51UNSC highlights FAO’s work on agricultural and rural statistics

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) role in monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) featured prominently during the proceedings of the 51st United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), which was held at UN headquarters in New York. The highest decision-making body for international statistical standards met from 3 to 5 March, bringing together hundreds of Chief Statisticians from Member States and international organizations from around the world.

A key theme of this year’s agenda was FAO’s report on recent developments in agricultural and rural statistics. The Commission welcomed the comprehensive set of measures that FAO and its partners have implemented over the last ten years to improve internal governance, as well as the availability and quality of food and agriculture statistics worldwide. Moreover, UNSC endorsed the main principles of the proposed strategy for modernizing FAO statistics, which shapes a vision for improving agricultural and rural statistics in the next five years, in line with the UN Statistical System roadmap.

Member States supported FAO’s integrated strategy for statistical capacity development, which is articulated in three main components: (i) technical assistance to improve the capacity of countries to monitor the global SDG indicators; (ii) the funding and implementation of an integrated programme of agricultural surveys through the 50x2030 initiative; and (iii) the action plan for the second phase (2020–2025) of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics.

At the end of the week-long session, the Commission adopted the terms of reference and the proposed programme of work of the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Food Security, Agricultural and Rural Statistics for the period 2020-23, which included:

• the development of national data quality assurance frameworks for agricultural statistics;
• the development of methods and standards for the use of alternative data sources in producing food and agricultural statistics at the national and international levels;
• the development of innovative methods for producing real-time statistics at country level;
• methodological research in the domain of food security statistics to further improve their relevance and accuracy.

50x2030 Initiative

Advancements brought about by the 50x2030 initiative with respect to the closing of the agricultural data gap were presented in a joint side event organized by the World Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and FAO, during which partners shared a common vision of establishing a data-smart agriculture.

On this occasion, the partners presented the state of the initiative that seeks to bridge the global agricultural data gap by transforming data systems across 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America by 2030. Different features of interest were presented to partner countries, along with eligibility pre-conditions and criteria, and details on implementation, financing and ownership of results.
FAO Director of Statistics José Rosero Moncayo explained how the 50x2030 initiative aims to build on farm survey programmes like FAO’s AGRISurvey and integrate other approaches to collect and measure key agricultural data that are fit for the needs of each participating country. “It is envisaged that the 50x2030 initiative will serve as catalyst of financial resources, technical expertise, methodological innovation, improved coordination at national level, and wider use of quality data,” said Moncayo.

Monitoring the 2030 Agenda

During the UNSC, FAO delegates participated in several high-level meetings, providing insights about FAO’s work in improving the capacity of national statistical systems to measure the SDGs and monitor the 2030 Agenda. FAO is responsible for the worldwide collection, validation, and dissemination of data and information related to food and agriculture. Last year FAO published the first progress report on the SDG indicators under its custodianship to track progress on the food and agriculture-related SDG targets. FAO has also developed a series of e-learning courses to foster country adoption of best practices in data collection, analysis, and reporting of 21 SDG indicators.

In this context, FAO Chief Statistician Pietro Gennari reiterated a call for development partners and countries to “urgently increase the allocation of resources to statistics in order to improve data generation and strengthen the capacity of national statistical institutions to monitor the SDGs.”

FAO-EUROSTAT collaboration on joint data collections and data sharing

In the margins of the UNSC, Pietro Gennari met with European Statistical Office Director-General Mariana Kotzeva to sign a five-year administrative arrangement that will strengthen collaboration in data-sharing between the two organizations. “This is an important step towards significantly reducing the response burden for European Union Member States, increasing the response rates to FAO questionnaires, and improving the overall quality of the data published by the organization,” stated Gennari.