The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) has joined forces with the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) to convene a regional policy forum aimed at achieving sustainable and inclusive school-based food and nutrition programs in Southeast Asia.
The policy forum, titled “From Farms to Schools: Towards Sustainable and Inclusive School-Based Food and Nutrition Programs in Southeast Asia,” kicked off today at the Crimson Hotel in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. The hybrid event is also livestreamed via Zoom.
The event was designed to create opportunities for family farmers to participate in new and existing school-based food and nutrition programs in Southeast Asia. It brings together representatives from government ministries of education, farmer groups and civil society organizations, academe, and the private sector to discuss potential policy interventions and courses of action that ensure the sustainability and inclusiveness of school-based food and nutrition programs.
“Participating organizations will be encouraged to develop and implement sustainable and inclusive school-based and food nutrition programs backed by their governments’ strong policies and initiatives,” said SEARCA Director Glenn Gregorio.
He added that the event will explore partnerships and collaborative activities to address the region’s food and nutrition security issues through school-based food and nutrition programs.
Speakers at the opening program were AFA Secretary General Ma. Estrella Banzuela; Director of the International Cooperation Office of the Department of Education (DepEd) Margarita Consolacion Ballesteros; and Lina Rospita, program coordinator of the health division of the Asean Secretariat. On the other hand, Datuk Dr. Habibah Abdul Rahim, the newly appointed Director of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Secretariat, will give the closing message.
Resource speakers at the policy forum include Dipayan Bhattacharyya, United Nations World Food Program deputy country director in the Philippines; Dr. Maria Antonia Tuazon, senior nutrition and food systems specialist, and Pierre Ferrand, agriculture officer, both of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAO-RAP); Dr. Jesus Fernandez, Deputy Director for Programs of the SEAMEO Regional Center for Food and Nutrition; representatives from the Ministries of Education of Thailand, Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and the Philippines; and Mercedes Castillo, chief operating officer of the Philippine Family Farmers’ Agriculture Fishery Forestry Cooperatives Federation.
