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* Atleast Project Title is Required.
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Project No. |
CTI 24 2011A
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Project Title |
School Feeding Systems in APEC Economies
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Project Status |
Completed Project
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Publication (if any) |
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Fund Account |
APEC Support Fund
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Sub-fund |
ASF: Human Security
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Project Year |
2011
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Project Session |
Session 2
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APEC Funding |
94,220
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Co-funding Amount |
45,998
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Total Project Value |
140,218
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Sponsoring Forum |
Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC)
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Topics |
Standards
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Committee |
Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI)
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Other Fora Involved |
Not Applicable / Other
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Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved |
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Proposing Economy(ies) |
Russia
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Co-Sponsoring Economies |
Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States; Mexico
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Expected Start Date |
02/07/2011
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Expected Completion Date |
31/12/2012
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Project Proponent Name 1 |
Vladimir V. Chernigov
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Job Title 1 |
Advisor of the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation
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Organization 1 |
Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation
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Postal Address 1 |
Orlikov pereulok 1/11, 107139, Moscow. Russia
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Telephone 1 |
+79856432749
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Fax 1 |
+74956329392
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Email 1 |
vchernigov@gmail.com
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Project Proponent Name 2 |
Not Applicable
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Job Title 2 |
Not Applicable
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Organization 2 |
Not Applicable
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Postal Address 2 |
Not Applicable
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Telephone 2 |
Not Applicable
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Fax 2 |
Not Applicable
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Email 2 |
Not Applicable
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Declaration |
Not Applicable
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Project Summary |
The Project is in line with the aim of promoting stronger and deeper economic cooperation and capacity building within APEC and among developing countries of the region in particular. It seeks to develop a community where enhanced incentives are available for developing agriculture, trade, food supply-chains, infrastructure, small and medium enterprises, as well as education and healthcare.
The project will provide an avenue for a comprehensive discussion on school feeding and moreover social safety nets issues as essential elements of food security and social stability. APEC should engage on the issue primarily because of its worldwide importance and relevance and due to the fact that APEC fora have not previously addressed it in a tailored approach. The implementation of the project will lay groundwork for developing sustainable school feeding programmes and meeting nutrition needs of the most vulnerable groups of population of the diverse APEC economies.
The project will involve a research/analysis stage and a practical/discussion stage in the form of a 2-day seminar in Moscow, Russia in March 2012. Final output of the seminar will be available in April 2012.
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Relevance |
Food security is a common concern for all APEC economies as food is an absolute necessity for human survival and social stability while food markets are characterized by volatility. Setting a framework to build a secure APEC community, APEC Economic Leaders agreed in Yokohama (November 2010) that “the availability of and access to reliable, nutritious, safe and affordable food should be further ensured”.
Improved and sustainable access to food for schoolchildren as a most vulnerable part of consumers is a major factor of food security. “Now is time to take concrete actions to feed the future”, says the Declaration of the First APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security held in Niigata, Japan on 16-17 October 2010 Declaration.
The project will enhance the concept of school feeding as an important element of food security. The content of the project will be designed to span across a variety of food security agenda items with a particular focus on school feeding as a socially significant and cross-cutting issue:
· food supply chains management
· social safety net for marginal and vulnerable children living in poverty
· food safety and health protection concerns
· response to social shocks of crises and disasters
· technologies, standards and regulatory measures applicable to food
processing
· financing, costing and pricing with respect to procurement of food supplies
· gender equality
· technical assistance delivery system for communities in nutrition and
hygiene improving activities
The project will also highlight the economic impact of school feeding programs that is a novel approach to APEC as well as relevant international organizations (World Bank, FAO, WFP).
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Objectives |
The key objectives of the project can be summarized as follows:
- to review economies’ approaches to promote and implement school feeding programmes regarding national policies, state budget support, regional and local management, operation experience;
- to share ideas and best practices in school feeding to ensure stable connection between development of agriculture and improved young generation nutrition, health and welfare;
- to develop an internet-site integrating information on school feeding best practices, research, news, statistics and continued dialogue among APEC economies.
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Alignment |
The project is in conformity with the APEC Action Plan on Food Security endorsed by the 1st APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security (October 2010, Niigata, Japan). The implementation of this project will directly contribute to enhancing framework for improving access to reliable, nutritious, safe, and affordable food for some of the most vulnerable groups of population. The project will do so by summarizing existing practices, promoting shared standards and proposing new policy guidance in the area of school feeding in APEC economies.
Trade in food and agricultural products play a key role in achieving food security. Moreover it creates economic opportunities for people, and thus can increase their incomes and economic access to food. APEC as the premier forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation and trade and investment can make a major contribution to food security efforts.
Trade in food and agricultural products play a key role in achieving food security. Moreover it creates economic opportunities for people, and thus can increase their incomes and economic access to food. APEC as the premier forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation and trade and investment can make a major contribution to food security efforts.
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TILF/ASF Justification |
Lack of knowledge and specialists in child nutrition, food safety and school feeding in developing countries makes their governments agencies highly interested in information sharing and capacity building in this area. The project is expected to improve awareness in developing countries of the relevance of school feeding in promoting economies. No doubts that only healthy and well educated young generation are able to ensure future national welfare. The project and survey are going to contribute to build up operational and administrative capacities of governments and local authorities to address problems related to malnutrition, agriculture and home-grow production, human recourses development, policy, institutional, legal and regulatory framework elaboration, multisectoral interaction (Ministries of Agriculture, Education, Social Affairs, Regulatory agencies etc) and enhance proper technical and organizing skills. The participants of the workshop from developing countries will be especially invited to take an active part in its work and afterwards discussion and cooperation process.
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Beneficiaries and Outputs |
· Policymakers, government officials, regulators, institutions responsible for designing, developing and implementing school feeding programs in APEC economies will benefit by getting access to the survey containing analysis of the best practices and common concerns. The survey will be covering main aspects of school feeding framework, including policy making, regulation and management process, operational and administrative capacity building, standards, new approaches and visions. Besides the expected web-site could propose an on-line communication called “Electronic committee of experts”.
· Public and private sector enterprises involved in school feeding systems will benefit from the project through information sharing on good practices, advanced technologies, concerns and business opportunities. It will be also provided an explanatory work and consultation among privet enterprises through relevant business associations.
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Dissemination |
The output documents will be issued in compliance with APEC publishing, logo and copyright guidelines. The target audience will include government officials, policy makers in APEC member economies working directly on the regulatory environment for school feeding. The final report, survey and workshop presentation materials will be distributed electronically and uploaded to the expected web-site. In addition, they will be loaded onto the APEC Publications Database. The survey will be made available electronically to all member economies. It can be published on hard copy and distributed among the economies and relevant international agencies. As the project is a cross-cutting nature, there will be several opportunities to achieve APEC-wide outreach. The following APEC forums and institutions will be involved: the Food Safety Cooperation Forum, Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group, Human Resource Development Working Group, Health Working Group, FoTC on Food Security and, in case of interest of APEC economies, SOM and ABAC. Relevant international organizations such as Global Child Nutrition Foundation will also be involved in the information sharing process. The survey is expected to be used in after workshop discussions on the topic.
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Gender |
Safe and healthy school feeding is closely connected with health of girls who are going to become future mothers. So it is important that the girls gain adequate nutrition. The role of women is considerable in organizing public control of hygiene and quality of food and developing feeding culture in households. The project will integrate the expertise and values of both men and women to achieve the desired outcomes. Women will have the same opportunity as men to attend the workshop and both genders will participate freely in going on exchange of views and consultations on the special web-site.
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Work Plan |
It is proposed to hold a workshop in Moscow in March 2012 with participation of APEC economies and in close consultation and cooperation with CTI ( SCSC) and ATCWG. It will be applied multisectoral approach in organizing discussion process to secure comprehensive inputs. Participating economies will be requested to nominate an attendees (1-2 from one economy) suitably qualified and representing various line ministries and agencies. APEC member economies will be consulted on agenda, program and planned outputs. They will be asked provide national presentations on the topic. It is supposed to invite speakers from international organisation and institutions such as WFP, WHO, WB, Global Child Nutrition Foundation etc. It is also important to ensure participation both from economies that already have implemented SF programmes and those which have not to share best practices, lessons learned as well as concerns.
They participants will be able to exchange views and ideas on the topical issues and work out recommendations on further cooperation in school feeding on the regional level. The output of the planned discussion at the workshop will be systemized and gathered in the survey to be published following the event.
The workshop will be held during two days with methodology as follows:
First day – Plenary Session
Second day – Working Group 1
Working Group 2
Closing Plenary Session
On the first day, a plenary session will be open for invited speakers and presenters (up to 9) to deliver reports on school feeding practices in their respective economies with a focus on shortcomings as well as achievements.
Reports (or country presentations) must include information on the following issues:
1. Sources of financial support for school feeding programs (external and internal, public and private):
2. Procurement of agricultural commodities for school feeding and its impact on agricultural development. Participation of local producers;
3. Technologies for food processing to comply with food safety and quality standards and requirements for schoolchildren;
4. Food baskets for schoolchildren in different APEC economies;
5. Mechanisms of food safety and quality control of school feeding in different APEC economies.
Reports and presentations are supposed to highlight how school feeding systems shall be developed to become an effective tool for sustainable economic growth, trade facilitation, development of agriculture and food processing industry, business/private sector steady involvement.
On the second day, the seminar-workshop will be divided into two working groups (topics for discussion are subject to confirmation)
Working Group 1 will probably discuss efficiency of public regulation and management regarding legal and financial aspects of school feeding systems. The main points are expected to be state budget sources and levels of financing, laws making for purposeful use of money, management and control of expenditure. It is also important to look into mechanisms of bringing about investments and recourses of privet business.
As a result participants will get knowledge of existing models and best practices in APEC economies. They will have an opportunity to compare models and skills and basically work out common ground for possible cooperation in order to build up national school feeding capacities.
Working Group 2 could focus on economic value of school feeding, inter-relations between school feeding, agricultural production, food processing, supply chains and catering. Participants are to discuss ways and mechanisms of ensuring sustainable demand and supply in the area, creating incentives for small and medium enterprises. In a wider scope there will be an opportunity to ponder on school feeding as a certain branch of economy taking into account its multifaceted economic and social contents and impacts.
On the afternoon plenary session participants led by the experts will discuss and recommend possible actions that the APEC member economies should undertake collectively to improve their capacity to develop more efficient school feeding programs.
Brief country analyses will be forwarded by participants within 15 days after the workshop. A feedback to prepare workshop outcomes and survey will be provided by a Virtual Group (e-group) of participants and speakers/consultants. The Project Overseer’s agency will manage the e-group. Workshop outcomes are to be analyzed and a survey of school feeding systems in APEC economies to be compiled and published in April 2012.
The participants will recommend creating internet-site on school feeding issues and suggest how it should be functioning.
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Risks |
Among probable risks of the project there could be an information gathering and presentations provision from participating economies. It is not yet clear how long will it take to make the web-site functioning and get the feedback process being comprehensive and sustainable. It is also important not to fail in synthesizing properly in the survey information, skills and recommendations given by participants during the workshop. Close communication and consultation will be established with participating economies focal persons, engaged APEC institutions and certainly with the Secretariat.
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Monitoring and Evaluation |
The main point to evaluate the project success will be a willingness of the participants and economies they represent to cooperate and carry on dialogue on school feeding issues after the workshop. A feedback mechanism on the web-site will be strongly recommended to provide systematic collection and analysis of update information on school feeding agenda and activities in the economies. Annual electronic review of collected information highlighting achievements and concerns are expected to be carried out by countries in turns. The reviews will help to measure if the project has achieved its intended outcomes. With elaboration of a universal index of school feeding system evaluation the web-site will probably reflect economies current indicators on permanent basis.
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Linkages |
While food issues have been in the scope of the APEC activities for some time and numerous initiatives were undertaken, less importance has been given to school feeding by APEC Food System, Food Safety Cooperation Forum and food security action planning. On the other hand the project is integrated with the Action Plan on Food Security by providing a survey on school feeding systems. The project will also be focused on the delivery of cost effective school feeding programs that promote local agriculture, procurement, sustainable safety trade chains and benefit regional markets openness. So, it is important for APEC as the key forum for promoting regional trade and economic cooperation to engage financially on the project and contribute to unite member economies efforts in creating a solid and durable ground for regional discussion and cooperation in addition to activities of other international organizations (WFP, WB, FAO) primarily on the basis of mutual understanding that school feeding is one of the cross-cutting issues for building operational and administrative capacities agriculture, social safety nets, supply chains and in the long run the food security framework.
Currently, school feeding in APEC region mainly is a subject of national concern and specialized UN organizations mostly WFP and probably World Bank. There are a number of national programs and strategies supported by WFP and some national agencies and NGO while multilateral Asia Pacific region cooperation remains limited. An express analysis of opinions gained from various representatives of APEC economies shows that all existing national school feeding programs almost pursue similar objectives and have a lot in common. So, the economies obviously are interested in tangible cooperation in the area. Therefore the workshop, survey and subsequently expected feedback using web-site could be a feasible step forward in regional cooperation on such a relevant and cross-cutting issue.
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Sustainability |
Development of national school feeding systems is supposed to be a continuous process. Beneficiaries from APEC economies and non-APEC countries will be able to get access to the best practices in school feeding via the electronic survey (see Q 11), while the web-site will contribute to afterwards long term discussion and information collecting and sharing on permanent basis, including proposed on-line “Electronic Committee of Experts” and annual rotating reviews of best practices, skills and concerns. School feeding and social feeding in a broader scope in relation to Food Security are going to be a significant part of future dialogue and cooperation among APEC economies during Russian Presidency in 2012. Moreover it is supposed to consult APEC economies experts on the idea of working out a universal index to evaluate school feeding systems.
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Project Overseers |
Mr. Vladimir Chernigov, Adviser of the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. In 2006-2009 under his leadership a comprehensive research project was implemented that produced analysis of school feeding in 26 regions of the Russian Federation and included elaboration of new models of school feeding, projects of new plants equipment and logistics, technological passports for food facilities. These studies allowed regions to start introducing comprehensive programs to improve school feeding on new economic, technological and managerial basis.
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Cost Efficiency |
Implementation of this project will help to enhance APEC food security and food safety agenda. In case of success the project will contribute to create a new ground for cooperation on food security within APEC. Nationwide approach to school feeding in Russia, achievements and experience on one hand and shortcomings on the other, topical status of the issue among policy makers, academics and civil society in the country give convincing evidence that Moscow is a right venue for the event and on the eve of Russia’s APEC Presidency in 2012 in particular.
A timetable for the drawdown of APEC Funding requested for the project:
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Date
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Amount
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Justification
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August-September 2011
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25%
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Preparatory work, direct labor cost.
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March, 2012
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50%
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Speakers and Participants travel and per diem expenses, direct labor cost.
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Immediately after the Workshop
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25%
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Speaker’s Honorarium, publication of a survey, printing and distribution of final documents
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Drawdown Timetable |
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Direct Labour |
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Waivers |
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Are there any supporting document attached? |
No
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Attachments
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