FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS 1 AFCAS 23, 2013

FAO, the New Strategic Framework, and the Role of Statistics

Josef Schmidhuber Statistics Division (ESS)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

AFCAS 23, 2013 2 FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Outline

Introduction/Background

The new Strategic Framework

Statistics within the new Strategic Framework

Recommendations for discussion by AFCAS members

Background

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Introduction/Background

FAO vision in support of three Global Goals of Member countries: • A world free from hunger and malnutrition where food and agriculture

contribute to improving the living standards of all, especially the poorest, in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner

Three Global Goals that Member countries aim to achieve:

1. eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition; 2. eliminate poverty through economic and social progress for all; and 3. ensure sustainable management and utilization of natural resources.

2010, FAO introduces a Results Based Management hierarchy with:

• Strategic Framework - 10 year horizon • Medium Term Plan (MTP) – 4 year horizon • Operational Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) – 2 year horizon

• to allocate resources in line with FAO’s 2-year budget cycle

Background 1: the old SF

• FAO’s PWB is highly multi-disciplinary, its admin structure is mono-disciplinary, with weak coordination, risk of duplication

• IEE: Silo/department structure impedes synergies, risks duplication.

• Budget allocation by mono-disciplinary Departments.

• Too many SOs, SO coordination not fully formalized/ensured.

OLD SF Departments/“Disciplines”/ “Silos” AG ES FO FI TC NR

Inputs/products/services

No SOCs: Weak

coordination thru Depts.

SO-A

SO-B

SO-C

SO-D

SO-...

SO-X

SO-Y

Supply driven

Background 2: the new SF

• New SF: FAO implements an RBM system as of 2014

• Budget allocation by SO (only 5 SOs) • Coordination by SOCs, demand driven • Admin, technical and training expertise,

etc. still rests with Departments/Divisions Matrix between SOs and Depts. • Dual role of statistics: output AND function

NEW SF Departments AG ES FO FI TC (NR)

Inputs/products/services

SOC

s SO-1

SO-2

SO-3

SO-4

SO-5

O6 Other

Chapters

Demand driven

The new Strategic Framework

Eradication of Hunger

Elimination of Poverty

Sustainable Management and use of

Natural Resources

1) Hunger Eradicated

3) Poverty Reduced

4) Equity through

Sustainable Systems

5) Societies Resilient to

shocks

Results Results Results Results Results

2) Agricultural Productivity & Sustainability

Improved

technical quality, knowledge & services, governance, & gender mainstreaming

FAO’s Vision: A world free from hunger and malnutrition where food and agriculture contribute to improving the living standards of all,

especially the poorest, in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner

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Strategic Objectives in the new SF

1. SO1: Contribute to the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition

2. SO2: Increase and improve provision of goods and services from agriculture, forestry and fisheries in a sustainable manner

3. SO3: Reduce rural poverty

4. SO4: Enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems at local, national and international levels

5. SO5: Increase the resilience of livelihoods to threats and crises.

6. Objective on technical quality, knowledge & services, governance, & gender mainstreaming

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Rationale for the new Strategic Framework

• New SF expresses impact to be achieved in countries, regions and globally over a long-term timeframe (ten-years), and adopts a matrix structure for the delivery of the programme of work.

• Includes five Strategic Objectives (SOs), along with a sixth technical objective focused on technical quality, knowledge and services and the two cross-cutting themes of gender and governance.

• FAO’s PWB is highly multi-disciplinary, but its old admin structure and budget allocation was mono-disciplinary, with risk of duplication due to silo/department structure.

• New SF aims to integrate specialized expertise of Divisions and Departments into multi-disciplinary SOs, and to move to demand driven SOs.

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Key benefits of the new Strategic Framework

• It aligns FAO priorities with organizations’ strategic objectives, and ensures all FAO activities support one or more of these strategic objectives (SO).

• It is demand driven, focusing on desired outcomes at country level, then identifying what is needed to get there.

• Duplication is reduced by moving towards elimination of departmental and divisional silos.

• Expertise across the organization is better leveraged.

• Cost efficiencies are exploited from reduced duplication, and by ensuring staff have skills required to meet organizational priorities.

Statistics in the new Strategic Framework

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Statistics in the New Strategic Framework

1. Statistics is a core function of FAO and represents a highly visible area of the Organization’s work.

2. Heightened emphasis on evidence-based decision-making in governments and organizations puts greater focus on role of statistics and its part in measuring and monitoring progress towards national and international development goals and targets.

3. FAO is at the forefront of these tasks, performing an essential role in helping to reduce hunger and poverty by informing decision-making through the provision of reliable and timely data.

Outcome Country capacity to use, collect, analyze and disseminate data is strengthened

Output (A)

Methods for the collection,

compilation, dissemination,

analysis and use of data under

different data domains are

developed and shared

Output (B) Country support

provided to strengthen national

statistical institutions and to

improve the competencies of

national statisticians in collecting, analysing and

disseminating data

Output (C) High quality and internationally

comparable data are produced

and accessed by all countries

Results chain proposed for statistics in 6.02

Output (D) Strengthened FAO

statistics governance and coordination (Chief

Statistician & IDWG on Statistics)

and improved internal capacity to analyze

political & development challenges and to monitor

& evaluate the PWB

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Statistics in the New Strategic Framework

• FAO has a decentralized statistical system, with statistical activities taking place in several divisions across its seven departments.

• Director of Statistics Division (ESS) in also the Chief Statistician of FAO, tasked with coordinating statistical activities of FAO, as well as with other international organizations.

• Statistics now fit within an SF with concrete and demand-driven objective, and serves 2 additional and vital purposes:

1. Evidence base on which priorities are set.

2. Objective measures of progress in achieving objectives.

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Statistics in the New Strategic Framework

1. Statistics as an evidence base to set priorities. • SO1 - despite sufficient capacity in the world to produce enough

food, an estimated 842 million people in 2011-13, or around one in eight people in the world, suffered from chronic hunger, with Africa facing the highest prevalence of undernourishment.

• SO2 - food supply chain has increased waste, including 24% of freshwater, 23% of crop land, and 23% of fertilizer wasted globally.

• SO3 - about 75% of the world’s poor live in rural areas, affecting about 875 million people.

2. Statistical indicators as objective measures of progress in

achieving objectives. • MDG 1 to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger: target of halving,

between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger, measured by the prevalence of undernourishment (PoU).

• 2003 Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security: allocation of at least 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture and rural development

Recommendations

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Challenges & Recommendations for Discussion

Challenges: • Developing sound indicators of progress towards meeting strategic

objectives; • Ensuring countries provide data necessary to estimate good indicators • Ensuring FAO develops, in partnership with international organizations

and country-level experts, solid methodologies behind statistics and indicators

• Ensuring a governance structure to meet the challenges Recommendation: FAO establish a Commission on Agricultural Statistics at Global Level in order to: a. ensure better coordination and standardization of activities and

recommendations emanating from Regional Commissions and bodies; b. provide a global forum for Country Representatives to review and endorse

methodological and other normative work; and c. Create process to peer-review FAO data and methodologies.

Thank you

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Results Based Management & Planning Framework