Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, has won the 2022 Milano Pact Award for its student feeding program.
The 6th edition of the Milano Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) Awards saw more than 250 practices compete in six categories of the Milan Pact.
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.
The Mayor of the city, Adanech Abiebie received the Milan Pact Award that recognized the meal program at the 8th MUFPP Global Forum in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday.
– Innovative Practices –
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 into 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 recognized 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.
