The conference will present the importance and the main achievements of 10 years of collaboration between FAO and the European Union in supporting countries in the production of actionable, timely and reliable food security and nutrition data to guide policies and interventions.
After more than a decade of decline, the number of people in the world affected by hunger began to rise slowly in 2014 and took a sharper upturn in 2020 under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is clear that the world is not on track to reach the global targets for food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture set up by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda has also brought to the world attention the fact that food insecurity is a problem encompassing more than hunger. While it is evident that in this area policy makers need better information, the data gap is still substantial in many countries, particularly in low-income countries. Data on food security are sparse and sporadic, and often generated with tools that – before the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) – always preferred practical feasibility to reliability.
The conference will address the crucial role of actionable, timely and disaggregated reliable data in guiding policies and interventions aimed at promoting food security. The presenters will describe the main achievements of the FAO-EU partnership in improving food security measurement methods and empowering countries in data collection, analysis and use. The conference will stress the main challenges in the production of good quality food security indicators and the issues still to be addressed to improve food security monitoring at country, regional and global level.
Speakers
Willem Oltholf
Deputy Head of Unit, INTPA F3-Sustainable Agri-Food systems and Fisheries
Maximo Torero Cullen
FAO Chief Economist
José Rosero Moncayo
FAO Director Statistics Division
Carlo Cafiero
FAO Food Security and Nutrition Statistics team leader