Purpose

Sound decisions are based on good information. It is particularly true for low-income economies where policy decisions have a direct impact on lives, health, food security or well-being. High quality disaggregated and timely information on the agriculture sector is a critical resource for decision-makers involved in agricultural and rural development. Data availability supports decision-makers with better allocation of limited resources in a beneficial and long-lasting manner to positively impact smallholder populations and to help track progress against key outcomes.  

Against this backdrop, building the knowledge and skills of individuals involved in the data production process will continue to be a priority in the implementation of this second Africa action plan of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics. The proposed short training will be the first step in the capacity development programme aiming at preparing the countries to implement an Integrated Agricultural Survey Programme, which require certain level of statistical knowledge and practical experience with basic agricultural statistics. In line with the 'commitments' made by the 50x2030 Initiative, this training provides an overview of the agricultural statistics data cycle, the minimum set of national indicators, incl. gender indicators and sex-disaggregated data, that can be mainstreamed in agricultural survey programme.  

The training contributes at building the minimum critical mass of capacity required to engage in survey program operations. Being generalist in coverage, the training will need to be complemented with more advanced training packages focusing on specific thematic aspects associated with agricultural survey programs (e.g., livestock and crop production, losses on the farm, etc.). In providing the overview of the general framework of agricultural statistics, emphasis will be laid on the economic, social, gender, and environmental aspects of the framework and their interlinkages. In addition, the training will introduce the data sources, statistical units and data collection methods. Further, it will be designed to cover all the fundamental aspects constitutive of a sustainable sample survey program, including survey and questionnaire design, data collection operations, data processing, analysis, and dissemination. 

The training will be jointly organised by UNECA and FAO and will benefit to experts at national statistics offices and agricultural statistics offices in line ministries of about 17 countries. 

Objective

As stated above, the main objective of this training is to provide basic theoretical knowledge and skills in agricultural statistics to data producers, in particular, to statisticians with no or limited background in agriculture statistics, and to economists or agronomists with basic knowledge in statistics. The training will present the essentials for an agricultural statistical program within the National Statistics System, their rationale and conceptual definitions. 

Date and place
The Regional Workshop will be delivered over two consecutive weeks and will be held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 08 to 18 November 2022.