Next week, the Africa south of the Sahara Food Security Portal will be presented at a side event during the 2015 ReSAKSS Conference. The event will focus on “Providing Timely Data and Analysis to Improve Food Security in Africa.”
This goal is the major driver behind the FSP-SSA, which was launched in order to strengthen regional capacity for improved timely food security information, policy research, and analysis. The event will bring together a wide range of experts involved in food security- and nutrition-related data collection and analysis to discuss lessons learned and best practices, identify remaining information gaps, and brainstorm new, collaborative ways to integrate and promote the use of data at the national and regional levels.
The conference will bring together policymakers, researchers, advocacy groups, farmers’ organizations, the private sector, development partners, and other key stakeholders from within and outside of Africa. Scheduled presenters will include representatives from ReSAKSS, IFPRI, Knoema, and the Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute. The event will take the form of panel sessions followed by an open discussion session.
The theme of the 2015 ReSAKSS conference, organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), is “Beyond a Middle Income Africa: Transforming African Economies for Sustained Growth with Rising Employment and Incomes.” Under discussion will be the2014 ReSAKSS Annual Trends and Outlooks (ATOR) report, which seeks to identify key drivers of Africa’s recent growth. In addition, the participants will:
- Review progress in implementing the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP);
- Assess mutual accountability and review processes, as well as those policies’ effectiveness in fostering evidence-based policy planning and implementation;
- Evaluate progress and challenges in establishing effective country-level strategic analysis and knowledge support systems (SAKSS) platforms and agriculture joint sector reviews (JSR); and
- Exchange information on the technical support required for the successful implementation of the Malabo Declaration and its Implementation Strategy and Roadmap (IS&R), the CAADP Results Framework, and the Guidance Note on Government Agriculture Expenditures (see the recent FSP-SSA blog post on the CAADP for more information).
Support of the CAADP agenda is the main goal of ReSAKSS, which was established to provide up-to-date data and technical support for the implementation and monitoring of CAADP programs. Recent ReSAKSS work in Africa has included an impact evaluation training course and studies on the Kenyan livestock sector and on informal cross-border trade in the region. The 2015 Conference will be hosted by AUC at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 1- 3 September 2015.
