Rabat – The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) started a three-day workshop on food security assessment Monday in the context of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
The workshop is in line with “the 2018-2019 sub-regional roadmap for the follow-up and support to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Objectives (SDGs) in North Africa adopted in March 2018 at the Sub Regional Coordination Meeting for North Africa,” CEA said in a statement.
FAO Representative in Morocco Florence Marie Rolle said, “SDGs have become the main reference for national development policies and programmes, however, their follow up and implementation still require huge efforts.”
The three-day workshop, according to Rolle, aims “to respond to the government’s request for technical support, especially regarding the production of sufficient and reliable data to measure food security indicators.”
Experts from the FAO statistics division are carrying out the training which focuses on the prevalence of malnutrition and moderate or severe insecurity, measured by the experience-based food insecurity scale (FIES) indicator.
Assessing people’s access to adequate food, the FIES indicator can be integrated with various types of population surveys, according to the CEA statement.
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The FIES “provides an opportunity to strengthen the links between agriculture, social protection, health and nutrition, therefore contributing to a better understanding of the causes and consequences of food insecurity.”
North Africa is experiencing a number of food security related challenges due to climate change, said Marieme Bekaye, the economist in charge of environment and sustainable development at the ECA Office for North Africa.
To overcome these challenges, the economist explained, North African countries need “general and multisectoral approaches” and adequate policies to help them “strengthen the resilience and sustainability of their food production systems.”
“This objective can only be achieved by improving the availability of national statistical data, which is key for efficient policy monitoring, policy orientations and the distribution of resources,” she added.
The two organizations have offered training to representatives from many Moroccan ministries including foreign affairs, agriculture, health, and governance.
Beneficiaries also include organizations and institutions based in Morocco such as the Arab Maghreb Union, the High Commission for Planning, and the High Commission for Water and Forests and the Fight against Desertification.
