5 b aw-dahir

Effective Early Warning and FoodSecurity Information Systems Food Secure Arab World Conference February 6-7, 2012 Beirut, Lebanon Mohamed Y. Aw-Dahir, Regional Food Security Officer, FAO RNE

Why EW and FNSIS in the Arab Region There is a growing demand to produce more ‘policy useful’ information and analysis that directly feeds into decision-making in both emergency and development contexts, for example for contingency and response planning. Availability of timely and evidence-based analysis and vulnerability information would help strengthen the abilities of countries and regional organizations to manage threats of food insecurity.

Why the need for EW and FNSIS cont.. With quality data and timely information based on facts, countries will be better equipped to anticipate and prevent food crises, and be better able to improve the food and nutrition security situation through well designed and better targeted programmes and policies.

Some Recent experiences The global economic and food price crisis of 2007/8 has made clear that the Arab region has insufficient capacity to monitor hazards relevant to food security and nutrition and analyse their possible impact on the economy and its people, with specific attention for the poor and most vulnerable population groups in society. Some of the factors that caused recent high food prices could have been pick up and reported.

Some Recent experiences cont… Most of the national data is not fully up-to-date, is not accessible for comprehensive (sub-) national and regional analysis or is not presented in such a way that mitigating action can be easily grasped by decision-makers. Improved monitoring of world and regional cereal prices and demand would help the countries in the region foreseen price shocks allowing them to adjust imports accordingly.

Appropriate policy response needs evidence based analysis Evidence based analysis would help policy makers access timely and reliable food security information and analysis _____ guide decision making and policy development. An enhanced understanding of the food and nutrition security situation across international, regional and national levels requires coordination and information(evidence) sharing across systems.

Where to start? While strengthening capacity in monitoring global, regional and national data on markets and trade would be an obvious place to start– given the recent turbulence in the markets, the hazards, shocks and trends of endogenous and exogenous factors impacting on food security and nutrition are more diverse.

Where to start cont… Sensitizing about the importance of data sharing Build multi stakeholder networks Build upon existing systems to ensure that the indicators and data required for monitoring and reporting on the food security situation are collected and made available.

Areas for enhanced monitoring include Agro-climatic monitoring Crop production forecasting Animal and plant disease monitoring and surveillance Markets and trade Policy monitoring Monitoring of social and political environment Monitoring of socio-economic indicators Livelihood profiles/mapping of vulnerable population groups Products and dissemination strategy Institutional arrangements

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5 b aw-dahir

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