The agricultural sector in Southern Africa is one of the most important economic drivers in the region, accounting for nearly 30% of GDP and providing employment to over 20 million people. However, the region faces many challenges that need to be addressed for the sector to realize its full potential.
One of these challenges is the lack of reliable and harmonized data on which national and regional agricultural policies rely. The limited access and/or unavailability of reliable quality information is a setback for policymakers who face difficulty in planning and implementing well-coordinated regional responses to threats that negatively impact productivity and trade in the region.
To address this, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is rolling out an Agricultural Information Management System (AIMS) training workshop for the national AIMS Focal Points from SADC Member States under the European Union (EU) funded project: Support Towards the Operationalization of the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy (STOSAR).
This workshop is a welcome initiative aimed at equipping participants with the knowledge and skills to develop and implement a harmonized approach to data collection to ensure consistency, accuracy, efficiency, standardization, and comparability of data across different sources and locations.
