China has a critical role to play in South-South cooperation, such as building more sustainable school meal programs in developing countries amid post-pandemic economic challenges, climate change and rising food prices, a United Nations official said.

"The Chinese government has put in place good nutrition guidelines, innovations in areas such as food fortification to address anaemia as well as an effective monitoring framework for school meals," said Carmen Burbano de Lara, director of school meals and social protection service of the UN World Food Programme during a visit to China in March.

"What China has done here is inspirational and the scale it reached is very important for other countries to learn from," she said.