Five-day training workshop on Food Security SDG Indicators of

2.1.1- Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) &

2.1.2- Prevalence of moderate and severe food insecurity based on (FIES) has been organized successfully at National Statistics Office of Mongolia (NSO). Mr. Sattar Abdul, Statistician from the FAO HQ in Rome has led the training and discussed with NSO staffs on how to capture appropriate data to estimate PoU and FIES more precisely near future.

Ms. Erdenesan Eldev-ochir, Director General of Economic statistics department, NSO, said “This training has been very fruitful and interactive session for us. Also very timely, in regards to our FIES pilot survey carried out in 4 provinces. Working on actual data has been helpful for us in capturing and understanding the method better. We hope to reflect what we have learned from this training to the Household socio-economic survey to start in early 2020. We hope to o ave more precise estimation of PoU and FIES at the end of the survey”.

During the training, Ms. Sattar and NSO team demonstrated on how to estimate the national and sub-national levels of PoU by using HH data and the prevalence of moderate and severe food insecurity using FIES module. The participants worked hands on available data and estimated per capita daily caloric consumption at each household by using the latest national Household Socio-Economic Survey. NSO staff have shared and discussed the challenges of the food consumption data in estimation of food security indicators in Mongolia, as this is new methodology and terms.

FAO, as the custodian of SDG-2, which seeks to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.” The first target (2.1) under this goal calls for “ending hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situation, including infant, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round by 2030”. Two indicators related to food access to monitor target 2.1 are; Indicator-2.1.1 Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) and Indicator-2.1.2 Prevalence of moderate and serve food insecurity based on Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) provide internationally comparable estimates of the proportion of the population facing difficulties in accessing sufficient food to maintain a normal active and healthy life. These two indicators provide complementary information on food access based on different methods and data sources.

The FAO, being custodian agency for 21 indicators of SDGs, is mandated to provide needed technical assistance to its member countries to report upon on SDG indicators. In this regard, FAO enhances the technical capacity of government officials of member countries by organizing regional and national training workshops and providing needed follow-ups remotely through its capacity development activities.