High Food Price Impact Assessment and Analysis - WFP Remote ...

- Getting a rigorous answer to the impact of prices without a comprehensive set of new information is difficult.
- Building scenarios to capture the future impacts of prices on household food security is difficult, given the
increased volatility of prices.
• Identifying a minimum set of information to meet information needs under different settings proved to be of high
interest for the workshop participants. Two working groups addressed this issue, involving a third of
participants. However, the working groups found it difficult and challenging to identify a minimum set
of information. A tiered approach was therefore recommended (see section 4, key issue #2 for details).
• The agenda was adjusted. Instead of discussing a pre-identified topic such as the third sub-objective, i.e. strengthen
the interface between assessment findings and programming responses, the approach of defining important issues based on
presentations was largely adopted by participants. As a result, the 2.5 day discussions produced the following
outputs:
- Identification of 28 issues emerging from recent experience and current work related to the collection,
analysis and use of information in the current context.
- Identification of 9 Key issues from among this set of 28: 4 issues identified on day 1 and 5 issues on day 2.
- A description of the current situation with regard to each of these 9 key issues.
- A set of recommendations as to how each of these 9 key issues should be addressed.
- A list of current activities, by agency, where these recommendations can be put to use, and where
collaboration between agencies may be possible.
The details of these outputs are presented in the rest of the report.
2.3 Process of the workshop
On day 1, the presentations focussed on the use of existing monitoring systems and secondary
information sets in addressing the food price crisis. Day-2 presentations focussed on assessments based
mainly on primary data collection and analysis to inform on the impacts of the food price crisis on
households’ food security. Day-3 focussed on the prioritisation of issues and recommendations and the
way forward.
The following process guided the workshop:
• Overview – setting the context
• Inputs – presentations on ongoing work, highlighting successes, challenges, and what is being learnt
• Identification of common themes and challenges emerging from the presentations
• Identification of key issues from among these common themes and challenges
• Establishing recommendations as to how these key issues might be addressed.
• Prioritisation and re-grouping of issues and recommendations
• Identification of programmes where recommendations can be integrated and tested
• Plans for sharing information between programmes on the results of integrating recommendations.
3 Overview – Setting the Context
3.1 Introduction and relevance for programming
(by Valerie Guarnieri, Director WFP Progamme Design and Support Division - OMX)
• High food prices are exacerbating structural and acute vulnerability, leading to i) a deterioration of
the situation of people who already receive WFP’s assistance, ii) an increase in the number of
people at risk of food insecurity, iii) a real challenge for WFP’s responses as costs are increasing
and less food is available on the markets, iv) governments’ policy measures that may not be
sufficient to mitigate the impacts of price rises.
4