African Agriculture @ UNGA 73 and Global Goals Week (4)

23-29 September 2018. New York. Food systems, hunger and nutrition received a great deal of attention during Global Goals Week.


24 September 2018. IFAD, FAO and GPSDD continued their focus on ending hunger, along with the governments of Kenya, Ghana and Sierra Leone, and the Gates Foundation, hosting an event on ‘Data to end hunger.’

• Attendees heared the announcement of the largest-ever financial commitment on agricultural data for development. The power of storytelling is also likely to come through, with a performance from The Moth Global Community Program.
• This side event was an opportunity to share Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and other countries’ progress in data-led agriculture to achieve food security; foreground international coordination between governments, foundations and multilaterals, further mobilise resources (technical, financial and human) and exchange ideas on ways forward.
• This event represented a platform for heads of state, global leaders and heads of agencies and multilaterals such as the World Bank, FAO and IFAD to make the case for renewed efforts around ending hunger and undernourishment by bolstering sources of data and statistics upon which countries can build a solid agricultural base and feed their citizens.

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Concept Note

Featuring Storytellers from The Moth Global Community Program:

• Dr. Lindiwe Majele, Vice President for Policy and Strategic Partnerships, AGRA. Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda is the Vice President for Policy and Partnerships at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). 
• Edward Mabaya, Assistant Director, Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development. Ed is an academic and a development practitioner with more than a decade of experience with African seed systems. He is involved in several programs that seek to improve the lives of African farmers through private enterprises. Ed established and coordinates the Seeds of Development Program, a business development services and networking program for emerging seed companies in East and Southern Africa. 
• Harriet Mugera, Economist, Survey Unit in the Development Data Group of the World Bank Harriet’s research interests include poverty, labor, migration, agriculture and rural development. As a member of the LSMS team, she is an expert in survey instrument development, field operations, and data quality control and analysis of household and agricultural surveys. She is also the co-coordinator of the capacity building program within the Survey Unit. Prior to joining the World Bank, she worked as an economist/econometrician with the Agricultural Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO).

The  pathway towards addressing missing and poor agricultural statistics lies with two survey approaches that cover more ag data needs more frequently than any other potential data source, using sustainable model that builds local capacity while generating data.

• The FAO AGRISurvey is a farm-based modular survey that builds on an agricultural census and operates over a 10-year cycle. Its comparative advantages are that it provides data representative of the full agricultural sector and that it is well-suited to gradually and consistently build country capacity through its modular approach of a core annual survey and intermittent topic-specific surveys.
• The World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study’s Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). The LSMS-ISA is a household survey program that conducts nationally representative panel surveys among a sample of all households in the country using a multi-topic approach, including agriculture, typically every three years. The comparative advantages of LSMS-ISA are that it can support many national data needs, not just those specific to agriculture, and that it is a cost-effective option or a country that has no existing routine household survey program. 

The ‘Data to End Hunger’ initiative envisions the implementation of a combination of these surveys in 35 countries by 2025 and 50 countries by 2030 through a strong, diversified implementing structure that engages partner countries, bilateral donors, and multilateral implementing partners.