Virtual Event - Information Needs for Food Crisis Risk Early Warning: The Role of the Food Security Portal

Persistent drivers of food insecurity and acute hunger—conflict, climate shocks, and environmental shocks—have been compounded in 2020 by the COVID-19-related health and socioeconomic upheaval and by the severe desert locust outbreaks in East Africa. The pandemic is expected to push as many as 132 million more people into chronic hunger in 2020, in addition to the 690 million who went hungry in 2019.

To navigate the increasingly complex, interlinked causes of food crises, governments and other stakeholders require timely, high-quality information to increase the resilience of food systems and cope with future crises. The EC-funded Food Security Portal (FSP), initiated in 2010 in response to lessons learned from the 2007–2008 world food crisis, seeks to improve governments’ ability to respond to and prevent food crises by bringing together policy-relevant tools and information in one place. The FSP is designed to pool timely, relevant, detailed and high-quality country-level information in a systematic way.

This policy dialogue will focus on data and information sharing and coordination for improving food security, with a focus on the role of the FSP in monitoring the drivers of food insecurity and food crises to inform policies. New tools and features of the FSP and the Africa South of the Sahara sub-portal have recently been added to the upgraded website.

Opening remarks

• Conrad Rein, Policy Officer, European Commission, and Co-Chair, Global Donor Platform for Rural Development

Introduction to the Upgraded Food Security Portal

• Rob Vos, Division Director, Markets, Trade and Institutions, IFPRI (Presentation)

Panelists

• Ousmane Badiane, Executive Chairperson, Akademiya2063 (Presentation)
• Jessica Fanzo, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food & Agricultural Policy and Ethics, Johns Hopkins University (Presentation)
• Arif Husain, Chief Economist, World Food Programme (WFP)

• Máximo Torero, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Closing remarks

• Philippe Thomas, Head of Sector, Food and Agricultural Systems, Crisis and Resilience, European Commission (Presentation)

Moderator

• Teunis van Rheenen, Director of Business Development and External Relations & Acting Chief of Staff, IFPRI

A blog will be available in the days following the event.