Within the context of the project on “Promoting Food and Water Security through Cooperation and Capacity Development in the Arab Region”, particularly component four on “Enhancing the assessment capacity of the status of food security in the Arab countries”, ESCWA, in collaboration with partners, has developed a draft framework for the purpose of monitoring food security in the Arab region. The draft framework is the result of a long consultative process that included extensive desk research and a thorough analysis of both national and regional policies that relate to food security through any of its four dimensions, namely availability, access, utilization and stability; and a series of consultative meetings that brought together experts from regional and international organizations, the project national focal points, and UN organizations.

In this context, ESCWA, in coordination with the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, is organizing the “Third Consultative Meeting on Food Security Monitoring in the Arab Region” to present and finalize the proposed framework, including its dashboard and indicators, in preparation for its submission and possible adoption/endorsement by the General Assembly of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development.
 
Specifically, the meeting will aim to:

•  Present the draft framework for food security monitoring at the national level and its dashboard;
• Reach consensus on the content of the draft monitoring framework, both structurally and substantively, by meeting participants (high level representation of ministries of agriculture and national statistics offices as well as experts and representatives of regional and international organizations and the academia); and
• Finalize the framework and raise it to AOAD’s General Assembly for endorsement and adoption.