The Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics has recently agreed to support the WAW initiative to build on the results achieved so far. The main focus of this partnership will be to develop guidelines on typology of agricultural holdings. These guidelines will become central in assisting countries interested in the development of typology-based analysis to inform their policy and information systems. Furthermore, this effort may facilitate stronger recommendations for improving the core data set proposed by statistical initiatives to allow them to produce better holding typologies.

The Global Strategy to improve agricultural and rural statistics is a global initiative that aims to provide developing countries with a framework and tools to produce and analyze the core data and information needed to guide policy making, taking into account main challenges of the 21st century. The three main pillars forming the foundation of the Global Strategy are the following: i) the production of a minimum set of core data; ii) tools and methods to support countries in the integration of agriculture in National Statistical Systems, iii) enhance the sustainability of statistical systems through enhanced governance and capacity building.

The Global Office, hosted by FAO, is responsible for the coordination of the research component, which aims to develop a set of guidelines and tools to support countries in better collecting and analyzing data. In this respect, the guidelines on typology will be part of the tools that are being developed to strengthen data analysis. Once adopted, the guidelines will be disseminated through the Global Strategy and will provide the basis for further technical assistance to countries in this area. The development of guidelines shall build extensively on the final report on typology developed by WAW as well as on the outcome of the IWG on family farming criteria. In addition, this joint effort will work hand in hand with further case studies, which will be supported by IFAD’s second grant.