Saving Lives
Changing Lives

A regional hub for exchanges, partnership building and South-South Cooperation, the Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition (CERFAM) is the result of a partnership between the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and the World Food Programme (WFP) to support African countries in their national efforts to develop and implement sustainable policies and programmes to achieve Zero Hunger (SDG2) and combat all forms of malnutrition in line with the 2030 Agenda.

Officially launched in March 2019, CERFAM is WFP’s first Centre of Excellence in Africa, following WFP’s previous successful experiences in Brazil and China. CERFAM aims to support and leverage efforts aimed at accelerating the achievement of SDG2 while simultaneously responding to national Governments and regional institutions’ growing demands for capacity strengthening, technical expertise, knowledge management and South-South cooperation, especially in the areas of home-grown school feeding, post- harvest losses, nutrition interventions, community resilience and agricultural development.   

To this end, CERFAM facilitates and mobilizes high-level expertise and promotes solutions to combat hunger and malnutrition through proven practices, innovative approaches and pioneering networks and communities of practice connecting national, regional and international stakeholders.

CERFAM performs the following activities: 

  • Identification, selection, documentation and dissemination of good practices to accompany governments' efforts to end hunger and malnutrition;
  • Organisation of consultations, workshops and study visits to facilitate sharing good practices and experiences among developing countries;
  • Network and expert deployment in social protection, home grown school feeding, nutrition, post harvest losses and rural development, community resilience;
  • Technical support to governments and partners for accompanying the design and implementation of coherent and effective programmes and policies;
  • Policy dialogue and advocacy for mobilizing decision makers at the highest levels to prioritize initiatives to achive Zero Hunger and nutrition;
  • Partnership with regional and sub-regional organizations for strengthening collaboration, complementarities and synergies at continental and sub-regional levels;
  • Partnerships with academia, research centers and universities for strengthening applied research to create evidence-based information to guide design and implementation.
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Between 691 million and 783 million

people in the world faced hunger in 2022

11 million more

people in Africa are suffering from hunger compared to the 278 million in 2021

148.1 million

children under five years of age were stunted Worldwide in 2022

Our mission, vision and strategic goal

Mission
Contribute to accelerating progress towards ending hunger and malnutrition in Africa.
Vision
CERFAM is a catalyst and enabler for good practices and innovative solutions against hunger and malnutrition in Africa.
Strategic goal
Promote and facilitate access and exchange of knowledge for transforming good practices and lessons learned into opportunities to advance the fight against hunger and malnutrition in Africa.

CERFAM has a service offer that is two-fold: (i) identify, document, promote and disseminate good practices at country level in Africa, and (ii) act as a catalyst by deploying expertise for the implementation of good practices through capacity building and south-south cooperation. We are looking for good practices, especially those generated in Africa, from a wide array of national and regional institutions and development actors to support countries’ efforts to achieve food and nutritional security in Africa.

Good practices that are simple, relevant, cost-effective, adaptable, impactful, replicable and scalable have a huge potential to bring about the transformations needed to inform locally-owned and durable hunger solutions. When they are anchored on a robust evidence base, good practices constitute powerful means to facilitate sharing of experience, expertise, knowledge and know-how for securing enhanced ownership and sustainability of policies and programmes aimed at eradicating hunger and combatting malnutrition.

CERFAM’s vision is to be a catalyst for good practice to eliminate hunger and malnutrition on the continent by supporting and promoting national and regional initiatives in response to the growing demand for endogenous, innovative and sustainable, generated in Africa. Good practices and lessons learned are crucial elements of effective and efficient knowledge management that encourages continuous learning and review of interventions to make sure that factors of success and are understood, reviewed and better applied in the future.

To offer these services, CERFAM relies on four key pillars: Research, Technical Assistance, Partnership, and Communication and Advocacy.

CERFAM’s key pillars

Partnerships
Partnership-building at all levels, including with the Centres of Excellence of Brazil and China, regional institutions and other platforms, for the cross-fertilization of expertise, know-how, technologies and the release of synergies in the fight against hunger.
Research
to enable the identification, documentation and dissemination of good practices on family farming, post- harvest management, coordination and convergence of nutrition interventions, community resilience and social protection.
Technical assistance
to support countries to strengthen their policy, legal and institutional frameworks and the implementation of good practices against hunger and malnutrition through a network of experts.
Advocacy and communication
to raise awareness and mobilize collective action at all levels, build and strengthen partnerships, mobilize resources to leverage investments aimed to promote and implement good practices and innovative solutions in Africa.

Publications

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Engaging with CERFAM

Q&A

When was CERFAM set up?

It was officially launched on 25 March 2019 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

What type of support does CERFAM provide to Governments/countries?

CERFAM provides the following support to countries in Africa: Facilitate the sharing of good practices and experiences between developing countries; Support Government in the development and implementation of coherent and effective policies and programs in the fight against hunger and malnutrition; Strengthen collaboration and synergies among countries and institutions in the region and in Africa; Facilitate capacity building and knowledge transfer initiatives among African countries; Support evidence-based action research to guide the design and delivery of interventions.

What are the advantages of having a Centre of Excellence in Africa?

The Centre of Excellence strives to find African solutions (i.e. good practices and expertise in Africa) that can be leveraged and adapted to the African contexts to address food security and malnutrition.

Does CERFAM focus on women/gender issues and youth during its intervention?

Yes, CERFAM mainstreams youth and gender issues in its interventions, especially empowerment, employment creation and revenues generation.

Partnership & Advocacy

Inclusive, extensive and mutually reinforcing partnerships are cornerstone to CERFAM’s aim towards supporting sustainable country-led Zero hunger solutions. CERFAM will develop and strengthen multisectoral and multi-actor partnerships at national, regional and continental levels to create synergies and complementarities to leverage endogenous solutions that have a real impact on the wellbeing of the populations. The following principles will systematically guide CERFAM’s approach towards partnerships: equality,  transparency,  accountability, flexibility, complementarity, result-oriented approach, cost-effectiveness, responsibility and risk management. The Centre of Excellence will pursue different types of partnerships:

  • Policy and governance partners which work on CERFAM’s own policies and governance, regional and country hunger and nutrition policies as well as on institutional governance;
  • Advocacy partners which support CERFAM’s work to advocate for food security and nutrition;
  • Resource partners which provide human, financial and technical resources;
  • Capability partners which support the design and implementation of programmes and operations and;
  • Knowledge partners which contribute to information, evaluation and analysis.

Partners

Created through a partnership between the Government of Côte d'Ivoire and WFP, CERFAM works with the following partners:
National governments Development partners UN agencies Centres of Excellence Continental and regional organizations

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Contacts

Address: Regional Centre of Excellence Against Hunger and Malnutrition
Cocody Ambassades, Angle Blvd Hassan II, Rue des Bougainvilliers, Lot 20
01 BP 1747 Abidjan 01, Côte d’Ivoire

Tel: +225 27 22 54 85 85 

Email: wfp.cerfam@wfp.org

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