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Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics

Support countries in strategic planning

Strategic Plans for Agricultural Statistics (SPARS) play a pivotal role in the organization of agricultural statistical systems at national level and as a coordination platform between the agricultural and rural systems, subsystems and between the national statistical offices and the line ministries.

During the first phase of the Global Strategy, SPARS have been prepared in around forty countries, allowing them to assign high priorities to agricultural statistics in their national policies.

One of the main efforts of the second phase of the Global Strategy is to continue to provide technical assistance to countries wishing to design a SPARS or update an existing one. The demand of support remains high and many countries have now embarked on plans for preparing a second generation of SPARS.

The methodology developed during the first phase of the project provides a solid reference for the support and process of SPARS design at country level for target countries. This process will be strongly improved by the use of the statistical planning tool ADAPT, developed by Paris21, during the assessment phase.

The Global Strategy supports countries in designing a SPARS at country level or updating an existing one in line with existing statistical and policy frameworks. SPARS are developed ensuring that plans for implementing integrated agricultural surveys such as the 50x2030 Initiative are mainstreamed into the national statistical planning and guaranteeing that the main demands related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other frameworks, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) are adequately covered.

Countries are assisted in budgeting statistical activities planned in SPARS along with advocacy and resource mobilization.

 

ADAPT (Advanced Data Planning Tool) is a free tool, developed by PARIS21, allowing national statistical services to identify data gaps and the necessary resources to fill those gaps. It reveals gaps in data coverage, reporting, financing and disaggregation. Additionally, it offers modules on planning and costing to estimate the budget needed to finance closure of data gaps. ADAPT helps national statistical services to plan data related activities and costing for the SDGs or potentially other indicators (CAADP) within their national statistical system. ADAPT can play a key supporting role in the design of strategic plans such as SPARS and their implementation, as well as the promoting the re-use of existing data to influence policies.