1

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AGRICULTURE STATISTICS

Kampala, Uganda, 13-15 October 2010

Nancy Chin, Naman Keita and Pietro Gennari,

Statistics Division FAO

Implementation Plan of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistic

Need for capacity building in agricultural statistics

Declining countries’ capacity in agricultural statistics Limited staff and capacity for collection, compilation,

analysis and dissemination of agricultural statistics

Lack of cost-effective technical tools & statistical methodologies; Lack of integrated survey framework

Lack of capacity for data analysis for use by policy makers (lack of demand)

Lack of metadata or quality indicators: difficulties in interpretation for data users

Agricultural statistics as low priority Insufficient funding for agricultural statistics from

national budgets and development partners

Need for capacity building in agricultural statistics

Lack of institutional coordination

Lack of harmonized and integrated data sources

Lack of coordination between NSO & Min. of Agriculture: duplication of efforts & conflicting numbers

Agriculture left out of NSDSs

Forestry, fisheries outside of national and agricultural systems

Pillars of the Global Strategy

Minimum set of core data

monitoring national trends and policies

monitor progress on MDGs, especially poverty, food security and environmental sustainability

New data needs to address key policy issues such as food crisis, use of crops for biofuels, land and water use, impact of agriculture on environment and global warming

Integrating agriculture into national statistical systems and NSDS

link statistical information across the economic, social and environmental domains

Sustainable agricultural statistical systems through governance and statistical capacity building

Implementation Plan of the GS as a follow-up to the 41st UNSC

The UNSC endorsed the technical content and strategic directions of the Global Strategy

Urged FAO and the Friends of the Chair on Agricultural Statistics to expedite the development of the Implementation Plan

Recommended that a comprehensive Technical Assistance program, an articulated Training program and a well targeted Research Agenda as well as clear indications on funds management and Governance Arrangements at the global, regional and national levels be included

Regional Implementation Plans

• Implementation Plan for Africa (IPA): AfDB (TA and Governance), ECA (Training) and FAO (Research Agenda)

• Adoption of the same approach in other regions (ESCAP and ECLAC as Regional coordinators)

Global Implementation Plan

• FAO and the FOC of the UNSC

• Established 4 Task Teams: Assessment of Agricultural Statistical Systems; Technical Assistance program; Training program; Research Agenda

• Built on the technical components of the IP for Africa

• Principles for the development of the Implementation Plans and Global Governance

Process to develop the Implementation Plans

Limitations of traditional approaches to Technical Assistance in Statistics

Lack of a strategic approach to delivering TA resulting in piecemeal unrelated projects and inefficient delivery

Lack of a systematic assessment of needs and relevance of TA to recipient countries

Lack of a coordinated approach by donors

Donor driven TA and lack of country ownership leading to lack of sustainability

Focus on short term data gaps instead of long term country statistical development

Limitations of traditional approaches to Technical Assistance in Statistics

More focus on data collection than building statistical infrastructure and analytical capacity

Insufficient focus on institutional development

Insufficient use of regional capacity through south-south cooperation and regional approach to TA

Lack of result-based monitoring of TA

lack of focus on achievement of outcomes and impact

lack of performance targets/indicators and of an effective system for tracking use of funds

Problems common to all developmental assistance

Global debate on aid effectiveness

Paris Declaration on Aid effectiveness endorsed at the High Level Forum, Paris, 2nd March 2005

5 principles: Country Ownership, Alignment, Harmonization, Managing for results, Mutual accountability

Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) endorsed at the Third High Level Forum, 2-4 September 2008, Accra

To deepen implementation of the Paris Declaration and respond to emerging aid effectiveness issues

Dakar Declaration on the Development of Statistics affirmed at the PARIS21 Consortium meeting, Dakar, Senegal, 16-18 November, 2009

Principles of the Implementation Plans

Country Ownership

Country leadership in determining priorities through the NSDS

Bottom-up approach (from sectors’ strategy to national strategy) to revise existing NSDSs or develop new NSDS where not in place.

The IP will produce guidelines on integrating agriculture statistics into existing statistical programmes through the NSDS

Priorities will be agreed by a national partnership of key stakeholders including users and producers

National coordination mechanism as part of the National Governance framework of the IP

Use of national/regional expertise

Principles of the Implementation Plans

Alignment

Sectoral approach (Sector Strategic Plan for Statistics) will ensure strategic support rather than funding of data gaps and ad hoc data collections

Support to be based on country capacity assessments and adapted to the level of development of the national statistical system

The Governance and technical components will use existing Institutions (at national, sub-regional and regional levels)

The IP will strengthen Institutional capacity of statistical systems to an appropriate level where necessary.

Principles of the Implementation Plans

Coordination • Coordination ensured through efficient governance mechanisms at all levels

• National coordination by existing coordination mechanism where available

• to implement common set of standards , prevent duplication of efforts and resources, avoid publication of conflicting data

• Regional coordination by existing Regional Coordination mechanisms or partnerships among Regional institutions

• to coordinate efforts of different initiatives, allocation of resources, monitor the implementation, assess progress of countries

• Global Governance through a Global Strategy Steering Committee

• to ensure adherence to common principles & common methodologies; harmonization across regions; coordination with other Global Initiatives. Plus, advocacy and support to weaker regions

• Implementation following the principle of subsidiarity

Principles of the Implementation Plans

Harmonization

Harmonized funding through:

Regional Development Banks and Regional Commissions as regional coordinators

Regional Trust Fund hosted by Regional Development Banks

Global Trust Fund with key global donors

Lead donor to encourage co-ordination among donor partners

Ensure feasibility and sustainability of the implementation plan

Encourage donors to avoid creating parallel systems and funding ad hoc data collections

Principles of the Implementation Plans

Predictability and Sustainability

Long-term Strategy of Statistical Capacity Development that will be rolled out over a 15 year time frame which will be implemented in phases.

Focus on Capacity building to ensure countries are in a position to provide minimum core data sets to meet needs of users for agriculture statistics

Implementation plan to be linked to countries’ statistics development strategies and reflected in annual national budgets

Principles of the Implementation Plans

Delivering Results and Accountability

The management of the Implementation will ensure results-oriented reporting and assessment frameworks

focus on achievement of outcomes and impact

use of performance targets/indicators and of an effective system for tracking use of funds

The Governance framework allows reporting to global, regional and national stakeholders

Principles of the Implementation Plans

Support for a programme of research and development

Research agenda: one of the four technical components of the Implementation Plan

Will focus on developing cost-effective tools & methodologies to produce quality agriculture statistics

Priorities for research will be based on a needs assessment of key stakeholders (users and producers)

The outputs of the research to be disseminated through training and technical assistance components

Thank you for your attention

COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AGRICULTURE STATISTICS

Kampala, Uganda, 13-15 October 2010

Need for capacity building in agricultural statistics Response rates to FAO questionnaires low & declining

--Percentage Response to FAO by region--

Region

Production Land use Machinery

Europe 66 71 64

Asia & Pacific 63 32 33

Americas 38 17 28

Africa 34 13 13

Near East 37 37

Paris Declaration

Ownership: Developing countries set their own strategies for poverty reduction, improve their institutions and tackle corruption.

Alignment: Donor countries align behind these objectives and use local systems

Harmonization: Donor countries coordinate, simplify procedures and share information to avoid duplication.

Managing for results: Developing countries and donors shift focus to development results and results get measured

Mutual accountability: developing countries and donors provide greater transparency and accountability in their use of development resources

Accra Agenda for Action

Predictability: donors will provide 3-5 year forward information on their planned aid to partner countries.

Country systems – partner country systems will be used to deliver aid as the first option, rather than donor systems.

Conditionality: donors will switch from reliance on prescriptive conditions about how and when aid money is spent to conditions based on the developing country’s own development objectives.

Untying: donors will relax restrictions that prevent developing countries from buying the goods and services they need from whomever and wherever they can get the best quality at the lowest price.

Dakar Declaration on the Development of Statistics Strategic plans for Statistics should be in effect & implemented with

sustainable funding and technical capacity

TA should be provided within the framework of NSDS’s

Essential global statistical programmes should be supported with sustainable financial and technical resources

More effective coordination at all levels to ensure:

More effective international and regional mechanisms for coordination

Governments, together with development partners, should establish national partnerships for statistics if not in place

Statistical systems in countries should better meet the needs of users, operating in an efficient, cost-effective and results-based manner, in line with the core requirements of independence and integrity.

The international community should support a programme of research and development to modernize statistical tools and technologies and to promote their use, especially in developing countries