Practicing Inclusive Food Procurement: Lessons and Tools

SNV’s Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding project announces a new publication analysing procedures, tools, and methodologies piloted to level the playing field for less-experienced Home Grown School Feeding suppliers, such as smallholder farmers and their organisations. This publication is joined by a collection of the tools and methodologies currently in use by the government-run school feeding programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Mali.

Background

Inclusive procurement is a deliberate way for governments to purchase goods or services from specific disfavoured or vulnerable supplier categories in order to advance social and economic development. The school feeding programmes in Ghana, Kenya, and Mali can use inclusive procurement to boost local economies and smallholder farmer agriculture by purchasing locally-grown ingredients. Making this a reality requires procuring entities to have the tools to engage smallholder farmers at their disposal, and the capacity to introduce these tools to farmers and their organisations.

Inclusive Procurement

SNV proposed adjustments to improve smallholder farmer inclusion in school feeding in Ghana, Kenya and Mali at three phases of the procurement process: pre-contracting, contracting and post-contracting.  The project introduced procedures, tools, and methodologies to build the capacity of procurement entities to enter into inclusive procurement relationships with disadvantaged suppliers, with an emphasis on reaching smallholder farmers and their organisations. The goal of these pilots was to help procuring entities realise the potential of Home Grown School Feeding procurement to support local agriculture through practical tools that create a space for smallholder farmer inclusion.

About the publication

In Practicing Inclusive Food Procurement from Smallholder Farmers__, SNV presents the procedures, tools, and methodologies introduced by the project and analyses the efficacy of each in achieving smallholder farmer inclusion while upholding the procurement principles of transparency, competition, and value for money. Versions of the actual tools and methodologies currently in use or under review by the government-run school feeding programs in Ghana, Kenya, and Mali can be found in the accompanying publication, Inclusive Procurement Tools and Methodologies: Examples from the Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding Project. These tools and methodologies are meant to be used as part of strategies to include smallholder farmers and their producer organisations in school feeding supply chains.

Download Practicing Inclusive Food Procurement from Smallholder Farmers and Inclusive Procurement Tools and Methodologies: Examples from the Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding Project__.

Learn more about the Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding (PG-HGSF) project.