The Ministry of Local Government in partnership with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Partnership for Child Development (PCD), World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Bank organized a National School Feeding Stakeholder Workshop in Gaborone, Botswana during November 2011.

The case study report findings showed that there is no school feeding policy in Botswana and the school feeding programme is fully government owned and funded. The school feeding programme menu is dominated by local food commodities and lack vegetables and fruits. The procurement is highly centralized, coordination is fragmented between different departments, and large parastatals are major suppliers. 

The discussions of the workshop were guided by the country level assessments developed by PCD and the development partners. The participants concluded that there was a need to introduce a HGSF policy, decentralize procurement of school feeding programme, improve the coordination of the programme and reduce problems caused by fragmented implementation of the programme across different stakeholders; enhance capacity and improve the maintenance of school kitchen equipment. The workshop also emphasized the need to advocate for backyard gardens to increase supply of vegetables, reduce information flow problems associated with fragmented management of the programme.

The workshop also did stakeholder mapping that indicated the different stakeholders that should be involved in the development of the policy framework, design and implementation, institutional and capacity building, funding, and community participation in the new Home Grown School Feeding programme in Botswana. The workshop concluded that an inter-ministerial task force should be formed for the preparation of a guiding document on school feeding including needs and priority actions, and the development of a policy on home grown school feeding.