Through the Purchase from Africans for Africa programme (PAA Africa), the FAO has been engaging in providing technical support to African Governments for building adapted and operational public food procurement methods from smallholder farmers for school feeding. The methods of public procurement fostered by PAA Africa were developed in complex contexts of food insecurity and malnutrition, presenting occasional food deficit and / or chronic food insecurity, low agricultural productivity, institutional fragility and lack of governance, with population relying on food aid to overcome food insecurity. The publication aims at presenting best practices and lessons learned along of five years of practices at different levels of support to governments in the African context (Niger, Senegal, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Malawi). The FAO engaged on pilot operations of support to farmers and linking them to local institutional purchases, on technical support for the scaling up of pilot initiatives to national policies, and also providing support to leverage policy and political dialogue on the public food procurement theme. Taking in consideration the PAA Africa's implementation context, a series of country case studies and supplementary analysis of secondary data will provide elements for a discussion on the pertinence and relevance of PAA`s approach in different contexts. Based on a literature review, main knowledge gaps for evidence based policy design on public food procurement in Africa will be raised. The publication contributes to SO4 “Enable Inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems” and SO3 “Reduce Rural Poverty”.