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WFP’s first Centre of Excellence was established in Brazil in 2011 as a as a global powerhouse of solutions for the defeat of hunger and malnutrition. Through solid South-South bridges to food security, the WFP Centre of Excellence against Hunger Brazil (WFP Brazil CoE) draws on experiences from Brazil and other countries with success cases to multiply knowledge and policy innovations among developing countries. Primarily focused on linking school feeding initiatives to local agriculture systems, WFP in Brazil provides technical assistance to national governments to design, improve, expand, and eventually run their own home-grown school feeding programmes and safety nets that are linked to food and nutrition promotion. 

Spearheading WFP’s South-South Cooperation delivery on the ground is at the heart of the Centre’s agenda, with the Sustainable Development Goals providing the political impetus. WFP Brazil CoE ensures that successful experiences in fighting hunger are made available to any country, especially developing countries, for inspiration, learning and adaptation, and more importantly: programme implementation, delivery and ownership. 

WFP Brazil CoE operates in the following areas: School Feeding; Nutrition; Social development; Smallholder farming; Commercial agriculture with Social Impact; Capacity Strengthening; and Food and Nutrition Security Research.

End Hunger by 2030

What the World Food Programme is doing in CoE against Hunger

Beyond Cotton project
The Beyond Cotton project is a joint initiative of WFP Centre of Excellence and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, with the support of the Brazilian Cotton Institute. It supports smallholder cotton farmers and public institutions in African countries in linking cotton by-products and intercropped crops – such as corn, sorghum and beans – to safe markets, including school feeding programmes, so as to increase production, local income and food and nutritional security for smallholder farmers.
Virtual Exchanges
In 2019, the WFP Brazil CoE launched its Virtual Exchanges portfolio, which is a set of tools that enable working remotely. Remote Support aims to maintain online communication with each supported country, through the provision of political advice, advocacy support, information sharing, and the joint elaboration or review of documents. In times of crises, the WFP CoE in Brazil continues to design systemic approaches tailored to daily Regional Bureaus’ and Country Offices’ operations in the field. More information.