📋 Tender Overview
PROJECT ID
110810
TOTAL FUNDING
CAD 999,400.00
PROJECT STATUS
Active
DURATION
42 months
Summary
School feeding programs present a unique opportunity to enhance nutrition, support smallholder farmers, and drive agroecological transitions in Tanzania. However, existing procurement frameworks do not adequately facilitate the inclusion of climate-resilient, locally produced food. The CRISP Tanzania project aims to address this gap by generating evidence-based solutions that integrate agroecology into school feeding programs, strengthen procurement mechanisms, and promote food system resilience, inclusion of marginalized groups, and improved nutrition. The research is structured into three interconnected work packages: (1) integrating agroecological production, including neglected and underutilized species, into school feeding systems, (2) developing participatory procurement models that enhance smallholder farmer inclusion, particularly women and youth (15-35 years) and (3) improving meal diversity and school garden utilization for better nutrition, with equality and inclusion as a cross-cutting theme. The project will employ mixed-methods research, including policy analysis, market chain assessments, field trials, pilot procurement interventions, and impact evaluations in schools across urban and rural Tanzania. By bridging the gap between school feeding programs and sustainable local food production, this research will test the practicality of pathways for scaling climate-smart, gender-inclusive procurement models. Findings will contribute to national policies and global discussions on home-grown school feeding programs, neglected and underutilized species, and ultimately seek to generate scalable models for integrating agroecology into national food systems.
Led by the Swiss Foundation for development in Tanzania (SwissAid Tanzania), the project will be implemented for a duration of 42 months in collaboration with the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the World Food Program (WFP), and the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI).
The project is part of the Catalyzing Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Procurement for School Food (CRISP), a cohort of projects that aim to catalyze the adoption and scaling-up of regenerative, equitable and inclusive practices in school meal supply systems in Africa, with the ultimate goal of contributing to the agroecological transition of local and national food systems.
