Four Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) coun­tries have been in­clud­ed in the Sus­tain­able School Feed­ing Net­work (RAES) that aims to sup­port coun­tries in im­ple­ment­ing and con­sol­i­dat­ing their school feed­ing and nu­tri­tion pro­grammes.

Be­lize, St. Lu­cia, St. Kitts-Nevis and Suri­name are among 17 coun­tries from Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean in­clud­ed in the pro­gramme , cre­at­ed by the Brazil­ian gov­ern­ment in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Unit­ed Na­tions Food and Agri­cul­ture Or­ga­ni­za­tion (FAO).

The oth­er coun­tries in the project are Brazil, Bo­livia, Chile, Colom­bia, Cu­ba, El Sal­vador, Ecuador, Hon­duras, Guatemala, Paraguay, Pe­ru, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and Uruguay that  col­lec­tive­ly rep­re­sent ap­prox­i­mate­ly 81 mil­lion stu­dents.

RAES seeks to pro­vide a space for di­a­logue among pol­i­cy­mak­ers and tech­ni­cal ex­perts on so­lu­tions and in­no­va­tions need­ed in the re­gion. It al­so of­fers tech­ni­cal as­sis­tance to sup­port coun­tries in the im­ple­men­ta­tion and im­prove­ment of their pro­grams, con­tribut­ing to the pro­mo­tion of the hu­man right to ad­e­quate food.

This ini­tia­tive, part of the Brazil-FAO In­ter­na­tion­al Co­op­er­a­tion Pro­gramme, was es­tab­lished in 2018 and is the re­sult of col­lab­o­ra­tion dat­ing back to 2009 be­tween the Brazil­ian Co­op­er­a­tion Agency (ABC) of the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs (MRE) and the Na­tion­al Fund for the De­vel­op­ment of Ed­u­ca­tion (FNDE) of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion (MEC), with the sup­port of the FAO, which acts as the net­work’s ex­ec­u­tive sec­re­tari­at.

As part of their mem­ber­ship in RAES, mem­ber coun­tries signed a de­c­la­ra­tion to ad­vance school feed­ing poli­cies and pro­grammes. They al­so aim to work to­geth­er in the medi­um and long term to ex­pand stu­dent cov­er­age, im­prove school in­fra­struc­ture, de­vel­op reg­u­la­tions, strength­en links with fam­i­ly farm­ing, im­ple­ment food and nu­tri­tion ed­u­ca­tion ini­tia­tives, and in­crease the bud­get al­lo­cat­ed to these pro­grammes.

FAO Deputy Di­rec­tor-Gen­er­al, Mario Lu­betkin, said that “pro­mot­ing more re­silient, in­clu­sive, high-qual­i­ty, and sus­tain­able school feed­ing pro­grams has an ex­tra­or­di­nary im­pact on com­mu­ni­ties in eco­nom­ic, so­cial, ed­u­ca­tion­al, and en­vi­ron­men­tal terms”.

He said RAES would fa­cil­i­tate joint ef­forts and pro­pose shared so­lu­tions to im­prove school feed­ing and nu­tri­tion pro­grams, pro­mot­ing healthy, nu­tri­tious, and ac­ces­si­ble di­ets for all.

ABC Di­rec­tor Am­bas­sador, Ruy Pereira, said the RAES net­work plays a strate­gic role in ad­vanc­ing co­op­er­a­tion in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean

“The strength­en­ing and ex­pan­sion of these pro­grams is wide­ly rec­og­nized as an ex­treme­ly valu­able and ef­fec­tive tool in the fight against hunger and pover­ty,” said the am­bas­sador, who called on “more coun­tries in the re­gion to join RAES.”

FNDE Pres­i­dent, Fer­nan­da Pa­cobahy­ba, high­light­ed the im­por­tance of con­tin­ued co­op­er­a­tion and the RAES net­work to “keep sup­port­ing and em­pow­er­ing tech­ni­cal ex­perts and pol­i­cy­mak­ers in our coun­tries to build vi­able so­lu­tions, ad­vance the de­vel­op­ment of reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works, and en­sure the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of school feed­ing pro­grammes in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.”

PANA­MA CITY, Pana­ma, Nov 26, CMC

CMC/ad/ir/2024