Stronger Data, Evidence Crucial for Africa’s Policymakers: FAO

ENA November 19/2019 World Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said strong data and evidence is crucial for Africa’s policy makers in order to monitor the progress of the Sendai Framework as well as the Paris 21 Climate Agreement.

Addis Ababa hosted a seminar organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Monday to mark Africa Statistics Day under the theme “Everyone counts: quality statistics for better management of forced displacement in Africa.”

Kafkas Caprazli of FAO said on the occasion that African governments and partners are better equipped to understand and plan for future risk and to monitor progress toward targets under development frameworks with strong data and evidence, he added.

The Sendai Framework is a 15 year voluntary and non-binding agreement which recognizes that the state has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including local government, the private sector and other stakeholders.

He noted that appropriate tools allow States to develop sustainable approaches to ending displacement.

“African Statistics Day is an opportunity to remind us that the priority for now is providing national and local authorities with the financial and technical capacity building support they need to apply them,” he added.

A systemic approach that involves international standards and improves cooperation, coordination and data interoperability is vital for African governments and partners to fully understand, prevent and address forced migration in policymaking, planning and risk reduction for achieving aspirations of the 2030 Agenda and 2063, he pointed out.