The Institute participated in the Coordination Meeting of Statisticians on Monitoring and Evaluation of Food Security Levels in the Arab States ", held in Beirut, Lebanon, on 26 June 2019. Organized by ESCWA in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO, the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development AOAD, the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics AITRS.

The objective of the meeting is to review the approved monitoring framework and to introduce relevant indicators for monitoring food security at the national level as endorsed by the Arab States. During the meeting, national statistical offices and participating experts were deliberating on these indicators and related data. Participants discussed the expected role of statistical offices in implementing this framework. This meeting comes within the framework of the implementation of the activities of the project “Coordination meeting for statisticians on tracking and monitoring food security in the Arab Region” The objective of this Coordination Meeting is to review the adopted monitoring framework and introduce the related indicators for monitoring food security at the national levels as endorsed by Arab Countries.

Within the context of the project on “Promoting Food and Water Security through Cooperation and Capacity Development in the Arab Region”, particularly component four on “Enhancing the assessment capacity of the status of food security in the Arab countries”, ESCWA, in collaboration with partners, has developed a framework for the purpose of monitoring food security in the Arab region. This framework was adopted by the Arab Ministers responsible for Agriculture during the 35th meeting of the Executive Committee of the Arab Organization for Agriculture Development (AOAD) on 28 March 2019. The adopted framework is the result of a long consultative process that included extensive desk research and a thorough analysis of both national and regional policies that relate to food security through any of its four dimensions, and a series of consultative meetings that brought together experts from regional and international organizations, the project national focal points, and UN organizations.

The representative of the Institute presented a presentation on the role of the Institute in enhancing and developing statistical capacities at the level of statistical offices in Arab countries and concerned ministries and the coordination and cooperation mechanism with regional organizations in increasing the efficiency of training and achieving the desired objectives through building qualified cadres to monitor sustainable development goals, .

The meeting documents can be found through the link

https://www.unescwa.org/events/meeting-statisticians-monitoring-food-security-arab