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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

10. THANK YOU