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

4 Cross-Cutting Issues and Recommendations Emerging from Price Impact Assessments
On the basis of presentations made the participants worked on establishing the cross cutting issues
emerging from the Price Impact assessments conducted so far. A copy of the presentations is attached in annex
5.
The work was organised in two phases:
- Analyses using existing systems (monitoring systems and modelling based on secondary data)
to generate and analyse information in response to the food crisis (day 1).
- Assessments triggered by the food price crisis and based mainly on primary data collection
and analysis(day 2).
4.1 Issues and recommendations around the use of secondary data analysis and monitoring systems (Day 1)
The group discussions were based on the following presentations:
o FAO Price impact analyses using household income and expenditure surveys, and the Rural Income
Generating Activities (RIGA) datasets
o FAO Cross-Country Analysis of the Effects of Soaring Food Prices on Undernourishment
o WFP Food Security Systems in Afghanistan, Haiti, Niger
o WFP Community and Household Surveillance (CHS) in Southern Africa / Potential applications for
monitoring prices at country level, and
o Points presented by Fewsnet on price monitoring and household food security.
Through working group discussions around these presentations the following 19 issues were identifed
(here grouped under 5 headings).
Collaboration / partnerships / linkages between assessment exercises
- There is a proliferation of information available, often available on different websites. At the
same time, datasets are often difficult to access or obtain.
- Available data should be used more.
- There is a lack or inadequate linkage between the national sample surveys (HIES/ LSMS,
MICS, DHS, census, CPI, CVSVAs).
- Food security question modules are missing in national sample surveys.
- Coordination / partnerships need to be strengthened.
- Partners should join their analyses and develop a more comprehensive understanding of the
situation.
- Better linkages are needed between secondary data analysis and process of primary data
collection.
- The integration across information systems and linkages between early warning and
monitoring systems, vulnerability and need assessments should be strengthened.
Indicators, analysis and reporting
- Information on food security would be needed to identify useful proxy indicators for rapid /
emergency assessment (calibration / validation).
- Supply and Demand Analysis should be used to develop context specific indicators.
- There is a need to validate models for assessing the consequences of changes in food prices
on households; more analytical tools are needed to link high food prices and households.
- Analysis available doesn’t always answer the question of who and where the people affected
are?
- A better balance between quantitative and qualitative information is necessary.
- Reports provide a breadth of data and observations, but need to report more on the
“meaning”.
Food Security Monitoring Systems
- The ability of existing food security information systems to timely detect and analyse the
impact of shocks such as price increases should be strengthened.
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