The Government has been revising the public procurement proclamations, which is expected to accommodate smallholders and their organizations to enable them supply food to schools without compromising the food quality and safety, so disclosed the Ministry of Education.
On procurement program of states’ knowledge-sharing workshop designing and implementing public food for home grown school meals, Ministry of Education, School Improvement Program Delegator, Desalegn Teshome said that the Ethiopian public procurement system encompasses pro- local producers, companies, and small and micro-enterprises.
He noted that it aims to encourage local producers, companies, small and micro-enterprises which support the national economy through the application of preferential treatment.
As a result, procuring entities shall give a 15 percent margin preference in the price evaluation process for goods produced in Ethiopia.
“Preference shall be given by a margin of 3 percent when such enterprises compete with local suppliers in national competitive bidding,” he added,“however, there is no separate operational rules and practices supporting (HGSF) school feeding to procure food from local and smallholder agriculture producers.”
He further stated that current school feeding program in Ethiopia has strong linkage with smallholder agriculture production.
According to him, three models of school feeding is under implementation in Ethiopia, which are operational rules and practices supporting, emergency school feeding and self-financing school feeding model. The operational rules and practices supporting (HGSF) and Emergency School Feeding Program are implemented by government, World Food Program and SCI.
In coverage of school feeding program, he remarked that over 1,097,008 children under operational rules and practices supporting, and about 286,560 children under emergency School Feeding and 11,000 self-financing model are targeted in the country.
As to him, the food basket for both operational rules and practices and emergency school feeding are composed of locally produced cereals, pulses and milk. And government has allocated 62 million USD which is 60.25 million for operational rules and practices and 1.33 million USD for Emergency.
The farmer cooperative unions are the largest supplier of food for targeted schools. About 69,803.73 MT food locally procured since 2016 through Government emergency school feeding program only, he mentioned.
In provision of food procurement, three modalities of food procurement are consisted. Firstly, there is a direct Food procurement from smallholder farmers through their cooperative unions. Secondly, it has been contracting women groups to prepare and supply the foods. Thirdly, it provides 10 cows to schools and provide part of the milk for student consumption and sell part of it to the community to cover the running cost, except salt and oil almost all foods are procured from school feeding.
Concerning key success factors from smallholder farmers organizations direct purchase for the school feeding initiatives, he mentioned that it provides direct benefit to school feeding with increased profit margin. In this regard, South Nation, Nationalities of People (SNNRP) region developed and endorsed procurement guideline to support direct procurement form school feeding. And it has also large scale government emergency programmes procured directly from school feeding. It as well created an employment opportunity for youth and women.
On his stipulation, though it needs adjustment to make it more conducive, the presence of public procurement law which is pro to a local producers and micro enterprises have potential to support inclusive public food procurement from smallholder farmers for the school feeding initiatives. It demands surplus supply and government commitment.
Regarding the main constraints for the implementation of inclusive public food procurement programmes for home-grown school meals, he mentioned that there are about limited options among home-grown school for diversification of products. And it has also public procurement rules and practices can represent a barrier for the participation of small scale suppliers to public markets.
Added he further pinpointed that there are also constraints in the absence of national standalone home grown school feeding procurement directives, rules and practices as well as failure of the federal proclamation and regional ones in including smallholder farmers and their organizations as beneficiaries of preferencing in the case of food procurement for school feeding initiatives.
In the aspirations for the development, strengthening and scaling up of the current school feeding program, he pointed out that it increases capacity of School feeding to supply commodities including fresh products, and it as well generates best mechanisms that benefit smallholder farmers from institutional market.
FAO’s sub-regional coordinator for Eastern Africa and Representative to the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Dr. David Phiri on his part pointed-out that the idea is that when you have children going school with hungry mood, they did not learn much. School feeding program help a lot to be productive for the generations.
He further noted that school feeding program is an important means for increasing income for farmers. We believe that public procurement should be considering delivering fresh food items to feed the school kids. In school feeding program, there are about 12 African countries which are extensively engaging in the activities of initiatives. Among those African countries, Ethiopia seems jump a quantum leap in launching a program of school feeding.
According to him, we upload the government of Ethiopia in engaging in the activities of school feeding program. For instance, Addis Ababa as a city launches a program of school feeding in an encouraging manner. Public procurement is an important subject in school feeding program. In this regard, we establish a platform to share experience in school feeding program among African countries.
As to him, if the government does not have enough resources to the program by itself, what do you expect that the government could deploy more resources for the school feeding program? Therefore, it should be home-grown and sustainable in school feeding program. School feeding program have demanded a lot of human and financial resources. It is up to the government to scale-up and accessibility of school feeding program extensively.
“It is very important for school meal to be procured for school feeding program. It also promotes school feeding program based upon nutritional values for our kids,” he added.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 17 Novebmer 2019
BY MEHARI BEYENE
