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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Naman Keita

FAO Statistics Division

Joint UNECE/EUROSTAT/FAO/OECD Meeting

on Food and Agricultural Statistics, 2005

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PRESENTATION

Introduction

A. Definition of rural

B. Themes and set of indicators

C. Future work

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Introduction

FAO Member countries include a large number of developing countries in which, a large proportion of the population is composed of rural dwellers living in rural communities by farm and/or non-farm activities

Therefore, much work of the Organisation target rural areas and rural populations and focus on food security and sustainable agriculture and rural development.

However there is not yet a harmonised definition of what is rural which has been adopted by all Units of FAO.

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A. Definition of rural

The Statistics Division, has initiated work on reviewing the underlying definitions and statistical framework for monitoring and evaluating rural development.

The preliminary work proposes a definition of rurality that put more emphasis on spatial aspects on a rural-urban continuum concept. Indicators using distance as a dimension will be evaluated in the development of a statistical framework for rural development:

– Distance to markets– Distance to employment– Distance to Health Services– Distance to Education Services– Etc.

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B. Themes and set of indicators

Currently the set of indicators available within FAO and relevant to Rural Development are from two main sources:

the Guidelines on Socio-Economic Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluating Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (1988) as part of the Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (WCARRD) in 1979

the Recommended components of a key indicators database (2002) prepared by the Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping System ( FIVIMS)

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B. Themes and set of indicators

WCARRD indicators

The guidelines provides a comprehensive study on indicators in the WCARRD context: scope, desirable properties, levels of disagregation, criteria for selection, types and ordering of indicators, description of primary and supplementary indicators as well as improvement needed in the corresponding statistical programme.

The WCARRD programme of Action stated that the primary objectives of rural development are the eradication of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Other contributory objectives include growth with equity, national self-reliance (especially in food), ecological harmony and the conservation of finite resources

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B. Themes and set of indicators

WCARRD indicators

Properties for the selection of indicators to monitor WCARRD: relevant: valid: objective and verifiable: sensitive: feasible; timely: simple

3 categories of indicators:

21 PRIMARY INDICATORS covering the following goals and areas of concern:

I Poverty alleviation with equity (10 indicators)Income/Consumption; Nutrition; Health; Education; Housing; Access to

community services. II Access to land, water and other natural resources (5 indicators) III Access to inputs, markets and services (1 indicator) IV Development of non-farm rural activities (1 indicator) V Education, training and extension (1 indicator) VI Growth (3 indicators)

Agriculture; Population

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B. Themes and set of indicators

WCARRD indicators

11 CORE INDICATORS: selected among the 21 primary indicators and considered as crucial for monitoring poverty alleviation, relevant to most countries and feasible from the data collection point of view was selected.

37 SUPPLEMENTARY INDICATORS which may be necessary and useful for furthering the analysis of agrarian reform and rural development.

Even though the policy issues and context has significantly changed since the WCARRD, many aspects of this work on indicators remain relevant to actual concerns of rural development.

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B. Themes and set of indicators

FIVIMS indicators

FIVIMS has identified 15 information domains as relevant for the agreed Conceptual Framework for Understanding the possible causes of low food consumption and poor nutritional status.

Based on recommendations of the 4th meeting of the IAWG-FIVIMS, seven core food security and nutrition indicators have been selected by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) to monitor progress towards the World Food Summit goals on a global level.

In addition, 16 indicators related to the performance of the food economy are proposed.

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B. Themes and set of indicators

FIVIMS indicators

Food Security and nutrition status indicators (core indicators)

– Food consumption (3 indicators)– Health Status (2 indicators)– Nutritional status (2 indicators)

National Food Economy Indicators (additional indicators)– Economic conditions (3 indicators)– Food availability (3 indicators)– Food access (3 indicators)– Stability of food supplies and access (4 indicators)– Risks, hazards and shocks (1 indicators)

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C. Future work

The work initiated by the Statistics Division on Rural Development Indicators will take into account lessons learned from the implementation of the above indicators systems and the new proposals will be reviewed and discussed with other FAO Units concerned in order to provide an harmonised definition of rural and new framework for developing 15 to 25 indicators relevant for monitoring and evaluating food security and rural development.

The proposal will also take into account the work of other

Agencies in developed and developing countries.