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| Economic and Social Development :: Regional Role |
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The Economic and Social Development Group covers three areas of work: Food Security, Agricultural Statistics and Gender.
Food Security
According to FAO estimates for 2003-05, Asia and the Pacific region is home to about two-thirds of the 832 million undernourished people in the developing world, 354 million of whom are in China and India alone. Lack of adequate nutrition undermines the economic productivity of individuals and undermines the economic health of nations.
While there is no single formula to ensure food security, the production and distribution of food are key elements. The FAO regional office coordinates a wide range of activities related to improving food security at the household, regional and national levels. In particular FAO assists countries in identifying food-insecure and nutritionally vulnerable populations, collects information, and analyses regional and national social aspects of food and agricultural development.
Food security means that all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to adequate food that is safe and in keeping with social and cultural preferences to be able to lead an active and healthy life. FAO identifies four conditions of food security – adequate food supply; stability of food supply without excessive seasonal or yearly fluctuations; physical and economic access to food; and food quality and safety.
Efforts to improve household food security and nutrition as a means to end hunger and malnutrition are at the heart of FAO's commitments. The regional office is working to improve the efficiency of key national food agencies and their distribution systems as well as national early warning systems. It conducts technical network activities on food security training and builds national capacities to identify pricing and technical deficiencies. It also assists countries to incorporate a food security component into national development plans and to provide food at minimum cost to vulnerable groups. The regional office publishes a biennial report on the
State of Food and Agriculture in the region.
Agricultural Statistics
Reliable agricultural statistics are vital for national planning and policy making on agriculture and food security. The FAO regional office monitors developments in the fields of food and agricultural statistics. It assists in conducting agricultural censuses and surveys (e.g. use of appropriate methodologies, training of national personnel and the analysis and dissemination of food and agricultural statistics) and works with other international and technical assistance agencies to facilitate cross-sectoral analyses.
FAO has developed a regional information database in the framework of the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT), which is one of the world's most comprehensive sources of agricultural information. WAICENT offers FAO's accumulated knowledge and expertise, enabling decision-makers and professionals to obtain and use information essential for achieving sustainable agricultural development and helping to combat hunger.
The regional office supports the Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics (APCAS) – see
RAP publication 2008/13 Report of the twenty-second session of APCAS
– and publishes annually the
Selected indicators of food and agricultural development in the
Asia-Pacific region.
Gender and agricultural statistics
The availability of high quality, reliable statistical data disaggregated by sex and age for the food and agriculture sector and national capacity to produce such data are critical for the development and implementation of effective poverty reduction, food security and rural development policies. The Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division (ESW) and the Statistics Division (ESS) are working to improve gender and demographic factors in agricultural statistics, largely through building national capacities in gender and statistics. This covers FAO-developed agricultural statistical frameworks and applied information systems for analysis and
policy-making, such as FAOSTAT and CountrySTAT. An ESW initiative under the Sida-FAO Strategic Partnership on Rural Development 2008-09 is developing a Gender and Agricultural Statistics Framework and evaluating its efficacy in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam.
Gender, Equity and Rural Employment
In Asia and the Pacific region, gender-based discrimination is manifested in the unrelenting workload and continued undervaluation of women's social and economic contribution. Achievements in gender equality differ considerably throughout the region reflecting the overwhelming diversity in economic and human development indicators, both between and within countries. Rural women's right to productive resources – including social, health and agriculture service systems – is often accorded inadequate importance in development planning. Several factors undermine rural women's capacity to take advantage of new agricultural technologies and sustainable natural resource management strategies. Asian rural females are relatively more disadvantaged in educational attainment, which constitutes a barrier to learning and external information.
The FAO regional office is working to:
- Ensure that women's rights are addressed in agriculture and rural development policies and programmes to combat hunger and poverty.
- Promote equal opportunities for women and men in rural communities within the context of economic and social transformations and new technologies.
- Provide gender-equal access to productive resources including capital, technology, and agriculture and rural development services to improve food security and livelihoods.
- Promote the UN objectives of advancement of women – with special relevance to rural women – through close collaboration with development stakeholders and national governments.
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