Sub-Regional Capacity Development: Workshop Series on Food Losses and Food Waste Measurement and Reporting (Eastern European countries)

Organized by FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (REU) in collaboration with the FAO-HQ Statistics Division (ESS). the capacity development workshop sessions (two digital and one face-to-face) represent an opportunity to increase awareness of Indicator 12.3.1.a (i.e., the Global Food Loss Index) and enhance the capacities of government representatives from selected countries on the indicator’s methodology and underlying data needs. While the focus will be on this statistical methodology, the training will also be an opportunity to present and discuss other tools available to measure, monitor and report on food losses as well as food waste, and understand how they could relate to each other at country level.

The trainings targets to bring together a group of fifteen participants from four countries (Albania, Armenia, Moldova, North Macedonia and Ukraine), with three representatives from each country - in particular from the National Statistics Office and the Ministry of Agriculture, ideally with expertise on post-harvest losses, value chains and/or sample surveys. Invitations to participate are also extended to Georgia (part of another FAO project).

OBJECTIVE

The three capacity development workshops will provide tools on measurement, monitoring, and analysis of FLW to key national stakeholders, including government representatives and statisticians, to support partic-ipating countries familiarize with data collection strategies from farm to consumption, design data-driven policies and interventions, and build a monitoring and reporting system for the SDG 12.3.1.a Indicator (the Global Food Loss Index). At the end of the first digital training, participants will be expected to apply the gained expertise and propagate the acquired knowledge within their own organizations. The second digital workshop foresees an interactive revision of the implemented work, given the first training received. The third meeting (digital or face-to-face) is foreseen to complete the SDG 12.3.1.a monitoring and reporting method.

FORMAT

The training workshops will be held in three sessions from October 2020 to Abril 2021. Each session will cover a specific component of SDG 12.3.1.a and is meant to help countries step by step to prioritize, plan, design and integrate food loss data collection efforts.

FAO will provide the latest developments of tools and instruments used in each step. Countries will be given the opportunity to implement first steps towards measuring and reporting SDG 12.3.1.a, draft country work-plans and initiate the first country exercises. This is especially useful as most doubts and queries arise when applying the tools to concrete food loss points. Countries are invited to actively participate in the proposed exercises between the sessions.

- 1st digital session on 09 December 2020: Provide training on SDG 12.3.1 (a) Food Loss Indicator and how to build and implement data collection at country level;
-2nd digital session in January/February 2021: Provide training on: (i) review the country level work imple-mented by the participating countries since the training held in December 2020; (ii) present guidelines on methods and instruments for food loss data collection on and off the farm.
- 3rd digital or face-to-face session in Spring/Summer 2021: Held a digital or face-to-face training on: (i) pre-sent and discuss the country level work implemented by the participating countries since the training held in January/February 2020; (ii) present and conduct exercises on how to compile Country Food Loss Index, mon-itor process towards SDG 12.3 and prioritize context-based-national-level interventions.

PARTICIPANTS
The primary target audience is staff responsible for monitoring food losses and/or responsible for data col-lection, analysis and dissemination from Albania, Armenia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Ukraine, and Giorgia. In addition, representatives from the private sector as well as civil society are invited to the digital meeting(s).
For each country participants could be:
- Two officers from the National Statistical Office (NSO) (from the directorate / division / unit in charge of national agricultural statistics).
- One officer from the Ministry of Agriculture (from the unit in charge of farm surveys, post-harvest losses surveys, value chain analyses, etc.).
- Two to three participants representing the private sector and civil society, for the digital meeting(s).