Agricultural Statistics Capacity Building PRESENTED BY Chris Gingerich

Agricultural Statistics Capacity Building PRESENTED BY Chris Gingerich October 30, 2009 1 Views expressed are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Outline • The Gates Foundation & Agricultural Development Overview • Overview of Selected Policy and Statistics Grants • Capacity Building 2

FOUNDATION OVERVIEW Our Grantmaking Areas 50% Global Health Program Discover, develop, and deliver life saving health solutions to people that need them most 25% Global Development Program Increasing opportunities for people in developing countries to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty 25% United States Program $2. 8 billion in grants in 2008; ~$20 billion sinception 3 Greater opportunity for all Americans through the attainment of secondary and postsecondary education

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT Our Areas of Focus Global Development makes grants in the following areas: Agricultural Development Science & Technology Farmer Productivity Market Access Policy &Statistics 4 Financial Services for the Poor Special Initiatives Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Global Libraries Urban Poverty Emergency Relief Policy & Advocacy

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT The Agricultural Development team is comprised of four focus areas 1. Science & Technology • Research and development on crop improvement issues § 2. Farmer Productivity • Quality seeds • Irrigation • Fertilizer • Education and training 3. Market Access • Access to information • Access to new and existing markets • Structured demand 4. Policy & Statistics • Data and statistics 5 • Research and analysis • Advocacy and policy change • Learning and improvement

AG POLICY & STATISTICS Policy and Statistics Our Strategy: • Improve the evidence base that is necessary for better agricultural investment and policy decisions. • Support analysis, outreach and advocacy for evidence-based decision-making. • Invest across the “policy wheel, ” including: 6 • Data and statistics • Research and analysis • Advocacy and policy change • Policy implementation • Impact and learning

AG POLICY & STATISTICS We have an Integrated Statistics, Policy and Advocacy Strategy The “Policy wheel” • Performance Tracking • Sharing lessons • Improving approach • Policy-relevant data systems • Better access to data • Capacity to collect and use 5 Monitoring, evaluation & priority setting data 1 Data & Statistics 4 Implementation • Strengthen policy networks, • 7 3 mobilize stakeholders, Build capacity amongst decision-makers • • 2 Deliberation, negotiation & policy selection Research & Policy Analysis Understand the policy context Disseminate data & analysis Develop advocacy plan Build networks • Understand issues • Build analytical tools • Evaluate and prioritize • policy options Develop capacity for policy analysis

AG POLICY & STATISTICS Data & Statistics Investment Areas • Data Collection for increasing availability, consistency and quality of data • Household surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa & South Asia, with focus on small farmers and smallholder agriculture (WB-LSMS, WFP CFSVA, ICRISAT VLS) • Policy and business-climate indicators (WB-DBA; FAO MAFAP) • Technology adoption indicators (ASTI) • Data & Statistics Platforms for improving access to data and statistics for analysis and decision support • FAO Country. Stat, IFPRI Harvest Choice, Ag. Commons • Capacity Building aligned with the Global Strategy for Agricultural Statistics • Furthering the use of remote sensing, GIS and other technologies for improving the quality, consistency and cost-efficiency of data collection • Strategies for human resource and institutional capacity building • Integration with National Statistics Development Strategies (NSDS) 8

AG POLICY & STATISTICS Open Education Resources (OER) • Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are freely available for anyone to use, reuse, adapt, and share for teaching, learning, and research. • OER can exist as smaller, stand-alone resources (reusable learning objects), that can be mixed and combined to form larger pieces of content (e. g. larger course modules or full courses). • OER can also include syllabi, texts, software, workbooks, journals, and other tools. • These materials are considered open if they are released under an open license such as a Creative Commons license. • Materials can be shared and customized/localized by faculty, students, researchers, government staff, NGO staff, extension staff, enumerators, farmers, 9 etc

AG POLICY & STATISTICS Grant Profile – AERC / Collaborative Masters in Agricultural Economics Approach • Pan-African master’s program involving 12 universities • First year at one of six accredited universities; 3 rd semester “capstone” at Pretoria; theses research at home university • Graduates targeted for employment in government ministries, research institutes, NGOs, and agribusiness • Strengthen network for agricultural economics research. • Support for teaching and research capacity at universities. Expected Outputs and Outcomes: • 282 MSc graduates across three cohorts • Cadre of African professionals with tools and knowledge to improve African agricultural policy 10

AG POLICY & STATISTICS Grant Profile – World Bank / LSMS-ISA Living Standards Measurement Studies – Integrated Surveys in Agriculture Approach: • Nationally representative panel surveys in (so far) • • Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia, Niger Surveys are multi-topic, with detailed agriculture module Surveys conducted by National Statistics Organizations, with technical assistance from World Bank staff Utilizes Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing and GPS for data collection Strong focus on capacity building, institutionalizing household survey systems, and integrating across data sources (e. g. census surveys, satellite data) Expected Outputs and Outcomes: • Open access, high quality datasets used extensively for research, policy and programs • Strong country-owned stats systems for monitoring rural poverty and agriculture’s role 11

AG POLICY & STATISTICS Geospatial Investments in Agriculture Remote Sensing for Ag Statistics • Research Project: Review past, current and future projects that utilize remote sensing in the production of agricultural statistics in sub-Saharan Africa; understand successes, challenges, learnings, and opportunities; (RCMRD, Kass Green) • Possible future project to answer open questions and demonstrate proof of concept for cost-effective and sustainable application of RS to ag statistics in SSA Ag. Commons • Geospatial technology platform combined with information & services targeted at improving the lives of small farmers in Africa • Coordinated by Bio. Versity; Steering committee with representation from public sector, private sector, NGOs, FAO; African organizations; (Stan Wood, IFPRI) 12

AG POLICY & STATISTICS Capacity Building Starts with Needs Assessment & Gap Analysis To address capacity building across multiple dimensions, we must first assess needs along multiple dimensions. . . User needs/gap: demand for data, statistics & indicators Users: Government, academia, think tanks, private sector, NGOs, M&E, etc… 13 • Human resources needs/gap: existing skills/capacity vs skills/capacity required to meet information needs • Technical / methodological needs/gap: Tools, practices, standards, definitions, norms required to meet information needs • ICT needs/gap: mobile devices, remote sensing, software, connectivity, GPS, data sharing, etc required to meet info needs • Institutional needs/gap: institutions & orgs needed to support info needs (e. g. NSDS, inter-agency coordination, etc)

AG POLICY & STATISTICS Capacity Building Activities are Driven by Needs Assessment & Gap Analysis Training Human resource needs Technical Assistance ICT needs Institutional needs 14 Research Technical/methodological needs

AG POLICY & STATISTICS We Need Coordinated Strategies, Plans & Proposals for Capacity Building Training (including needs assessment & gap analysis) • Build upon the survey that was distributed this morning • Sustainability – Training provided by African orgs, regional institutions, country-to-country collab ; E-learning & open educational resources • Training of current staff and future workforce; scholarships? Technical Assistance (incl needs assessment & gap analysis) • FAO, World Bank, Paris 21, and many others • Regional & country-to-country Research (including needs assessment & gap analysis) • Research by African institutions; in partnership with international orgs Global Strat for Ag Statistics; NSDS; Af. DB, FAO, other CB Programs 15

Women in Statistics Women farmers play a large & important role in agriculture… Women must also play a large & important role in agricultural statistics 16 © 2009 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | 16

Thank you 17