Under this cross-cutting theme, IFPRI aims to build a comprehensive geo-referenced database that captures the different features of food systems, categorized into three main layers: i) national food systems, which comprise multiple (food and nonfood) value chains contributing to food and nutrition security and other outcomes, such as job creation and poverty alleviation; ii) individual food value chains ranging from local to national levels whose dynamics explain the diverse outcomes of food systems; and iii) the perspective of food system stakeholders (producers, processors, distributors, etc.) and the specific outcomes that concern them, such as livelihoods, food security, and health.
Activities will include:
- Working with countries to carry out country diagnostics for food systems and, at the country level, building solid statistics systems, appropriate institutional capacity for policy design and implementation, and a high degree of coordination across ministries and food system sectors.
- Developing metrics and indicators to analyze status and performance of food systems along with dashboards that allow countries to easily track progress.
- Strengthening capacities for data collection and for monitoring and evaluating progress in food systems and in the use of tools for diagnostics and impact evaluation.
- Working with countries to identify what data needs to be collected based on in-country priorities, with guidance from existing accountability mechanisms including the SDGs. This allows for better monitoring of food system transformation as it occurs.
- Develop analytical capabilities to collect, analyze, and interpret data to guide policy.
- Build coalitions at the country level for fostering collective decision-making, brokering between different views and values and addressing questions of justness and more.