Regional Policy Dialogue on Early Warning Early Action Mechanisms
Regional Policy Dialogue on Early Warning Early Action Mechanisms for the Prevention of Food Crises
Accra, Ghana 5 September 2019 from 10:30 am – 1:00 pm
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Background
The 2019 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) found that more than 113 million people across 53 countries experienced acute hunger in 2018. The main drivers of this include conflict and insecurity, climate shocks, and economic shocks. To navigate these increasingly complex, interlinked causes of food crises, it is important that governments and other stakeholders have timely, high-quality country-level information to increase the resilience of food systems and cope with future crises.
While the quality of such early warning systems has improved, there remain important information gaps that hamper timely responses to actual and potential food crises.The EC-funded Food Security Portal (FSP) and the Africa south of the Sahara Food Security Portal (FSP-SSA) seek to help improve the ability of governments to respond to and prevent food crises by bringing together policy-relevant tools and information in one place.
In order to achieve the broader goal of improving the availability of data and analysis, a better understanding of regional and country-level demands for policy support to address food crises is needed. To address this gap, this policy dialogue has been organized by the FSP will bring together key stakeholders in the region to share challenges, lessons learned, and potential solutions for building resilience to shocks and addressing food crises.
Objectives
The policy theme of the dialogue is addressing and preventing food crises, with special focus on the role of Early Warning Systems (EWS). Some key questions to be addressed at the FSP regional policy dialogue include:
● Is there a need to improve the current early warning, early action (EWEA) systems to prevent and address food crises? Would it be feasible and desirable to invest in real-time monitoring instruments that make use of new digital technology, including satellite images and AI to identify food crisis risk factors?
● How are existing EWEA systems currently used in food crisis-affected countries? Are they serving to provide timely and adequate responses?
● Is there a need to tailor the international EWEA systems to country needs? If so how and what should donors and international organizations do? How could the Food Security Portal support such efforts? The regional dialogue will take place as an invitation-only event during the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2019 on September 5, 2019 in Accra, Ghana.
Programme
10:30–11:00am Opening Session
Moderator David Nabarro , Strategic Director, Skills, Systems and Synergies for Sustainable Development
Setting the stage Dr. Shenggen Fan , Director General, IFPRI The Food Security Portal and early warning system hub for food crisis prevention
Dr. Rob Vos , Coordinator Food Security Portal and Director Markets, Trade and Institutions, IFPRI Global Network Against Food Crises and the need for improved early warning early action systems
Mr. Roberto Schiliro , Head of Section, on behalf of Amb. Diana Acconcia, of the European Union, Ghana 1
1:00am–12:00pm Panel Discussion: Relevance of and ways to improve early warning systems?
Hon. Dr. Gerardine Mukeshimana , Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources of Rwanda
Dr. Mahalmoudou Hamadoun , Coordinator for the Regional Food Security and Nutrition’s of CILSS
Prof. Sheryl Hendriks , Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension, and Rural Development, University of Pretoria
Ms. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime , Former Commissioner, Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union
Mr. Dominique Burgeon , Director of Emergencies and Rehabilitation and Strategic Programme Leader for Resilience at FAO
Sir Gordon Conway , Professor of International Development, Imperial College London
11:45am–12:50pm Roundtable Discussion
12:50–13:00pm Closing Remarks