2022 Virtual Trainings on SDG Indicator 2.4.1 “Proportion of Agricultural Area under Productive and Sustainable Agriculture”

From May to October 2022, FAO has organized a series of virtual training workshops on SDG indicator 2.4.1 “Proportion of Agricultural Area under Productive and Sustainable Agriculture” for which FAO is the custodian agency.

The goal was to provide government officials responsible for monitoring the indicator capacity development on the methodology, data collection and analysis relevant to sustainable food and agriculture.

Information have been provided on appropriate data collection instruments, namely farm surveys, including how to use these to provide the data needed for the SDG 2.4.1 sub-indicators and to identify the data gaps faced by countries.

More specifically, a 4 half-day virtual training have been organized between May and October 2022 to:

• Provide technical training to build capacity of the national staff on SDG indicator 2.4.1 farm survey-based methodology, data collection, compilation and interpretation
• Identify available national and sub-national farm level and other data useful to analyze sustainable food and agriculture
• Understand the data gaps
• Discuss the country plans to collect data on the indicator in the short/medium/long term

The online training workshops were composed of participants from 1 or more countries and have offered an opportunity to share good practices and experiences. Furthermore, the trainings will provide participants a platform to discuss and share their strategies for overcoming the potential challenges regarding data collection, analysis and reporting of SDG indicator 2.4.1.

Outputs

The virtual trainings helped the national counterparts in evaluating the availability of national and sub-national data needed to compute indicator 2.4.1, understanding its measurement challenges and introducing effective data collection and reporting mechanisms. The ultimate aim was to provide basis for designing improved data-driven policies and international reporting. Particularly, the following outputs have been achieved through the virtual trainings:

• Trained 27 countries (134 national staff) on the methodology and tools for SDG indicator 2.4.1, so that its adoption at the country level and its reporting to FAO can be supported;
• One country has submitted an action plan as a result of these trainings that summarize the current situation of data availability on the 11 sub-indicators of SDG 2.4.1 and how they plan to bridge the remaining data gaps;
• Four countries submitted the stocktaking file, and among those one also requested further bespoke technical assistance from FAO to implement the indicator (i.e. mapping of the data gaps, customization of existing agriculture surveys, sampling design, data collection and analysis to construct and finally report the indicator).

Participants

The participants of the training included the National Focal points for SDG 2.4.1 (if already identified), as well as relevant officers from the National Statistical Offices, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment and other agencies relevant to sustainable agriculture.

Background material

All background materials (methdological documents, guidelines and questionnaires) can be accessed in English, and sometimes in Arabic, French, Russian and Spanish at the following link http://www.fao.org/3/cb6372en/cb6372en.pdf 

Participants were advised to take the SDG indicator 2.4.1 e-learning course (following this link https://elearning.fao.org/course/view.php?id=503 currently available in English, French and Spanish) prior to the virtual training to get familiar with the subject and terminologies. The e-learning course (2.5 hours duration) has been developed to facilitate understanding of the main concepts underpinning the methodology and to support countries in the analysis, data collection and reporting for SDG indicator 2.4.1.

 

Tentative Dates	Group of Countries	Progress & Recordings
9-10 May 2022	Timor-Leste	No recording available
16-19 May 2022	Albania, Finland, Gambia, Ghana, Ireland, Malta, Republic of Moldova, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Sudan, Sweden, Togo	Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
6-9 June 2022	Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates	Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
10-13 October 2022	United Arab Emirates	Day 1 (Arabic) Day 2  Day 3 (Arabic) Day 4 (Arabic)

 

Tentative agenda

SDG indicator 2.4.1
Session	Description	Presenter/ Facilitator	Time Slot
			(in minutes)
Day 1
Opening	Welcome address / Introduction / Objectives of the training	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan and Stefania Bacci	15
Session 1	SDG 2.4.1: Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan	35
Session 2	Sub-indicators in the economic dimension	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan	40
Break			30
Session 3	Sub-indicators in the economic dimension (cont.)	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan	85
Session 4	Q&A and Wrap-up	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan	5
Day 2
Session 1	Sub-indicators in the environmental dimension	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan	90
Break			30
Session 2	Sub-indicators in social dimension	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan	85
Session 3	Q&A and Wrap-up	All	5
Day 3
Session 1	SDG 2.4.1. Data collection tools (survey questionnaire and alternative data sources)	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan	30
Session 2	SDG 2.4.1 in the context of AGRIS and 50x2030	FAO – AGRIS team	45
Session 3	FAO SDG 2.4.1 Data collection questionnaire	FAO – Stefania Bacci	15
Break			30
Session 4	Data reporting to FAO (with focus on FAOSTAT)	FAO – Nathan Wanner	45
Session 5	Findings of the 2020-2021 dispatches of SDG 2.4.1 FAO data collection questionnaire	FAO – Stefania Bacci	40
Session 6	Q&A and Wrap-up	All	5
Day 4
Session 1	Indicator 2.4.1 Short/Medium/Long term expectations	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan	40
Session 2	Practical steps on national adoption and implementation of SDG 2.4.1	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan	50
Break			30
Session 3	Discussion on challenges in data collection and reporting on SDG indicator 2.4.1 and action plan to overcome it	All	80
Session 4	Wrap-up, next steps, evaluation and closing (group photo)	FAO – Arbab Asfandiyar Khan and Stefania Bacci	10