EC/FAO Program on linking information and decision-making to improve food security Improvement of Food Balance Sheet in Republic of Moldova

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1 EC/FAO Program on linking information and decision-making to improve food security Background Improvement of Food Balance Sheet in Republic of Moldova National Bureau of Statistics, Chisinau, Moldova Workshop report 24 August 2011 A one-day workshop on the improvement of Food Balance Sheet (FBS) in Republic of Moldova was jointly organized by the National Bureau of Statistics (hereinafter: NBS) and FAO under the EC/FAO Programme on information systems to improve food security decision-making in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) East area. The Programme aims at improving food security by enhancing the national capacity to generate, analyse, communicate and mainstream more relevant and reliable information into policies and programmes. Improvement of FBS is one of the Areas of Intervention of the Programme (Area of Intervention 2 of the Country Work plan). The workshop was held in Chisinau on 24 August It was organized for about twenty participants from NBS, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI) and other institutions that are involved in the preparation and the use of FBS. 2. Objectives of the workshop The specific objectives of the workshop were to: Present a review of the methods currently used to prepare FBS and discuss with stakeholders the draft proposal for follow-up assistance in the context of the Programme. Finalise the proposal, incorporating comments and recommendations received from participants. The agenda of the Workshop (provided in Annex 1) was developed in consultation with the moderators, MAFI and NBS staff. The handouts provided to participants included the list of participants, the agenda and a leaflet presenting the EC/FAO Programme. 1

2 3. Participants The workshop was attended by 20 participants, including an FAO statistician, an international consultant and the country coordinator. Participants belong to a number of national institutions: NBS, MAFI, Ministry of Economy, National Centre of Public Health and the Institute of Economy, Finance and Statistics. The list of participants is provided in Annex Process The workshop was opened by Mr Viorel Gherciu, Country Coordinator, who welcomed the participants and emphasized the importance to improve and use FBS to support the policy-making processes of the country. The Country Coordinator also made an overview of the workshop s agenda and underlined the importance of NBS and MAFI s support in implementing the Programme activities in Republic of Moldova. The workshop was moderated by Ms Gladys Moreno Garcia, FAO Statistician, and Ms Aniceta Sapoliene, FAO International Consultant, who introduced the rationale for improving and using FBS as a tool for decision making process. The two statisticians delivered presentations on: Support to FBS in the context of the EC/FAO Programme on linking information and decisionmaking to improve food security ; Food Balance Sheet: a tool for decision making process; Mission findings and proposal for improvement of Food Balance Sheet. The first presentation EC/FAO Programme on linking information and decision-making to improve food security focused on the importance of FBS for MAFI and NBS in preparing the development plans in the food and agricultural sector. NBS is currently using methods which were promoted under former USSR to prepare FBS. The methods need to be revised to comply with international standards. As a result, support will be provided to train NBS staff in addressing the main weaknesses which were identified. Also, assistance will be provided to train MAFI in using FBS. That session demonstrated the importance and utility of the FBS for the policy analysis and decision making needed to ensure food security. The second presentation Food Balance Sheet: a tool for decision making process presented the FBS components, the elements which should be taken into consideration for the preparation of FBS and the estimation of Food availability. The workshop helped the participants better understand how FBS can be used to monitor the food situation in the country. The last presentation Mission findings and proposal for improvement of Food Balance Sheet provided the general information of the calculation FBS and methods used. The purpose of that presentation was to show how to compile agricultural products supply balance sheets, to produce comprehensive and reliable statistical information on the production and consumption and change in stocks of agricultural products. Eventually, some recommendations were given for improving FBS. During the second part of workshop the participants were actively involved in the discussion, concerning the steps of implementing the methodology and switching to the new FBS. Ms Elena Orlova, Head of National Bureau of Statistics Moldova, expressed her appreciation to FAO for the support provided to the development and improvement of FBS, by training NBS to address the weaknesses identified in current methods and practice. All participants have been active providing comments and valuable information, particularly the participants from NBS who should implement the methodology for improving FBS. 2

3 5. Main results and follow-up activities The workshop was successful in increasing awareness and understanding of NBS and MAFI staff members of potential use of FBS to monitor the food situation in the country and inform the decision making process on issues such as import requirements, grain procurement needs (from domestic production as well as from imports) and public food stock management. It was decided that NBS will present a list of items (products) with a wider assortment of products to be included in FBS. During the workshop, it was recommended that the EC/FAO programme assists NBS and MAFI in improving FBS by: Developing NBS staff capacity (understanding and application of the standard definitions and concepts, calculation of the conversion coefficients, use of a specific software to combine the commodity sheets into an integrated Food Balance Sheet, etc.). On this regard, two actions were proposed: o A one week training in Rome for key staff of NBS; it should include training in using software program application that facilitates the integration of commodity sheets into one summary sheet; o Support from an international consultant to follow up on FBS improvement in Moldova after the training, including for reviewing national conversion factors which are used to convert processed commodities into primary commodities for the compilation of the National Supply Utilization Accounts (SUAs). Giving the opportunity to NBS and MAFI staff to learn from other countries experiences by organizing a study tour for NBS and MAFI to a country where similar problems than those encountered in Moldova were met and have been solved; and organizing a final workshop on FBS in 2012 to review the achievements and discuss follow-up assistance. It was recommended that NBS takes the following actions to improve FBS: Ensure a sufficient number of staff is available on a permanent basis to compile SUAs and FBS; based on experience, a minimum of two staff are needed to carry out the activities requested to prepare FBS; Apply the standard methodologies for the preparation of FBS, tailored to the specific situation of Moldova (including data on trade and other utilizations); Collect additional information from processing enterprises through the survey to calculate: o stocks and losses on primary and processed commodities; o technical coefficient for livestock (live weight and carcass weight for meat production ); o industrial uses data (products quantities used to produce others products such as alcohol, beer and ethanol, etc); Use the Combined Nomenclature (CN) of products and coefficient to convert processed products to raw products weight according to FAO and EUROSTAT methodology; Make the food balance sheet available on the website for the users of information; Use the international food composition table instead of the national table to convert the quantities of food consumed into calories; Provide a concise definition of the indicators and methods used to produce FBS in the annual yearbook; 3

4 NBS and MAFI to establish a working group to ensure a dialogue between the users and producers of FBS. A broader spectrum of users could also be consulted through an electronic survey. 4

5 Annex 1. Workshop agenda Workshop on Improvement of Food Balance Sheet in Republic of Moldova 24 August 2011 National Bureau of Statistics, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova Time Topic Presented by: Position Registration of participants Opening session Mr Viorel Gherciu Country Coordinator, FAO Food Balance Sheet: an instrument for decision-making processes EC/FAO Programme on linking information and decision-making to improve food security : Improvement of Food Balance Sheets Mission findings and proposal for improvement of Food Balance Sheet Coffee break Ms Gladys Moreno Garcia Ms Gladys Moreno Garcia Ms Aniceta Sapoliene Statistician, FAO Statistician, FAO International Consultant, FAO Discussion/closure of the workshop Location: National Bureau of Statistics Moldova, Grenoble street, 106, MD-2019 Chișinău 5

6 Annex 2. List of participants N. Name Organization Contacts 1 Eugenia Dumbrăveanu 2 Maria Tarlojanu Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (022) , edumbraveanu@yahoo.com (022)211510, maria.tarlojanu@mail.md 3 Iurie Pînzaru National Center of Public Health (022)574502, iurie-pinzaru@cnsp.md 4 Galina Ermurachi National Bureau of Statistics 5 Svetlana Furtuna National Bureau of Statistics 6 Ala Negruța National Bureau of Statistics 7 Tatiana Sobcovschi National Bureau of Statistics 8 Radu Fala Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry 9 Tatiana Vîlcu Ministry of Economy 10 Tudor Bajura Institute of Economy, Finance and Statistics 11 Zinovia Munteanu Ministry of Economy (022)210850, galina.ermurache@statistica.md (022)211501, svetlana.furtuna@statistica.md (022)403078, ala.negruta@statistica.md (022)731520, tatiana.sobcovschi@statistica.md (022)210160, radu.f@hotmail.com (022)250614, tatiana.vîlcu@mec.gov.md (022)501102, bajuraiefs@rambler.ru (022)250632, zinovia.munteanu@mec.gov.md 12 Galina Talmaci National Bureau of Statistics 13 Tamara Bargan National Bureau of Statistics 14 Ana Manziuc National Bureau of Statistics 15 Aurora Garabajiu National Bureau of Statistics 16 Elena Orlova National Bureau of Statistics 17 Mariana Eni National Bureau of Statistics (022)731855, galina.talmaci@statistica.md (022)403024, tamara.bargan@statistica.md (022)727665, ana.manziuc@statistica.md (022)403023, aurora.garabajiu@statistica.md (022)403022, elena.orlov@statistica.md (022)403066, mariana.eni@statistica.md 18 Viorel Gherciu Country Coordinator, FAO Viorel.Gherciu@fao.org 19 Gladys Moreno Garcia Statistician, FAO Gladys.MorenoGarcia@fao.org 20 Aniceta Sapoliene International Consultant, FAO anicetasapoliene@inbox.lt 6