Photo Credit/Omobolanle Onilogbo
On August 17, the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS) in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics and the USAID Feed the Future Nigeria Agriculture Policy Activity co-organized a seminar on “Assessing the Impacts of Income and Price Shocks on Food Security and Diets: The Food Security Simulator, Nigeria (FSSN)”. The seminar showed how policymakers, private sector companies, civil society organizations and other key actors can use the Food Security Simulator in assessing the potential short-term impacts of user-selected food price or household income shocks on food security and dietary quality in Nigeria in a partial equilibrium framework. The presentation was made by Andrew R. Comstock, Senior Research Analyst, IFPRI Washington. Andrew presented the research findings and FSSN tool to 53 participants from different stakeholder organizations such as National Bureau of Statistics, World Food Programme, International Rescue Committee, The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
The presentation featured a breakdown and demonstration of the FSSN tool and how it can be used by stakeholders to assess the impacts of income and price shocks on food security and diets. Andrew explained that the microsimulation tool features user-friendly Microsoft Excel format, widely available, simple, and familiar functionality with minimal operational limits.
A few feedback that emanated from the presentation included a comment from Mr. Towolawi Oluwole from the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) where he asked on the usability of the tool in making predictions in the seed sector. The representative from FMAFS in her comment noted that “the tool is very simple, and the outputs can be generated in a short period of time. It is good for Food security.”
Andrew concluded the seminar after informing participants that the tool will be made available for everyone once it is ready.
Hyacinth Edeh, Country Program Manager, IFPRI Nigeria and NPS Nigeria Coordinator of Advocacy and Stakeholder Engagement facilitated the seminar. During the opening remarks, Kwaw Andam, Country Program Leader, IFPRI-Nigeria and NPS Country Lead for Nigeria briefly introduced the core goal and pillars of the NPS Initiative. Mr. IND Wakili , Deputy Director, NBS, representing Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, Statistician-General, NBS also gave his remarks, noting that he looks forward to more presentations to improve the knowledge and capacity of staff, and appreciating IFPRI for choosing the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to share this presentation and to host all the stakeholders present.
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This work is part of the CGIAR Initiative on National Policies and Strategies (NPS). CGIAR launched NPS with national and international partners to build policy coherence, respond to policy demands and crises, and integrate policy tools at national and subnational levels in countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. CGIAR centers participating in NPS are The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), International Potato Center (CIP), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and WorldFish. We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.
