Developing and testing a transparent and effective school meals program in Angola by supporting local agricultural production and markets

In Angola, two major school feeding programs coexist. One is public and the other is philanthropic and promoted by a national company. They cover 34% and 5% of primary school children respectively. Both programs aim at delivering locally produced food to schools using different strategies to reach out to local farmers. However, data is currently lacking on the impact of these different strategies on local farmers (especially women), local rural economies and school meal quality, which impedes their improvement. This becomes a critical issue as Angola has recently announced that the public program would be revisited and scaled to increase school coverage and as the private model has been renewed for three years.

This project aims to develop, pilot and scale innovations that foster equality and inclusion and increase the share of local, sustainably produced food procured by the two school feeding programs, with an emphasis on the public program. Using mixed methods and a value-chain analysis approach, the project will first identify the strengths and weaknesses of the two programs and indicate critical entry points to improve their catalyzing effects on local food systems. In parallel, the project will analyze some initiatives undertaken to support family farmers and identify how they could be better harnessed to the school feeding programs. The pilots will take place in 12 schools located in three different regions of Angola showing contrasting agroecological and socio-economic contexts. Innovations will be tested in both rural and peri-urban settings.

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