PAPER PRESENTED BY IMAM UMARASSISTANT FAO REPRESENTATIVE IN NIGERIA

ON BEHALF OF MR. HEIK SOMCHIEF OF STATISTICS DEVELOPMENT SERVICE(ESSS)

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS AT

PARtnership In Statistics for development in the 21st century(PARIS21)WORKSHOP ON THE USE OF STATISTICS IN DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY REDUCTION

POLICIES FOR WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES ECOWAS Secretariat, Abuja-Nigeria: 18 - 20 MARCH 2003

FAO ASSISTANCE FOR THE USE OF STATISTICS IN DEVELOPMENT AND

POVERTY REDUCTION POLICIES

Content of the presentation

I. The assistance provided by FAO to Member Countries • Capacity building through training and exchanges of experiences• Technical assistance through field projects• Data dissemination on the Internet: FAOSTAT• Preparation and dissemination of reference technical handbooks

II. The demand in statistics from FAO

III. The overall strategy of FAO for a better assistance in agricultural and rural statistics in Africa

IV. Proposal of a Medium-Term Programme for strengthening agricultural and rural statistics : content and implementation

V. PARIS21 Task Team for rural and agricultural statistics

V. Practical example of the use of statistics in development and poverty reduction policies: The case of the Special Programme for Food Security(SPFS)

Introduction

• FAO ’s mission : The organisation shall collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture in the bid to assist member countries in their fight against hunger and food insecurity.

• Target adopted at the World Food Summit (1996): “To reduce by half the number of chronically undernourished people on the Earth by the year 2015 (from 800 to 400 millions)”

• FAO Statistics Division

http://www.fao.org/es/ESS/index_en.asp

I. The assistance provided by FAO

1/ Capacity building through training and exchanges of experiences

• Statutory commissions and conferences – AFCAS (South Africa 2001, Cameroon November 2003)– Experts consultations (root crop statistics, …)

• Seminars and technical workshops :– 2002 : Mali - with AFRISTAT : ”Agricultural statistics and food security”– 2001 : Ghana and Mali - with AFRISTAT : “Livestock statistics”

• Co-organization of the PARIS21 Seminar on rural statistics (Paris, September 2002): (www.paris21.org)

I. The assistance provided by FAO

2/ Technical assistance through field projects

• The procedures for assistance from FAO : – With FAO ‘s own funds : TCP ( < 2 years, < US$ 400,000)

http://www.fao.org/tc/– With trust funds

• Subject matters : – Strengthening statistical capacities– Staff training– Integrated programmes development – Preparation / implementation of agricultural censuses and surveys

I. The assistance provided by FAO2/ Technical assistance through field projects : last projects in the sub-

region

• TCP– Mauritania, 2003

“Preparatory Assistance to the global census of agriculture and animal production”

– Liberia, 2002 “Rehabilitation of the agricultural statistics system”

– Niger, 2002“Preparatory Assistance to livestock census”

– Cape Verde, 2000“Preparatory Assistance to agricultural census”

• TF / GCP– Côte d’Ivoire, 2000

“Assistance to agricultural census”

• TF / UTF– Guinea, 2000

“Support to the implementation of the national agricultural census”

I. The assistance provided by FAO

3/ Data dissemination on the Internet : FAOSTAT http://apps.fao.org/default.htm

• More than 1,000,000 time-series data • More than 210 countries and territories covered• Subject matters :

» Production » Trade » Food Balance Sheet » Land use and irrigation » Forest products » Fishery products» Population » Fertilizer and pesticides» Agricultural machinery» Food aid shipments

• Possibility of annual subscription for a wider access to data

I. The assistance provided by FAO

3/ Data dissemination on the Internet : FAOSTAT

• Growing supply Quantity Quality

• Growing demand FAOSTAT is the most frequented FAO website Frequentation comes from OECD countries (>80%) Subscribers are mostly private Companies,

universities and national or international agencies from OECD countries

• FAOSTAT2 by 2005

FAOSTAT Data Bank Accesses (External Users)

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

1996-1997 1998-1999 2000-2001

FAOSTAT records downloaded (External Users)

0

100,000,000

200,000,000

300,000,000

400,000,000

500,000,000

1996-1997 1998-1999 2000-2001

Source: FAO

I. The assistance provided by FAO

4/ Preparation and dissemination of reference technical publications

• Assistance to the organization of agricultural information systems

• Statistical tools and techniques: methodologies for agricultural surveys, ...

II. The demand in statistics from FAO

• For the monitoring of realization of the Millennium Development Goals

“To reduce by half the number of chronically undernourished people on the Earth by the year 2015 (from 800 to 400 millions)”

• For the design and the monitoring of its regular activities

• For filling FAOSTAT and the other data bases

III. Strategies for more effective assistance

1. Guiding principles

• Long-term instead of short-term « ad hoc » solutions

• Partnership with Governments essential for durability

• Demand driven programmes

• Need to integrate programmes :– Within strategic framework for agricultural statistics– As a component of national statistical systems

• Coordination within donors & development agencies

III. Strategies for more effective assistance

1. Guiding principles (ctd)

• Taking into account decentralisation at national level and regional integration

• Financing sustainability of information system: national concern

Investment subsidies from donors must be imperatively supported by national policies giving information systems funds for regular functioning

III. Strategies for more effective assistance

2. Priorities for a new Partnership

• Streamline rural statistics systems

• Promote demand and improvement of data produced

• Integrate information systems within sub-regional policies

• Promote a democratic debate around information systems

• Insert the new partnership within a secured financial environment

• Promote training, research and exchanges of good practices

IV. Initiative for strengthening agricultural and rural statistics in Africa

1. Proposal of the medium term programme

• Objective

Fight rural poverty and food insecurity in Africa thanks to more effective policies, programmes and investments

• Mission

Increase data availability and use to assist poverty reduction and food security strategies

IV. Initiative for strengthening agricultural and rural statistics in Africa

1. Proposal of the medium term programme: content

• Will provide countries the assistance they need to :

(i) Design food and agricultural statistics components in national strategic frameworks for statistics, identify data needs for priority policies ;

(ii) Make best use of information already available ;

(iii) Strengthen and improve technical capacities of national staff ;

(iv) Promote exchanges of good practices between countries;

(v) Promote research in specific and priority areas for the region.

IV. Initiative for strengthening agricultural and rural statistics in Africa

1. Proposal of the medium term programme: implementation• Comprehensive regional component

• Global coordination of the programme and technical guidelines to pilot the implementation

Regional training Research Dissemination of good practices Network within the region and with other regions

• Sub-regional components• AFRISTAT/UEMOA, CEMAC, SADC, COMESA to be developed

• National componentto be developed

Estimated cost of the programmebetween 8 and 10 million US$ for 5 years

IV. Initiative for strengthening agricultural and rural statistics in Africa

2. Actions undertaken before the medium term programme

• Interim Proposal (FAO/WB) Same content as the medium term programme, but at a smaller scale Actions at regional level (staff training, research...) Two pilot countries (Kenya and Rwanda) for national components Waiting for approval from the World Bank

• French Cooperation / FAO assistance project• Designed as an extension of the Interim Proposal• Assistance for strengthening agricultural statistics systems for better rural

development strategies» Design and Adoption of a Charter in partnership with African countries and

other Partners• Will be implemented as soon as the Interim Proposal is signed

V. Task Team PARIS21on Food Agriculture and Rural Statistics

• Objectives :• Promote the use of statistics for designing and monitoring poverty

reduction and food security policies• Promote the integration of agricultural statistics within national

systems• Promote investment for capacity building• Be a forum for exchanges of practices and ideas• Assist in identifying priority areas for research and ways to reduce

data collection costs

• Activities :• Paris, October 2001 • Pretoria, 22-26 November 2001• Paris, 16-17 September 2002

www.paris21.org/htm/TT_agstats.htm

V. Task Team PARIS21on Food Agriculture and Rural Statistics

Work programme for 2003 :

• Revision of the TTFARS website and updating of the list of members

• Round table for funding of the regional programme for strengthening rural and agricultural statistics in Africa

• Exchanges of good practices and precision of the TOR of TTFARS

• Technical workshop back to back with AFCAS

PRACTICAL EXAMPLE OF USE OF STATISTICS IN DEVELOPMENT AND POVERTY REDUCTION POLICIES: THE CASE OF THE SPECIAL PROGRAMME FOR FOOD SECURITY(SPFS) The SPFS is currently operational in 42 African countries.

The fundamental issue about the programme is: (i) Ownership concept – the programme belongs to the farmers and is implemented only in partnership with Government to facilitate the bottom-up process and ensure sustainability; (ii) Mainstreaming gender issues and the concerns of rural youth and landless farm labourer.

There is systematic conduct by stakeholders of base-line data collection and constraints analysis in order to identify limiting factors to increased productivity and household income and to proffer solution.

MERCI BEAUCOUP