FAO Strengthens Statistical Systems within ECO Countries
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) has organized a five-day (24-28 July 2016) refresher training of focal points on the CountrySTAT system for ECO countries including Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Iran.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Ibrahim Khalil Akca, Secretary General of ECO highlighted that the CountrySTAT project and other related initiatives have matured into a valuable resource in strengthening the FAO Statistics Division’s capacity to provide technical assistance to countries and regions, and ensuring increased access to agricultural and food security data worldwide.
“ECO has been proud of its partnership with the FAO, Member-States of ECO, and several other international, regional and national partners in the world to take the challenges posed by modern times in the spirit of the “Open Data” concept and approach” he added.
“We are fully committed to the cause of socio-economic development of the ECO Region, as reflected through our nascent ECO Vision 2025” Mr. Akca underscored.
During the opening ceremony of the workshop, Mr. Fabio Grita, the CountrySTAT team leader of the FAO Statistics Division also stated in his remarks that the workshop has fallen during a special period of technological and conceptual breakthrough of the CountrySTAT system and FENIX platform as a whole, which has opened a wide range of possibilities to better use information technologies and human expertise for addressing environmental and socio-economic problems at national and regional levels.
“In this workshop those participants who were familiar with the previous system will be confronted with a very different one that discontinues with the past and strengthens sharing, analysis and comparison of a large variety of data sources, as opposed to purely disseminating data” he noted.
CountrySTAT is a web-based information system on food and agriculture which provides easy access to statistical data of good quality that can aid decision-makers in better, evidence- based policy-making and greater efficiency in development politics.
Nationally owned and maintained, it serves as a one-stop centre that enables the collection and harmonization of timely and reliable official data from different sources and their integration in a common location.
Data provided through CountrySTAT serves researchers, policymakers, development organizations, and the private sector to design and implement better policy and investments in agriculture.
The purpose of the training is to provide national delegates from the ECO Member States with skills and experience on how to use the CountrySTAT platform for the dissemination of official statistics on food and agriculture and the comprehensive process to upload data.
The workshop is expected to provide a platform for the participants to assess the current situation, identify possible gaps and future needs, and to make recommendations to further promote the use and visibility of the CountySTAT system for official data related to food and agriculture, at regional and national levels.