Honorable Burhanu Nega, Minister of Education of Ethiopia,

Honorable Ministers and Deputy Ministers of other Member States, who came to celebrate with us today, from Lesotho, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Somalia

The Mayor of Addis Abeba,

Members of the Diplomatic corps,

Dear active co-organizers and friends from the World Food Programme 

Representatives of our partners from within and outside AU

Distinguished Guests

Dear participants

Ladies and gentlemen

All protocols duly observed

On behalf of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat and on my own behalf, I would like to welcome you in AU premises and I wish you all a happy celebration of 1^st March 2023.

• The African Union Commission highly applauds the governments of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for simultaneously hosting this event, with Morocco. I greatly appreciate UN WFP for their financial and technical support that played great role in organizing this event.  I also would like to express my gratitude to the Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF) Cluster members such as AUDA-NEPAD, AUC Departments – Health, Humanitarian and Social Affairs and ARBE, UNESCO-IICBA, FAO, UNICEF, AFECN, Nutrition International, CERFAM, and other partners for effectively coordinating this important event. Also, I am honored to express our appreciation to the Brazilian Embassy to the African Union and to the Economic Commission of Africa for their continued cooperation and their decisive contribution to this event.  

• In 2016, our Heads of State and Government, agreed to transform the operationalization of the HGSF Prorammes from conventional school feeding approach to ‘Home Grown’ by giving due focus on local production . This HGSF value chain which engages small holder producers- to transporters-to cooperatives to-school children has a transformative effect in human capital development and improves lives of individuals and households, by improving their incomes. HGSF programmes have also a positive impact on women’s empowerment in the local economies and on girls retention in schools.

 Cognizant of this fact, the Assembly of Heads of State instituted the African Day of School Feeding on 01 March of every year to rally and discuss the role of HGSF in contributing to the African Union’s vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful continent. This celebration is also a reminder for us to assess what has been done so far, to address current policies and bring innovation to foster HGSF. It is also an opportunity to reinforce advocacy and visibility of the HGSF approach, and its relevance for children, education and nutrition, to all levels of governance bodies: Central, local, but also, all partners and actors such as private sector, elected parliamentarians, Civil Society, etc.  that could play a key role to boost HGSF.

• We are convinced that the HGSF has not only greater strategic relevance in contributing for the implementation of CESA 16-25; and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) but it also helps a lot to stabilize and promote markets, especially local economies.  

• This year’s theme is related with the African Continental Free Trade Area -AfCFTA- because the AU theme of the year is precisely on accelerating the implementation of AfCFTA.  So, we are combining the “feed Africa” and the “Integrate Africa” as mentioned by our brother from the AfdB.

• In doing so, we want show how effective the implementation of  HGSF value chains can bring in terms of economic returns for long term and sustainable development, reflecting in agriculture, human capital, nutrition, education and community resilience. This will have a significant implication in fostering the objective of the AfCFTA to boost intra-African trade, particularly trade in value-added products across Africa. 

Ladies and gentlemen

• During the    High-Level Side-Event of  Transforming Education Summit (TES) at the 77th UN General Assembly in September last year, the AUC presented a Declaration on TES in Africa which called, among other actions, for the strengthening of the implementation of comprehensive school feeding programmes to improve human capital and, enhancing the health and nutrition of children.
• The 4th Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Education, Science and Technology (which is the statutory meeting of Ministers of Education of Member States)   reiterated the commitment and called for all AU Member States to celebrate African Day of School feeding (ADSF), annually, on the 1^st of March.   

• Seven years after the AU groundbreaking decision to promote Home grown school feeding, AU Member States have made significant efforts to increase their budget allocations and adopt rigorous policy frameworks for school feeding. For instance, the numbers given to us earlier on by the Mayor of Addis Ababa and the comprehensive information on school feeding policies shared by the honorable Minister of Education of Ethiopia speak more eloquently than any speech, about the efforts deployed to invest in homegrown school feeding, i.e invest in future s the Mayor of Addis Ababa said. Currently 84 percent of school meals programmes are funded by domestic budgets although multiple disparities exist across income levels. However, recently the international donor support has declined due to the pandemic and other reasons. 

• These efforts have not only led to the feeding of more children, but also to improving the quality of school health and nutrition interventions across the continent. 65.4 million children received school meals across Africa in 2019, a 71% increase from 38.4 million in 2013. This has  now marginally increased to 65.9 million in 2022. It means that the governments of the continent   seem to have restored school meals coverage to or even above the pre-pandemic level.  This is an amazing achievement, that speaks volumes about the resilience and capacity of the nations and governments to rebound from the shock of the pandemic. However, the overall coverage is still low with only 31 percent of primary school-aged children receiving school meals in 2022. 

• I am so grateful to WFP and those all engaged in the preparation of the ‘The AU 2021-2022 Biennial Report on School Feeding’ which results will be shared with you  today. 

Before I conclude, I would like to share with you some  key messages:

1. AU Member States should sustain and increase domestic financing for school feeding programmes, and partners and donors should provide the financial and technical support required to augment country efforts, at least during the transition period towards sustained HGSF.

2. AU Member States, the AU Commission, AUDA NEPAD and Development Partners should ensure that HGSF related food systems    be climate smart , more gender sensitive, and sustainable.

3. The AU Commission, AUDA-NEPAD and Development Partners should strengthen and leverage multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder partnerships including the HGSF cluster and global school meals coalition adopting a business unusual approach with the objective of promoting a ‘DELIVERING AS ONE’ spirit in the implementation of our common goals. 

4. The AU Member States should innovatively review the procurement systems and value chains of HGSF programmes, capitalizing on the cross-border initiatives within the framework of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreements (ACFTA).     

5. The AU Commission, AUDA-NEPAD and Development Partners, specifically those in the Home-Grown School Feeding Cluster, will continue working with Member States on implementing school feeding-related commitments, and review progress in their implementation, as rightly mentioned in the communiqué that has been prepared. 

6. Last but not least, the just ended AU Summit has decided that the AU Theme for Year 2024 will be devoted to Education. That is why my Department is already taking steps to officially inform all our partners, and to prepare a rich and attractive roadmap to celebrate properly our collective efforts towards bridging the gaps in reaching our CESA 16-25   the SDG4 goals. It gives us a unique opportunity to explore together what we can do, with all our member states, to futher spotlight HGSF and boost our already impressive results. Some ideas are already there, but let us fine-tune them and make them fit in a comprehensive programme. 

7. Thank you