LAC-02

Organization title: National Foundation for Education and Development and Global Child Nutrition Forum
Field Location: Brasilia, Brazil
Policy Location: Alexandria, Virginia

DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZATIONS

National Foundation for Education (FNDE) is a federal program linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC) whose mission is to ensure that resources and activities promote the development of education for all Brazilian citizens. Among other activities, FNDE plays a key role in the implementation of school feeding programs throughout the country. In 2008, FNDE managed a budget of US$ 7 billion which was allocated to all levels of basic education: kindergarten, day-care, primary, middle and secondary schools. Funding is administered to municipal, state, and federal agencies as well as to non-governmental organizations.

The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) is the international arm of the School Nutrition Association (SNA), a 55,000 member professional association that works exclusively to advance school nutrition programs in the United States. During the past decade, GCNF has provided technical assistance and training to more than 200 leaders from over 85 countries. The countries most frequently request technical assistance and guidance materials to assist with establishing sustainable school feeding programs.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

FNDE supports school feeding programs of the government of Brazil throughout 5,564 municipalities of the entire nation of Brazil. The FNDE-GCNF Leland Hunger Fellow will work to support the replication of the school feeding program model of Brazil in Portuguese speaking countries in Africa as well as to bring lessons learned from these program replications to GCNF for broad policy application worldwide.

FIELD PLACEMENT

The FNDE-GCNF Leland Hunger Fellow will first learn in-depth about the structure, context, mission, and activities of the Brazil national school feeding program from the headquarters of the government ministry in Brasilia, Brazil. It is important for the Fellow to gain a broad based understanding of the program so that he/she will next provide support to the FNDE mission of replicating and extending the program in Portuguese speaking countries of Africa. The Fellow must be able to develop curricula and program training materials, assess methods for establishing similar programs in concert with local counterparts in Africa, and travel to selected African countries to provide training support.

POLICY PLACEMENT

During the Policy Placement, the Fellow will be based in the GCNF/SNA offices in Alexandria, Virginia with access to extensive professional resources, including the legislative department of the SNA, consultation with school nutrition professionals, and access to educational conferences and anti-hunger alliances in the Washington area.

The Fellow will assume the roles of researcher, reporter, and educator who, through integrated field and policy work, will provide countries with research based guidance for developing sustainable school feeding programs that support the broad health, education and economic goals of the country. The Fellow will prepare progress reports, articles and information and guidance materials to be channeled through GCNF’s global information network. The fellow will participate in selected professional and anti-huger coalition meetings, share information, provide training and serve as faculty (program specialist) for GCNF technical assistance programs.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

• Portuguese writing, speaking, and working proficiency is required and must be demonstrated
• Master’s Degree in International Development, Agriculture, Project Management, Process Organization Community Development (or similar)
• Strong public presentation skills and experience in providing training and capacity building (leading workshops, organizing trainings)
• Experience with program management and the implementation of development programming in third world countries is desired, particularly in Central or South America.
• Experience in monitoring, evaluation and assessment
• Strong interpersonal skills, teamwork skills, and flexibility
• Ability to be comfortable in large government bureaucracy as well as in developing country environments
• Computer skills desired; Windows applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Projects)
• Strong communication skills (oral and written)
• Strong cross-cultural competence
• Strong organization skills and the ability to meet tight deadlines