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From:
"Castano, Jairo (FAORAP)" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Castano, Jairo (FAORAP)
Date:
Tue, 14 May 2013 19:21:47 +0700
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Dear APCAS-List members,

We would like to share with you the summary report of the last APCAS session in Viet Nam.

ASIA AND PACIFIC COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS
TWENTY- FOURTH SESSION
Da Lat, Viet Nam, 8-12 October 2012

SUMMARY REPORT

1.             Title:         Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics (APCAS) -
                            Twenty-Fourth Session, Da Lat, Viet Nam, 8-12 October 2012

2.        Contact Person:    Mr. Jairo CASTANO, Senior Statistician and Secretary of APCAS

3.         Objectives:

The meetings of the Commission are organized to: (i) assess the current status of food and agricultural statistics in member countries; (ii) inform the member countries about the FAO activities in food and agricultural statistics during the preceding biennium, particularly in Asia and the Pacific; and (iii) discuss new developments in agricultural statistics.
4.         Attendance:
        The Session was attended by a total of 65 participants, including 48 delegates from 21 member countries, viz., Afghanistan, Australia, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, USA and Viet Nam. Thirteen staff from FAO and four observers from IRRI, SEAFDEC, and UNESCAP also participated in the Session.
His Excellency Dao Quang Thu, Vice Minister of Planning and Investment gave the inaugural address to the Commission. Mr Nguyen Van Yen, Lam Dong Deputy Chairman of People's Committee welcomed the Commission to the city of Da Lat. Ms Yuriko Shoji, FAO Representative for Viet Nam, on behalf of Mr Hiroyuki Konuma, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAO RAP), delivered FAO's opening remarks. Other remarks were delivered by Mr Nguyen Van Lieu, Deputy Director General, General Statistics Office (GSO) of Viet Nam; Mr Hong Narit, Director, Department of Planning and Statistics, MAFF Cambodia and outgoing chair; and Mr Josef Schmidhuber, Principal Officer, Statistics Division, FAO.

5.    Programme Results:
        Thirty-one technical documents, including an update on recent developments in agricultural statistics in the countries of the region, were discussed. In addition, a number of discussions were held on (1) country assessment methodology for assessing statistics capacity in agricultural and rural statistics, (2) regional action plan of the global strategy to improve agricultural and rural statistics, and (3) priority areas for discussion in the next round of World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA). The Session's Agenda included topics on:

 1.  A review of FAO's Activities in Food and Agriculture Statistics, particularly  in Asia and the Pacific since the last Session of the Commission;
 2.  State of Food and Agricultural Statistics in Countries of the Region;
 3.  Implementation of Global Strategy to improve of agricultural and rural statistics in the region;
 4.  Progress and Vision on World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA);
 5.  Methodological Developments in Food Security Statistics;
 6.  Data Collection Methods and ICT in the Region; and,
 7.  Recent Advances in Economic, Social, and Environmental Statistics on the Agricultural Sector.

The following recommendations were made by the Commission:

For the attention of Member countries:
*         The Commission recommended that each country should have a focal point to supply information to FAO. The focal point could be located in the National Statistics Office or the Ministry of Agriculture, depending upon the specific country situation. The Commission further recommended that it should be the responsibility of the focal point to refer the relevant questions of the country assessment questionnaire to different agencies engaged in collection of data on sub-sectors of agriculture.
*         The Commission noted the three criteria outlined for the selection of the pilot countries in the initial phase of the regional action plan (RAP) of the global strategy to improve agricultural and rural statics, namely political will and commitment, importance of agriculture, and need for assistance. The Commission recommended countries interested in benefiting from the implementation of the RAP to make sure to meet these criteria, particularly proven political will and commitment.
*         The Commission supported the need for the establishment of a national statistical governing/coordinating structure in countries, recognizing that the design of such a structure would be responsibility of each country.
*         The Commission recommended countries to maximize the use of gender disaggregated data in surveys and analysis as it brings to light important issues such as the role of gender in food security which helps better guide policy efforts.
*         The Commission praised the ongoing cooperation between the Republic of Korea and China on remote sensing techniques and recommended countries to follow this kind of south-south cooperation for the transfer of technology. FAO expressed its willingness to facilitate this type of collaboration.
*         The Commission invited member countries to participate in a pilot project for the development of a System of Environmental Economic Accounting for Agriculture (SEEA-AGRI).

For the attention of FAO and development partners:
*         The Commission recommended the further development of the assessment of country statistical capacity and posting of resulting country profiles in the web portal.
*         The Commission noted the operational issues relating to collecting reliable data for the country assessment and recommended to prepare an instruction manual for filling the questionnaire. The Commission also recommended that the raw data, methodology for compiling the indicators and draft country profiles be shared with member countries for validation before placing the profiles on the web site.
*         In reference to the Global Action Plan and the Regional Action Plan of the Global Strategy, the Commission recommended to better articulate the 11 regional outputs with the four global outputs with particular attention directed to the gap between the amount allocated to Asia and Pacific Region in the integrated budget of the Global Action Plan (US$ 15 million) and budget in the regional action plan (US$21 million). The Commission recommended to close this gap through (1) a mapping of the regional and global outputs and (2) the prioritization and indication of regional budget items to the global office, matching the prioritized amount allotted to the Asia-Pacific region in the indicative budget developed by the Global Office in consultation with donors. Bearing in mind the clarifications provided and suggested amendments, the Commission fully endorsed the RAP.
*         Noting the new FAO/UNFPA Guidelines for Linking Population and Agricultural Censuses, the Commission recommended FAO to provide further guidance on linking the agricultural census with other censuses, keeping in view country practices.
*         The Commission recommended several issues to be improved or preserved in the next World Census of Agriculture Programme (WCA 2020): (1) the issue of conducting the agriculture census was becoming increasingly costly and time consuming due to increasing demand of data; (2) the need for detailed guidelines on the linking the population and agriculture censuses; (3) enlarging the scope of integration of surveys after censuses; (4) the issue of including narcotics crops, such as poppy and inclusion of medicinal agriculture on land and in water to ensure complete coverage of agriculture activity; (5) gender and the roles of women in agriculture; (6) indicators related to natural disasters and climate change issues; and (7) the efficiency of data collection with the use of new technologies.
*         The Commission also recommended new issues to be addressed in the WCA 2020: (1) greater emphasis on environment related statistics; (2) guidelines for the collection of data needed for estimation of GHG emissions; (3) data processing for agricultural census and surveys; (4) a more pronounced role for technologies such as remote sensing; (5) use of administrative data; (6) organic agriculture; (7) the integration of a greater variety of surveys including those related to fisheries and aquaculture; and (8) greater support to countries which are at early stage of development of agriculture statistics.  The Commission further recommended FAO to undertake technical work to develop the WCA 2020 guidelines on above issues and continue to provide technical support to member countries.
*         The Commission recommended FAO to continue developing its two new important databases, namely GHG/environmental and agriculture investment databases.
*         The Commission recommended FAO to work towards developing proper guidelines and methodologies to integrate fisheries and aquaculture into agriculture and rural census and surveys as well as to reflect census and survey results in improving regular statistics collection, in close collaboration with, and advice and feedback from member countries.

*        The Commission recommended FAO to further collaborate with the UN Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) to provide training on issues relating to analytical software, sampling design and sampling errors, probably under the regional action plan of the global strategy.

Follow-up Actions:
*         The Commission welcomed the confirmation from the Lao PDR delegation to organize the Twenty-fifth Session of the Commission in March 2014. Bhutan also expressed willingness to host a future session pending further discussions with its governmental authorities. The Commission conveyed its thanks to these governments for their proposals.

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