Asia-Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics considers improvements to data gathering with emphasis on Pacific Island countries and SDG progress
As the clock ticks towards 2030, the year when the world’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be achieved, countries in the Asia-Pacific region are working to improve their systems of statistic-gathering and analyses for better planning of production in crop, livestock, fisheries and forestry sectors.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as Secretariat, today opened the 27th Session of the Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics (APCAS) in Fiji, the first time in its 50 year history that APCAS has convened in a Pacific Island country. The Commission Session runs from 19-23 March, hosted by the Government of Fiji.
Focusing on the specific needs of food and agricultural statistics of the Pacific Island countries, as well as other countries of Asia-Pacific, this biennial meeting of agricultural statisticians and experts will review the region’s preparedness to produce adeqaute agricultural statistics to monitor progress towards the 2030 SDG targets.
The urgency for statistics in the face of climate change
The Pacific sub-region is home to some of the world’s most vulnerable populations at risk of the long-term impacts of climate change. A majority of the population live in rural areas and rely on agriculture and fisheries for their livelihoods.
The APCAS meeting provides a platform for Pacific Island countries to more directly engage in drawing attention to their unique challenges in development of agricultural statistics such as geographical remoteness, cropping patterns, limited statistical infrastructure and resources, and learn about the experiences and good practices from member countries in Asia.
“Agriculture is vulnerable to the long-term impacts of climate change, therefore building a sustainable agricultural statistics system will not only help in targeted policy making but also support monitoring the progress towards the sustainable development goals [SDGs], said Faiyaz Koya, Fiji’s Minister for Industry, Trade, Tourism, Land and Mineral Resources.
“Clearly if we are to meet the 2030 SDG targets, we need reliable statistics on almost a real time basis, which can be achieved only by esatblishing technically sound systems for collection of statistics while taking advantage of modern technologies. For the countries in the Pacific, that means a special focus on crops and fisheries,” said Kundhavi Kadiresan, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. “FAO stands ready to support national efforts to improve data gathering through its technical assistance programmes.”
Participants at the meeting were to deliberate on the challenges of meeting unprecedented data demands to monitor the SDG goals in order to achieve food security, reduce hunger, improve nutrition and build resilience for climate change adaptation, particularly in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
“Monitoring the SDG agenda is a challenge for most statistical systems, but the current data and capacity gaps are particularly severe in the Pacific region. FAO is offering a comprehensive package of capacity development initiatives to help countries produce their own data and become visible in global databases and monitoring reports. FAO is establishing close partnerships with the UN System and other development agencies for the implementation of these initiatives,” said Pietro Gennari, FAO’s Chief Statistician.
A special plan for the Pacific and a global strategy
Adding to the many firsts, a landmark Strategic Plan for the Pacific region, prepared jointly by FAO and the Pacific Community (SPC), was launched during the meeting. The Pacific Strategic Plan for Agricultural and Fisheries Statistics (P-SPAFS) is a 10-year plan that aims to guide the development of agricultural, fisheries and rural statistics in the Pacific SIDS for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Holding of 27th Session of APCAS in Fiji will bring impetus to statistical developments in Fiji and neighbouring countries,” said Mukesh Srivastava, Secretary of the Commission.
The APCAS session will also review the achievements of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (GSARS) in the region, particulrly the Strategic Planning for Agricultural Statistics, developing of Integrated System of Agricultural Census and Surveys, and to provide statistics in a cost-effective manner.
Fiji and Samoa have pioneered the GSARS work in the Pacific with Fiji working actively towards endorsemnt of its SPARS by the Government. The Government of Samoa has already endorsed SPARS showing its commitment towards developing agricultural and rural statistics. Papua New Guinea and Tonga, selcted in 2017, have initaited actions in this directionIn addition, the Commission Session will serve as a forum for sharing advances and innovation in economic, social and environmental statistics, the new World Programmme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA) 2020, and Agriultural Market Information Systems. The WCA provides global standards to member countries in charge of planning and conducting agriculture census to ensure international comparability of dat produces through cenuses. The recommendations of APCAS will serve as a guide and lay down priorities for FAO for the next two years in its effort towards building capacity of countries to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
FAO in collboration with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is also organizing a workshop immediately following APCAS to build the capacity in four Pacific countries; Fiji, Nuie, Papua New Guinea and Samoa to help them plan their next agricultural census in a harmonized and standardized manner.
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Background:
The Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics is a statutory body of FAO with a mandate to review the state of food and agricultural statistics in the region and advise member countries on their development and standardization within the general framework of FAO’s statistics work.
Membership
As per the Statute of the Commission, the Membership of the Commission is open to all Member Nations of FAO and Associate Members whose territories are situated wholly or partly in the Asia and Pacific Region or who are responsible for the international relations of any non-self-governing territories in the Region.
For more information on APCAS, please visit:http://www.fao.org/economic/ess/ess-events/ess-apcas
Asia Pacific countries currently participating in the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics include: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Georgia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Tonga and Viet Nam.
For more information on the Global Strategy, please visit: www.gsars.org