Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what school or nutrition programmes for children in Africa specifically linked to locally produced foods and agroecological production her Department supports.

DFID links local food production into nutrition programmes in several African countries. For example, DFID invested in Rwanda in local production of complementary food which is reducing stunting among children aged between 6-23 months, and in Malawi in the production of groundnuts that are locally processed into children’s therapeutic food. DFID’s support for the Purchase from Africans for Africa project links local producers to school feeding, with 72,000 children and 16,000 farmers benefiting in five African countries. DFID also works with specialised humanitarian agencies to stimulate local sourcing for food aid programmes across Africa.