While Africa south of the Sahara has made substantial improvements to its food security in recent years, one in four people in the region remains undernourished. A new web portal
launched today that focuses on agriculture, food security, and
nutrition in Africa south of the Sahara has been designed to strengthen
capacity for timely food security information, policy research, and
analysis to ensure the continued improvement of the region’s food and
nutrition security.
“The portal will host a broad set of open data related to food and
nutrition security and early warning mechanisms, as well as
opportunities for dialogue among policymakers, researchers, the private
sector, and other stakeholders,” said Maximo Torero, Director of the
Markets, Trade and Institutions Division at the International Food
Policy Research Institute.
The
blogs on the portal provide detailed summaries of recent research on a
variety of topics related to food and nutrition security, including food
access, input markets, and risk and resilience. It is hoped that this
environment of open information-sharing and dialogue will help to
increase the resilience of the region’s poor to possible food-related
crises, including price and climate shocks.
The
portal also hosts a series of interactive maps tracking important
economic and agricultural indicators throughout the continent, including
cereal yields, harvest times, and soil composition. But as Dr. Torero
points out, the portal’s major innovation will be its people.
“While
the accuracy and relevance of information in the SSA-FSP is of utmost
importance, it will not translate into policies without dissemination,
appropriate training, or synergies between users,” he says. “Rather than
fostering an association of organizations, we propose to create a
network of individuals and institutions engaged in the international,
national, and local policy-making process in SSA. Such an approach will
considerably reduce bureaucratic delays and will provide for more
dynamic interaction among stakeholders.”
This
interaction will include virtual dialogues to be hosted on the site
beginning this summer. The dialogues will feature both a live panel
discussion with experts in the field of food and nutrition security as
well as an open online discussion forum and will discuss such topics as
climate change adaptation, women’s inclusion, and using value chains for
enhanced nutrition.
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