Closing the data gap in agriculture through sustainable investment in the data value chain: Realizing the vision of the 50x2030 Initiative

This special section introduces to the SJIAOS readership the work of the 50x2030 Initiative to close the agricultural data gap, a multi-partner program that addresses current shortcomings in the quality and availability of agricultural data by transforming country data systems in 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America by 2030. That motivation comes from the need to address documented, persisting gaps in agricultural statistics in low- and lower-middle income countries.

Recent assessment by FAO on the ability of countries to report on agricultural SDG indicators, for instance, have concluded that only 50 percent of African countries publish indicators 2.1.1 and 15.1.11 and reporting rates on the other agricultural SDG indicators are less than 30 percent [1]. Similarly, in Asia only slightly more than 50 percent of counties report that indicators 15.1.1, 2.1.1 and 5.a.1 are currently published in national or international databases, while reporting rates on most of the other indicators are less than 40 percent [2]. This lack of good quality and recent data, which is essential for timely, targeted policy action, is also a manifestation of a deeper problem: many low- and lower-middle income countries do not have well-functioning data systems to generate and use the data needed to make improved programmatic investments and policy decisions. Many of these countries have identified survey data as a priority area for receiving technical and financial assistance to strengthen their capacity and knowledge to develop and support a comprehensive, sustainable system of data production and use. One tenet of the initiative is that producing good data that improve decision-making can create the demand for data that will ensure sustained investment in statistics by national governments.

The Initiative follows in the footsteps of and builds on other international initiatives that since the early 2000s have been motivated by the realization that “many countries, especially in the developing world, lack the capacity to produce and report even the minimum set of agricultural data necessary to monitor national trends or inform the international development debate” [3]. That realization, coupled with the data demands linked to the need to inform a policy response to the 2007–2008 food prices crisis, triggered a renewed interest and urgency at least in some countries, donors, and multilateral organizations to mobilize resources to reverse a trend of neglect for agricultural statistics in developing regions.

The Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Survey on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) was launched in 2008 by the World Bank to design and implement systems of multi-topic, nationally representative panel household surveys with a strong focus on agriculture in eight partner countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The primary objective of that program has been to foster innovation and efficiency in statistical research on the links between agriculture and poverty reduction in the region.2 That program was instrumental in changing the face of agricultural data availability in the African countries where it operated, with spillovers to other countries in the region and beyond, particularly in terms of pushing the methodological frontier for agricultural survey data collection.

The Global Strategy on Agricultural and Rural Statistics3 was launched at about the same time to provide a blueprint for coordinated international action to counteract the decline in the quality of agricultural statistics, by offering a framework for action, identifying a minimum set of core data for countries to prioritize the production of, and promoting the integration of agricultural statistics into national systems, all supported by a capacity building effort and a global research program to develop and promote the adoption of cost effective agricultural data collection methods. One of the outputs of the Global Strategy was the development of the AGRISurvey methodology, which combines an annual core module on production that is collected every year and several rotating modules collected periodically [4].

The 50x2030 Initiative builds on the work of LSMS-ISA and AGRISurvey programs and addresses data needs and builds capacities across all components of the data cycle. Starting with data prioritization, both programs and now the 50x2030 Initiative help partner countries assess their agricultural data needs to ensure surveys will produce the most critical data for policy and investment decision-making and reporting needs. Second, the programs focus on data production – the costliest stage – including developing questionnaires in line with best practices, selecting the sample, training enumerators and supervisors, and collecting data, typically through computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI). Once data are collected, the programs support partner nations to clean, edit, format, and prepare data for use during the data curation phase. Once ready, a considerable amount of technical support is provided to support data analysis and interpretation. Many partner countries need and demand support to analyze and understand the data they have collected. To encourage sustainability and maximize impact, the Initiative includes and prioritizes activities that promote data use. The inclusion of a data use objective recognizes that supply-side efforts focused on data production alone are unlikely to increase evidence use in decision-making.

Partner countries contribute financial resources to the survey programs in their respective countries from the start and increase those contributions over the years, with the objective of taking over the survey program and implementing it independently. As a sizable portion of the national contributions is expected to come from a country’s planned program budget, the Initiative, through the World Bank, will advocate for the mobilization of resources from the national budget as well as for the use of International Development Association (IDA)/International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) resources in support of agricultural data, in line with the objective of the Initiative and the World Bank’s commitment to the data agenda. While not meant to be a substitute for contributions from national budgets, IDA/IBRD allocations may provide complementary resources to support the launch or rapid scale-up of the program.

This Special Section highlights some key elements of the 50x2030 approach, drawing on work that is being undertaken under each of its three components: Methods and Tools (managed by the World Bank), Data Production (managed by FAO) and Data Use (managed by IFAD).4 The papers in the Special Section offer early insights from what is a story still in development, given the Initiative only started formally in July 2019 and has a time horizon, as per the program name, of 2030. They are shared here with a global readership interested in official statistics to promote awareness of the Initiative, to garner support (both intellectual and operational) from members of the global statistical community who share the same goals, and to solicit feedback and inputs, including critical ones, that can help improve the way the Initiative operates and make it more efficient, effective and impactful. A full list of 50x2030 publications preceding this Special Section is available in the Appendix to this editorial.