xvi
]
KEY MESSAGES
•
Throughout the world, high-quality, timely and relevant data are key to inform actions that promote
better access to food and improved nutrition.
•
Despite the abundant and growing availability of data and information relevant to food security and
nutrition, often policymakers are not aware of the existence and relevance of such data or do not use
them appropriately, due to challenges at each step of the data cycle, which includes: defining priorities
and data needs;
reviewing, consolidating, collecting and curating data; analyzing the data using
appropriate tools; translating data into relevant insights to be disseminated and discussed; and, finally,
using data for decision-making.
•
Fundamental data gaps still exist to correctly guide action and inform policymaking, especially in
terms of timely and sufficiently granular data on people’s ability to locally produce and access food,
on their actual food and nutrient consumption, and on their nutritional status. Increased and sustained
financial investment is needed to overcome these gaps.
•
Several other constraints limit the effectiveness of data-informed policy action, especially in low-
resource countries. Key among them is the low level of data literacy and analysis skills (for both
qualitative and quantitative data) on the part of many data and information users at all levels – from
data collectors and analysts, to decision-makers, and to the people, as the
ultimate beneficiaries of
food security and nutrition policies.
•
The complexity of the system of public and private actors and institutions involved in food security
and nutrition data, coupled with the rapidly changing characteristics of today’s data ecosystems due to
the digital revolution and the pervasiveness of the internet, brings to centre stage the need for global
coordination to improve data governance. Particularly urgent is the need to reach agreement on the
nature of FSN data and information as a public good, and, on that basis, to establish a global legal
framework that allows for the broadest possible circulation of relevant information, while preserving
the rights of the people to whom the data ultimately belongs.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION
2
]
W
hen
the UN Secretary General,
Antonio Guterres, opened the
UN Food Systems Summit, on 23
September 2021, he described current
food
systems
as “failing”.
1
Even before COVID-19
made its unsettling appearance in late 2019
and before the aggression of the Russian
Federation against Ukraine, lack of sufficient
progress towards the targets of Sustainable
Development Goal 2 (SDG2)
2
had made it
clear that existing food systems worldwide
had been unable to ensure
food security
and
adequate nutrition for all, and that
significant transformations were needed
to correct this situation. Few can doubt the
extent of persistent hunger, food insecurity
and widespread malnutrition in all its forms
in the world today (FAO
et al.,
2017; 2022). Yet,
evidence to highlight the nuanced scope of
such failure and approaches to address food
system solutions are still lacking.
The actions of public and private agents
involved in managing and operating food
systems, from production to distribution
and consumption,
are crucially affected by
the extent of data and information they have
access to. Despite the rapidly growing amount
of data and information available today, this
report outlines how its
timeliness, reliability,
relevance, depth of analysis, and extent and
clarity of communication
require improvement
to more effectively guide strategic
policymaking in agriculture, food security and
nutrition (FSN).
3
This report, produced
in response to a request
from the Committee on World Food Security
(CFS), focuses on the role that
data collection
and analysis tools
play in supporting effective,
evidence-informed decision-making by public
and private agents. It covers the points explicitly
made by the CFS
4
and proposes solutions to
support actions intended to reverse the negative
trends in food insecurity and malnutrition, which
have been linked to political
and social instability
(FAO
et al.,
2017), the effects of climate change
(FAO
et al.,
2018) and economic slowdowns (FAO
et al.,
2019), and which have been exacerbated by
the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
and by the Russian Federation–Ukraine conflict.
The CFS has stated the rationale for this report
as follows:
Although it is widely recognized that sound
decisions are based on good information and
data, in many countries, particularly low and
lower middle-income countries, timely and
reliable rural, agricultural and food security
statistics are largely lacking. Despite all efforts,
1 See
https://www.un.org/en/food-systems-summit/news/un-
secretary-generals-remarks-food-systems-summit
and
https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=58tQl6-SaQA
.
2 The second goal of the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable
Development (commonly referred to at the SDG2s) reads: “End
hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture”. It includes five targets in terms of outcomes
and three targets regarding means of implementation. Target 2.1
reads: “By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in
Dostları ilə paylaş: