Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Dear colleagues:

As mentioned by several respondents, the Food Security Information Network’s Resilience Measurement Technical Working Group is a good example of how to build and share knowledge on resilience among different stakeholders. The RM-TWG’s publications on principles and a conceptual model for measuring resilience have been instrumental in guiding regional and country-level practitioners; four additional resilience Technical Papers were recently published on Household Data Sources; Qualitative Data and Subjective Indicators; Measuring Shocks and Stressors and Systems Analysis (see http://www.fsincop.net/topics/resilience-measurement/outupts/en/). These products have already been used to inform resilience measurement approaches by NGOs, FAO, WFP and IFAD, and over 780 FSIN members have signed up for the Resilience Measurement Community of Practice. It will be important to build on these achievements using the FSIN (which is governed by a multi-agency steering committee) as a “neutral broker”.

Some comments/for your consideration:

First, FSIN is exploring the use of more interactive features to better engage with our COP members, but given the heavy demands on field practitioners, it is challenging to get them to share their experiences and questions. One option we have identified, is to establish a roster of independent, external experts to respond to technical requests from the field. 

Second, since one of the aims of the Knowledge Platform is to aggregate information on resilience, how is this information different from, or related to, the information found on existing food security, nutrition or natural resource management platforms? 

Finally, in order to build effective synergies with existing initiatives, a participatory mapping of these initiatives would be welcome. This could be followed by a meeting with key stakeholders at which a more fleshed out proposal for the Platform is discussed. 

Thank you,

Alexis Hoskins