Country reporting process
The backbone of FRA 2010 is the country reporting process where the best available and most recent information from all countries and territories is compiled and analysed. FAO is therefore requesting all countries to elaborate and submit a comprehensive report following a standardized format and methodology.
As in FRA 2005, each country report is compiled by an officially nominated national correspondent assisted by a team of national experts. The national correspondents receive training through a series of workshops. During the reporting process, the FRA secretariat reviews the draft reports and gives technical advice on how to analyze national data to obtain the requested information. The final submission is subject to a validation process that ensures that reported figures can be published as official country information.
The country reporting to FRA 2010 consists of 17 national reporting tables. Many of the tables are identical to those in FRA 2005, others have been modified. One table has been removed, a few have been merged, and there are also several new tables, particularly those related to the policy, legal and institutional framework. An overview of the major changes in relation to FRA 2005 will be available here.
In order to facilitate the preparation of the country reports, the FRA secretariat will provide countries with a report template that is pre-filled with information from FRA 2005. All pre-filled information must be carefully revised by the national correspondent and updated and amended wherever any new information is available and must be forecasted to give estimates for 2010.
The key milestones of the country reporting process for FRA 2010 are outlined below to give an overview of the process and the major deadlines.
| Milestone / activity | Date | Comment |
| Global meeting of National Correspondents (Rome) | March 2008 | Launch of the FRA 2010 process. Training of National Correspondents and work on national reporting tables. |
| Regional and sub-regional workshops | April 2008 – December 2008 | Technical assistance and review of draft country reports. |
| Deadline for submission of country reports | March 2009 | - |
| Validation of final country reports | July-August 2009 | Official request for validation of the final country reports will be sent to countries. |
| Launch of FRA 2010 Key Findings | April 2010 | - |
| Launch of FRA 2010 Main Report | December 2010 | - |
Please note in particular the deadline for submission of country reports set to March 2009.
The experience from FRA 2005 showed that many issues tend to arise after the final report has been submitted and the data has been entered into the database, issues that require further clarifications and, at times, changes in the report. We would therefore appreciate receiving the final report well before that deadline – ideally before the end of 2008 – in order to handle such issues in an efficient and timely manner.