FAO played an important role in the process leading to the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The latter comprises 17 goals, 169 targets and 230 indicators. One of its main objectives is to guide the actions of governments, international agencies, civil society and other institutions till 2030.

In this context, FAO in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MoALI) organized a five-day training workshop on Food Security indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely Goals 2.1.1- Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) and 2.1.2- Prevalence of moderate and severe food insecurity based Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).

The SDGs are now the main reference for the government regarding development policies as well as programs and the indicators were included in the National Indicators Framework and will monitor the progress through the implementation of Myanmar Sustainable Development Program (MSDP). A significant factor in the SDGs success will be the new and effective ways of collecting and analysing data, monitoring targets and measuring progress. A mission accredited to national governments, whereas international custodian agencies will lend assistance by strengthening national capacities and by ensuring that data are comparable and aggregated at sub-regional, regional and global levels.

FAO, being custodian agency for 21 indicators including above-mentioned indicators, is mandated to provide needed technical assistance to its member countries and has done so to Myanmar upon the request of MoALI.

During the training workshop the theoretical and technical understanding of PoU and FIES were shared with national stakeholders, particularly on how to process food consumption data and to estimate PoU at national and sub-national levels using Myanmar Living Condition Survey data. The benefits of FIES module and how to implement it in the next national representative survey round was one of the highlights of the discussions.

This was the first workshop in Myanmar on food security indicators related to SDGs and it was clear that further collaboration and assistance from FAO is needed to estimate and implement these indicators in the country.