Brazil Hosts Summit On School Meals

(MENAFN- Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA)) São Paulo – Delegations from more than one hundred countries will participate on September 18 and 19 in the 2^nd Global Summit of the School Meals Coalition. The meeting will be held in Fortaleza, Ceará, and will discuss the expansion and improvement of quality school meals. The event will bring together ministers, government representatives, and civil society institutions.

The School Meals Coalition was created in 2021. Its first summit was held in Paris, France, in 2023, when Brazil co-chaired the initiative alongside France and Finland. The coalition works in partnership with the U. N. World Food Programme (WFP) and the School Meals Coalition Secretariat, both of which support countries in developing national school feeding programs.

The National School Feeding Program (PNAE), coordinated by the National Education Development Fund, which is part of Brazil's Ministry of Education, provides meals to more than 40 million students in 150,000 schools, with an annual budget of BRL 5.5 billion (USD 1 billion). Through this initiative, Brazil has already supported several countries in implementing school feeding programs.

The meeting agenda includes the presentation of the report“The State of School Feeding 2024”, an overview of the actions adopted following the first summit, the introduction of financial mechanisms and partnerships to combat hunger, the practical application of research in the sector, success stories in the adoption of school feeding, and innovation across seven panels spread over the two days of the event.

The coalition is a body created by and for governments to support the implementation of school feeding systems. It is made up of 109 countries, including Arab nations. Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and Yemen are members of the initiative.

Of these, Libya and Yemen signed a national commitment with school feeding targets, while Iraq and Lebanon also pledged to present progress reports on their objectives. Lebanon, for example, said, according to the coalition, that it expanded school feeding coverage from 78,000 students in 2023 to 135,000 in 2025. Iraq reported that it expanded its national program to more than 770,000 students across 25 districts between 2023 and 2024.

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Translated by Guilherme Miranda

Ângelo Miguel/MEC/Supplied

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