The lack of information and accurate data on agrifood systems, and various drivers influencing the availability, accessibility, utilization and stability of food, remain a significant challenge in small countries with a low population density such as North Macedonia and Armenia, as well as Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) such as Comoros, Madagascar, Seychelles and Mauritius. Accurate and up-to-date data and information is essential to understand local production and production potential and to develop targeted, evidence-based policies, to leverage agrifood systems towards better performance. To address this, SMART works in the following areas:

• Supporting the production of accurate and up-to-date data and analysis on agriculture, food and nutrition security to enable sound and targeted policy and decision-making.
• Providing capacity building opportunities to governments that enable the collection of methodologically sound data, as well as the adoption of technologies, such as computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI), use of remote sensing data, Geographic Information System Mapping (GIS) and data mapping.
• Producing robust and evidence-based research, including spatial impact evaluations, food security analyses, as well as agricultural value chain and poverty analysis, using newly generated data, together with remotely sensed data.
• Supporting national stakeholders to develop information platforms that provide up-to-date, easily accessible, and spatially disaggregated output indicators on agriculture, food and nutrition security, with the objective to enable evidence-based decision making.
• Supporting regional cooperation on the topic of agriculture, food and nutrition security by creating regional working groups and platforms, with the aim of facilitating cooperation and exchange at the regional level.

Working with a territorial approach to prioritize public and private investments, the focus is on guiding investments in agriculture and agricultural innovation to promote inclusive and sustainable rural development through a unique approach. Using spatial and statistical classifications of regions or farms, the aim is to ensure that investment projects are customized to meet the specific needs and priorities of each community.

The approach is based on the stochastic frontier approach, which is an econometric technique used to measure technical efficiency in production processes, where producers attempt to optimize their output given their available inputs. This technique provides an ideal framework for building a typology of rural micro-regions and is based on a theory of producer behaviour, where motivation is a standard optimization criterion to minimize costs or maximize profits, but success is not guaranteed. The estimation procedures consider failures in efforts to optimize and different degrees of success between producers, allowing us to analyse the determinants of variation in the efficiency with which producers pursue their objectives.

SMART multifaceted role includes overseeing project planning, implementation and evaluation, as well as serving as facilitators and building partnerships with stakeholders at various levels, while offering training, technical assistance and financial support to the countries in which we operate. Through a close collaboration with local partners, FAO have made significant strides in various agrifood value chains, boosting their resilience, productivity and sustainability. These efforts have contributed to broader development goals such as reducing poverty and achieving gender equality.

Moving forward, FAO remain fully committed to empowering and enhancing the lives of farmers and people living in rural areas with ongoing initiatives.

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• Tipología de microrregiones en el sector agrícola de Ecuador: una herramienta para priorizar inversiones en el marco de la Iniciativa Mano de la mano

As the world experiences another period of volatile and escalating food and staple prices, triggered by the war in Ukraine, similar to the levels observed in 2007/08 and 2010/11, FAO actively monitor the potential impacts on developing countries. SMART work involves conducting analytical studies on specific food and agricultural policy issues, as well as tracking policy responses to rising prices and assessing their implications, including:

• input, market, trade and price policies that influence value chain performances;
• value chain and commodity market analysis;
• price, price stabilisation and stock policies;
• policy prioritization; and
• other emerging issues.

RELATED LINKS

• Real-time monitoring of food price policy interventions during the first two years of COVID-19

Capacity development to governments is of utmost importance, especially in countries facing challenging circumstances that risk leaving large numbers of people behind. Such nations may have smaller populations and struggle with limited capacity, human resources, and financing, severely hindering their ability to access critical information and develop evidence-based policies at the national level. In this context, capacity building becomes crucial to empower governments and bridge these gaps, ensuring a more inclusive and informed decision-making process. These activities focus on:

• investment analysis, stochastic frontier analysis;
• sample and questionnaire design, computer-assisted personal interviewing;
• use of remote-sensing data, spatial and statistical software.