Programme 2.2.2: Food and Agricultural Information

Code

Type

Title

A1

A2

A3

B1

B2

C1

C2

D1

D2

E1

E2

E3

222A2

TP

FAO/World Bank/USDA Initiative for Agricultural Statistics in Africa

222A3

TP

FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System

222A4

TP

Systematic Evaluation and Improvement of Statistical Data Quality

222A5

TP

World Agriculture Information Resource System (WAIR)

222P1

CP

Agricultural Resources and Income Statistics

222P2

CP

Agricultural Production, Trade Statistics and Food Balance Sheets

222P3

CP

Agricultural Statistics Development

222P5

CP

Programme for the Improvement of Language Coverage

222P6

CP

WAICENT Corporate Information Management and Dissemination Systems

222P7

CP

Standards, Norms and Procedures for Improved Access to Agricultural Information

222P8

CP

Facilitation of WAICENT Outreach

222P9

CP

Virtual Library and Library Information Services in Support of WAICENT

222S1

TS

Technical Support Services to Member Nations and the Field Programme

222S2

TS

Assistance to Countries in Capacity Building for Agriculture and Food Information through WAICENT

Legend

Greater than zero, less than US$ 1.5 million

US$ 1.5 million to 3 million

US$ 3 million to 5 million

More than US$ 5 million

385. With the transfer of FIVIM-related work to the new Programme 2.1.0, this programme is now shared only by the ESS⁹⁴ and GIL Divisions (with the exception of the centrally-managed provision under 222P5). The programme contributes largely to Strategic Objective E1. Core work covers statistics on agricultural inputs, production, trade and food supply and consumption, as well as socio-economic statistics related to agriculture. The information also forms the basis for analyses and assessments undertaken throughout the Organization. At the national level, the programme provides assistance for strengthening statistical information systems. Building on some initial work on its development, subject to the payment of arrears or the availability of extra-budgetary resources, FAOSTAT2⁹⁵, should be in place by 2005.

386. While unchanged in the total number, GIL entities have been restructured:

1. activities related to the AGRIS⁹⁶/CARIS⁹⁷ networks (hitherto under 222P7) and some information exchange activities with international partners (under 222P9) have been shifted to 222A5, hence the substantial increase of resources there;
2. 222P7 with a reduced scope, and now entitled, Standards, Norms and Procedures for Improved Access to Agricultural Information, is:
1. to strengthen FAO's capacity to disseminate and exchange information with others; and
2. to develop uniform practices and tools for use in countries, adapted to different levels of technology.;
3. 222P9 has also been expanded, including building virtual library capacities in FAO country offices to disseminate information to wider audiences;

387. The lower resource levels in 2002-03 forced the elimination of work on 222A4, but this should be reinstated in 2004-05; and the country coverage and scope of assistance under the FAO/World Bank/USDA Initiative for Agricultural Statistics in Africa (222A2) was also reduced.

Rationale

388. Development problem to be addressed: the lack of a comprehensive and reliable statistical information base on the food and agricultural sector in Africa and the decreasing capacity of some countries to generate data is a major constraint to effective policies for food security and rural development in the continent. It also affects the monitoring and evaluation of progress towards development goals, including towards WFS commitments.

389. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: this joint effort by the World Bank, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and FAO is enhancing the availability of reliable and relevant statistical information on the rural sector in Africa, therefore, contributing to improved, evidence-based formulation of policies and programmes supporting the rural sector.

390. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: the end beneficiaries of this entity are the rural population at large through more effective and efficient development programmes in the rural sector.

Objective(s)

391. National governments, the private sector and development agencies take advantage of more integrated, reliable and timely statistical information on food and agriculture in Africa, to improve sectoral planning and enhance monitoring and evaluation of the performance of the agricultural sector.

Indicator(s)

1. Availability, timeliness, quality and usefulness of agricultural data in target countries.

Major Output(s)

1. Data needs assessment studies, development of conceptual framework and formulation of programme in target countries.
2. Data quality assessment, harmonisation, storage and dissemination.
3. Provision of technical supervisory and evaluation services.

Rationale

392. Development problem to be addressed: national programmes could produce more effective results through a cross-sectoral, area-based approach. However, despite the existence of a large number of country-based information systems, the information generated by the various systems lacks integration. Information tends to be generated and used in a circumscribed manner and tailored to a specific system, unit or area of interest, thus contributing to a compartmentalised approach to development.

393. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: the FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System will integrate analytical, multilingual information with thematic databases and a digital map repository. It will facilitate access to information on multiple factors contributing to national food insecurity, fostering an integrated and multi-sectoral approach, decreasing design costs and increasing efficiency of projects and policies.

394. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: farmers, mountain people, fishermen, pastoral people and victims of conflict and natural disasters will benefit as a result of context-based and coordinated national and international development and/or disaster relief interventions.

Objective(s)

395. Analysts, researchers, project formulators and policy makers will have a comprehensive, area-specific view of the state of agriculture, enabling them to take a coordinated approach across sectors, to identify specific target areas and/or populations in need of attention and to better define technical or emergency assistance.

Indicator(s)

1. Number of national geographic offices using the system, disseminating its data, or sharing data.
2. List of donors and aid agencies routinely using FAO's country profiles and maps in their project documents and evaluations.

Major Output(s)

1. Development and implementation of FAO country profiles and mapping information system.

Rationale

396. Development problem to be addressed: the reported decline in agricultural sector data completeness and quality undermines the global and national statistical knowledge base, which underpins sound decision making. While the issue of data quality at the source will require a long-term and concerted effort at the country level, an urgent need exists for enhancing the quality in databases of FAOSTAT, which runs on obsolete software and hardware configurations, with the underlying programme libraries (components and compilers) no longer available for system support.

397. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: improvements in the quality and usefulness of the FAO statistics by enhancing FAOSTAT functionality with the use of Web-based technologies in collection, processing and dissemination of statistics. A major improvement will be the availability of meta data on national methods of data collection and quality indicators.

398. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: ultimate beneficiaries will be producers and consumers, benefiting from improved policy decisions based on more reliable, comprehensive and timely data.

Objective(s)

399. The complete overhaul of FAO statistical database with more reliable, methodologically-sound and transparent data and new aggregations and extrapolations functions, providing decision makers with improved data series, therefore, contributing to improved planning, evaluation and policy setting in countries.

Indicator(s)

1. Documented improvements in data quality (timeliness, reliability, usefulness, information on methodology and metadata).

Major Output(s)

1. Review and quality improvement of agricultural input statistics.
2. Review and quality improvement of agricultural production and trade statistics.
3. Improvement of quality and availability of agricultural census and survey data.

Rationale

400. Development problem to be addressed: national governmental and non-governmental rural development organizations, research centres, libraries and universities have a rich store of information, of which only a limited portion is available for sharing through modern information communication technologies such as the Internet. Their content is often non-transferable for various reasons, such as scarce resources, low priority given to information, and lack of good meta data (i.e. for classification and methodological purposes). This results in poor exchange of information amongst stakeholders, redundancies and waste of resources in data collection.

401. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: access to quality information and peer reviewed literature and practical applications facilitate technology transfer. The adoption of uniform standards in electronic publishing supports the exchange of information and helps to transcend organizational barriers. More effective management of information resources will strengthen abilities within countries and of the international community to formulate and evaluate development programmes and policies effectively.

402. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: countries will benefit by having access to the global experience in science and technology for the agricultural sector gained by the UN, national and international development organizations, research institutions and universities, and from more coherent and better planned international cooperation.

Objective(s)

403. Decision makers, scientists and development workers will have access to a centralised gateway to multimedia resource collections on research and development in agriculture, and will be better able to search and retrieve information relevant to their work. Members will become proactive participants in the management and networking of national agricultural and research information systems.

Indicator(s)

1. Estimated number of people using the WAIR portal worldwide, and per country.
2. Use made of information.

Major Output(s)

1. Establishment of networks, collaboration and tools for facilitating access to worldwide agricultural information resources.
2. Normative support to networks such as AGRIS/CARIS to improve access to scientific and technical information relevant to food security.

Rationale

404. Development problem to be addressed: complete and accurate agricultural resources and income statistical data are essential to formulation, monitoring and evaluation of economically-sound agricultural policies and to supporting appropriate decision making.

405. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: the entity will ensure statistical data on population, labour force, prices, incomes and other socio-economic variables.

406. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: people working in agriculture and the public at large are to benefit from agricultural policies taking economic and environmental factors into consideration.

Objective(s)

407. To provide analysts and policy makers in governments and development agencies with: a set of up-to-date and world-wide statistical series and indicators relating to land use, population, labour force, agricultural inputs, prices, income, investment, resource flows and environmental issues; and statistical profiles with integrated presentation of key indicators of the agricultural sector.

Indicator(s)

1. List of international and regional organizations, aid agencies and governments routinely using agricultural resources and income statistics in their policy, programming and evaluation processes.
2. Typical use made of agricultural resources and income statistics.

Major Output(s)

1. Agricultural inputs, resources and environmental statistics
2. Agricultural prices, income and investment statistics.
3. Statistical profiles for agricultural sector analysis.

Rationale

408. Development problem to be addressed: complete and accurate statistical data regarding crop and livestock production, trade and utilisation statistics need to be maintained so as to support economic analysis and forecasting, and the development, implementation and evaluation of effective policies and programmes for food security and rural development.

409. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: this continuing programme activity complements the preceding in terms of FAO's core statistical work, covering the key areas of agricultural production and trade statistics and food balance sheets (FBSs).

410. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: ultimate beneficiaries will be producers and consumers benefiting from improved policy outcomes.

Objective(s)

411. To provide users in FAO and the world community at large with a set of consistent and up-to-date series and indicators relating to production, trade and utilisation - crop and livestock - statistics to analyse and monitor the food and agricultural regional and global situation and to support decision making.

Indicator(s)

1. List of international and regional organizations, aid agencies and governments routinely using FAO agricultural production, trade statistics and FBSs in their policy, programming and evaluation processes.
2. Use made of agricultural production, trade statistics and FBSs.

Major Output(s)

1. Agricultural production statistics.
2. Agriculture trade statistics.
3. Supply Utilization Accounts (SUAs) and Food Balance Sheets (FBSs).

Rationale

412. Development problem to be addressed: the lack of timely, reliable and comprehensive agricultural censuses and surveys for the agricultural sector in many countries represents a critical constraint to policy making and development planning, as well as monitoring the performance of the sector and improving food security.

413. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: this CP supports the development of methodologies and technical tools for agricultural censuses and contributes to the production by countries of harmonised and improved basic data, which will contribute to better planning, evaluation and policy setting in the agricultural sector.

414. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: planners and administrators in the public and private sectors will benefit by having a better information base for decision making with the ultimate benefit flowing to society at large.

Objective(s)

415. Improved availability, reliability, timeliness and usefulness of statistics relating to food and agriculture at the national level for improved sector planning, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes addressing food security issues.

Indicator(s)

1. Number of countries having strengthened their statistical capacity through training.
2. Number of countries participating in the Programme for the World Census of Agriculture and conducting an agricultural census.

Major Output(s)

1. Improved methodologies for agricultural censuses and surveys.
2. Strengthening of national capacities in agricultural statistics.
3. Data quality documentation.

Rationale

416. Development problem to be addressed: Members have re-emphasised the importance of the equal treatment of language in the activities of the Organization and in the production of its outputs.

417. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: the funds provided under this entity will enhance FAO's ability at corporate level, to provide its information products and outputs in the required languages, particularly by meeting eventual funding gaps in individual entities.

418. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: Members and civil society worldwide will benefit from the availability of FAO's messages and information products in all official languages.

Objective(s)

419. Ensure that information and normative products generated under all programmes are accessible in the required FAO languages.

Indicator(s)

1. Extent of increased availability of information in all official languages through FAO's Web site and published outputs.
2. Increase in the number of hits on FAO's Web pages from countries belonging to various linguistic groups.

Major Output(s)

1. Integrated multilingual publishing environment.
2. Support to multilingual publishing activities.

Rationale

420. Development problem to be addressed: while information communication technologies, in particular the Internet, have greatly facilitated timely access to corporate information systems in both developed and developing countries, the problem remains to locate and retrieve specific information. Some developing countries also have limited access to information communication technologies, constraining their integration into the evolving global market. Their exclusion is further heightened by the lack of multilingual information and information systems.

421. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: this entity will facilitate the search for, and access to FAO's collection of information by governmental and non-governmental institutions and civil society organizations that will be better able to assess the state of food and agriculture in respective countries, and to establish and implement more effective policies and programmes aimed at food security and sustainable agricultural production.

422. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: the international community at large benefits from WAICENT as it provides timely access to a vast multilingual repository of information on food and agriculture. Developing countries lacking adequate communication infrastructures will benefit from facilitated access and retrieval of authoritative information on food, agriculture and sustainable rural development in a variety of forms.

Objective(s)

423. Decision makers, researchers, planners and evaluators, in particular in developing countries, will be assured timely access to multilingual information on food, agriculture and rural development via Web-based and other media such as CD-ROM, scanning and digitisation technologies.

Indicator(s)

1. Number of monthly hits to the FAO's Web site.
2. Estimated percentage of the FAO's Web site content which is available on CD-ROM in developing countries.
3. Use made of information.

Major Output(s)

1. Enhanced search capabilities on the FAO's Web site.
2. Corporate databases and the Organization's Intranet.
3. Multilingual environments to facilitate access to WAICENT information using Internet and CD-ROM technologies.
4. Support to thematic information systems and related expert networks.

Rationale

424. Development problem to be addressed: the major constraint to integrating information from different sources and to providing an effective search and retrieval capability is the lack of uniform standards, norms and procedures that guide information collection, processing and dissemination. Without such standards, national agricultural information systems will remain isolated and many professionals will not benefit from national and international information resources on agricultural research and rural development.

425. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: this continuing programme activity will develop uniform standards for collecting, archiving and disseminating information and knowledge that will help national communities and international organizations have access to more reliable information at a lower cost.

426. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: countries and various user groups will benefit from improved access to information, while better informed national policies in support of rural development and international cooperation initiatives are of interest to all populations.

Objective(s)

427. The adoption of international standards and methodologies for the collection, storage and dissemination of electronic information pertaining to food and agriculture, enabling better management of national information systems, and resulting in increased utilisation of available information.

Indicator(s)

1. Number of countries adopting the standards and/or providing information to FAO in a standardised way.
2. Number of users being part of the network to discuss standards, by country.

Major Output(s)

1. A reference framework for the organisation, classification and cataloguing of information in FAO's areas of expertise.
2. Standards and procedures for effective and quality data exchange between FAO and member countries.

Rationale

428. Development problem to be addressed: complementary to entity 222P6, the problem to be addressed is the limited access to, and exchange of, information and knowledge related to agriculture and food security at national, regional and local levels. This is to be remedied by the development and strengthening of information management, dissemination and exchange systems at all levels, with a strong emphasis on the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs).

429. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: the programme entity will contribute to wide dissemination of methods and tools to share agricultural knowledge and information. These new tools and methods, when applied, will facilitate the dissemination of information to broad audiences, bridging the information "divide".

430. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: improved information management, dissemination and exchange systems in countries will enhance access to available information and knowledge bases by stakeholders at all levels involved in agricultural development and food security, including networks, local educators, farmers' organizations, local media outlets and others.

Objective(s)

431. Enhanced ability of individuals and communities in countries to access and exchange information and knowledge, as well as improve the efficiency, quality and relevance of information being exchanged among the various stakeholder groups involved in agricultural development and food security.

Indicator(s)

1. Estimate number of people using WAICENT methodologies worldwide, and by country.

Major Output(s)

1. Adaptation of WAICENT methodologies, tools, and applications for information management to support national agricultural and food security systems in countries.
2. Training and distance-learning materials for agricultural information management.
3. Support to enhanced visibility of WAICENT.

Rationale

432. Development problem to be addressed: Lack of transfer of knowledge on solutions to problems or latest techniques in agriculture and rural development constitutes a limiting factor to the development of the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors.

433. Proposed contribution to problem resolution: the programme entity will contribute to equitable dissemination of information and technologies that respond directly to the constraints and needs of rural people.

434. Intended end beneficiaries and benefits: food producers, in particular, will benefit from accelerated technology transfer.

Objective(s)

435. Development projects and national agriculture support systems have access to technical information and expert knowledge on effective agricultural practices.

Indicator(s)

1. Examples of international and national initiatives which make use of FAO's information.
2. Examples of technologies and information products in high demand, highly appreciated by development stakeholders.

Major Output(s)

1. Upgrading and improved accessibility of FAO's technical and scientific information.
2. Virtual library services.

436. This entity covers direct services in the statistical area, not otherwise addressed under other entities. It includes servicing of a number of statistical statutory bodies and regional commissions.

437. Besides assistance to national information centres through a variety of means (missions, field projects, training), this entity includes servicing of periodic Consultations on Agricultural Information Management (COAIMs), an important intergovernmental mechanism, reporting to FAO's Governing Bodies, which provides a forum for discussion on key issues relating to global agricultural information generation, use and exchange.

⁹⁴ Statistics Division

⁹⁵ Corporate Database for Substantive Statistical Data

⁹⁶ International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology

⁹⁷ Current Agricultural Research Information System