Site is hub for researchers, policymakers to alleviate the effects of food price and climate shocks
June 15, 2015, Washington, D.C.—While Africa south of the Sahara has made substantial improvements to its food security in recent years, one in four people in the region remains undernourished. A new web portal launched today that focuses on agriculture, food security, and nutrition in Africa south of the Sahara has been designed to strengthen capacity for timely food security information, policy research, and analysis to ensure the continued improvement of the region’s food and nutrition security.
“The portal will host a broad set of open data related to food and nutrition security and early warning mechanisms, as well as opportunities for dialogue among policymakers, researchers, the private sector, and other stakeholders,” said Maximo Torero, Director of the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
The blogs on the portal provide detailed summaries of recent research on a variety of topics related to food and nutrition security, including food access, input markets, and risk and resilience. It is hoped that this environment of open information-sharing and dialogue will help to increase the resilience of the region’s poor to possible food-related crises, including price and climate shocks.
The portal also hosts a series of interactive maps tracking important economic and agricultural indicators throughout the continent, including cereal yields, harvest times, and soil composition. But as Dr. Torero points out, the portal’s major innovation will be its people.
“While the accuracy and relevance of information in the SSA-FSP is of utmost importance, it will not translate into policies without dissemination, appropriate training, or synergies between users,” he says. “Rather than fostering an association of organizations, we propose to create a network of individuals and institutions engaged in the international, national, and local policy-making process in SSA. Such an approach will considerably reduce bureaucratic delays and will provide for more dynamic interaction among stakeholders.”
This interaction will include virtual dialogues to be hosted on the site beginning this summer. The dialogues will feature both a live panel discussion with experts in the field of food and nutrition security as well as an open online discussion forum and will discuss such topics as climate change adaptation, women’s inclusion, and using value chains for enhanced nutrition.
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries. www.ifpri.org.