Content of the presentation
      I.           The assistance provided by FAO to Member Countries 
                    •         Capacity building through training and exchanges of experiences
                    •         Technical assistance through field projects
                    •         Data dissemination on the Internet: FAOSTAT
                    •         Preparation and dissemination of reference technical handbooks
      II.          The demand in statistics from FAO
      III.         The overall strategy of FAO for a better assistance in agricultural and rural 
                   statistics in Africa
      IV.          Proposal of  a Medium-Term Programme for strengthening agricultural and 
                   rural statistics : content and implementation
      V.           PARIS21 Task Team for rural and agricultural statistics
      V.           Practical example of the use of statistics in development and poverty 
                   reduction policies: The case of the Special Programme for Food 
                   Security(SPFS)
                                                                          
                      Introduction
    • FAO ’s mission : 
      The organisation shall collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate 
      information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture in the bid to 
      assist member countries in their fight against hunger and food 
      insecurity.
    • Target adopted at the World Food Summit (1996): 
      “To reduce by half the number of chronically undernourished people 
      on the Earth by the year 2015 (from 800 to 400 millions)”
    • FAO Statistics Division 
               http://www.fao.org/es/ESS/index_en.asp
                             
                   I. The assistance provided by FAO
       1/ Capacity building through training and exchanges of experiences 
       •   Statutory commissions and conferences 
            – AFCAS (South Africa 2001, Cameroon  November 2003)
            – Experts consultations (root crop statistics, …)
       •   Seminars and technical workshops :
            – 2002 : Mali - with AFRISTAT : ”Agricultural statistics and food security”
            – 2001 : Ghana and Mali - with AFRISTAT : “Livestock statistics”
       •   Co-organization of the PARIS21 Seminar on rural statistics (Paris,  
           September 2002): (www.paris21.org)
                                                     
                   I. The assistance provided by FAO
       2/ Technical assistance through field projects 
       •   The procedures for assistance from FAO : 
            – With FAO ‘s own funds : TCP ( < 2 years, < US$ 400,000)
                      http://www.fao.org/tc/
            – With trust funds
       •   Subject matters : 
            – Strengthening statistical capacities
            – Staff training
            – Integrated programmes development 
            – Preparation / implementation of agricultural censuses and surveys
                                                     
                   I. The assistance provided by FAO
       2/ Technical assistance through field projects : last projects in the sub-
           region
       •   TCP
            – Mauritania, 2003 
               “Preparatory Assistance to the global census of agriculture and animal production”
            – Liberia, 2002 
                “Rehabilitation of the agricultural statistics system”
            – Niger, 2002
               “Preparatory Assistance to livestock census”
            – Cape Verde, 2000
               “Preparatory Assistance to agricultural census”
       •   TF / GCP
            – Côte d’Ivoire, 2000
                 “Assistance to agricultural census”
       •   TF / UTF
            – Guinea, 2000
                 “Support to the implementation of the national agricultural census”