In response to commitments made by Heads of State and Government at the World Food Summit in November 1996, a Technical Consultation on Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS), held at FAO in March 1997, recommended, inter alia, the preparation of guidelines for the establishment of FIVIMS at the national level. This recommendation was approved by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) at its annual meeting in April 1997, with the further recommendation that national governments be fully involved in the development of FIVIMS guidelines.
Draft guidelines were subsequently prepared by FAO and technically reviewed by an Inter-agency Working Group (IAWG) in December 1997. Based on comments received at that time, a second draft was prepared for review and comment by national experts from a selected number of countries, representing different geographical regions, different kinds of food security problems and different levels of information systems development. These experts participated in a second meeting of the IAWG, hosted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome in April 1998, at which time the second draft was discussed. At that meeting, further recommendations for improving the draft were made, and a third draft was produced for consideration by the CFS at its Twenty-fourth Session in June 1998. The IAWG also decided to produce, subsequently, a series of FIVIMS technical notes that will contain methodological guidance to national programmes. Those notes will serve as a companion to the present document.1
The draft guidelines are organized into six chapters covering: the problem to be addressed by FIVIMS, the current state of relevant national information systems, the main objectives and operating principles of national FIVIMS, the expected benefits and main user groups, typical information products and dissemination methods, and steps for institutionalization. Definitions of key terms and citations of relevant World Food Summit commitments are incorporated at appropriate points throughout the text, together with information provided by national participants at the second meeting of the IAWG about existing information system activities in their countries.
1 This document was prepared through a collaborative interagency effort, finalized in consultation with experts and officials from member countries during the Second Meeting of the Inter-agency Working Group (IAWG) on Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS), hosted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) from 15 to 17 April 1998. This document was also endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security at its Twenty-fourth Session in Rome in June 1998.