive practices in school meal supply systems in Africa, with the ultimate goal of contributing to the agroecological transition of local and national food systems.