Addis Ababa Gets 2022 Milano Award for its School Feeding Program
Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, has won the 2022 Milano Pact Award for its student feeding program.
Addis Ababa City has won the 8th Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) Global Forum Award on Sustainable Diet and Nutrition.
Addis Ababa won the accolade for its ‘Schools Feeding Program’ best practice, beating 133 cities in the world .
Hence, Addis Ababa becomes the first ever city in Africa to win this award. The 8th MUFPP Global Forum was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, under the theme “Food to Feed the Climate Justice: urban food solutions for a fairer world”,
Experts assessed the practices in three criteria, innovation, impact and inclusion, to rank the practices in each category.
Addis Ababa’s School Feeding Program ranked top in the Sustainable Diet and Nutrition category to win the 2022 Milan Pact Award, beating 133 cities in the world.
The meal program was officially launched in October 2021 as part of an effort to stop students at state-run junior schools from dropping out of education.
The program currently provides free meals and school materials to over 300, 000 students in the capital.
Mayor of the city, Adanech Abiebie received the Milan Pact Award that recognised the meal program at the 8th MUFPP Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday.
The Milan Pact Awards was launched in 2016 by the City of Milan and the Cariplo Foundation. It is serving as a powerful tool to innovate the food policies of the 250 signatory cities of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact.
The Pact, an international agreement of Mayors, lists 37 recommended actions, clustered in 6 categories.
The Milan Pact Awards offer concrete examples of the food policies that cities are implementing in each of the 6 Pact categories, its secretariat says.
Apart from Addis Ababa, USA’s New York (in Governance category), India’s Rourkela (in Social and Economic Equity), Argentina’s Rosario (in Food Production), South Korea’s Yeosu (in Food Supply and Distribution), and UK’s London (in Food Waste) won the Milano Pact Awards this year.
Milan Vice Mayor Ms Scavuzzo said the awards recognised the cities “for their innovative actions in the food system.”
“We are very proud of the participation and we hope it will be of support to our community of cities,” the vice mayor added.
The Mayor of Addis Ababa, Adanech Abiebie, attended the event and received the award.
She shared Ethiopia’s best experience to mayors and participants from MUFPP signatory cities about the people-oriented engagements and putting people first strategy.
The delegation of Addis Ababa, led by Mayor Adanech Abiebie, is participating in this Global Forum.
Under the theme “Food to Feed the Climate Justice”, the City of Rio de Janeiro and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact call on local governments, civil society and international organizations to gather at the 8th MUFPP Global Forum on 17, 18 and 19 October 2022.
During plenaries, parallel sessions, interactive activities and the Milan Pact Awards ceremony, cities’ delegates will have the opportunity to exchange, debate and learn about climate justice seen through the food lenses and explore how food can be a leverage for achieving a fairer world.
Food systems represent at the same time one of the causes and consequences of the current climate emergency and growing inequalities, it is evident that there can be no climate justice without bold and innovative actions from our cities. Food systems are indeed part of the solution to ensure that people have the necessary means and resources for a healthy life, without undermining the integrity and stability of the ecosystems.
Civil society and citizens are pivotal to the debate around the transformation of food systems, since they are the drivers of political change, being directly impacted by local and global policies. Therefore, the 8th MUFPP Global Forum aims at exploring how food systems can become one of the most powerful leverages for achieving a fairer world, creating a space for cities’ delegates to turn challenges into solutions, for a more prosperous future.
Sources: FBC, Ethiopian Monitor, Milan Urban Food Policy Pact
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