Evaluation of the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics (GSARS)

Global Strategy is the largest-ever effort to improve agricultural and rural statistics in developing countries. The programme built the capacity of agricultural and rural statistics in Africa and Asia-Pacific through research, training and technical assistance. It exceeded the intended outputs of its research component; the training component benefitted many training participants from various countries. Strategic Plan for Agricultural and Rural Statistics (SPARS) document built the capacity of the governments to design the policy framework to produce and use quality statistics.

The involvement of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific brought about various benefits such as enhancing the linkages between the programme activities and FAO normative work, and tailoring the global knowledge in the local context.

For the second phase, the evaluation recommended a strategic shift from data generation to data use, especially by policymakers; and from narrowly-defined agriculture to the nexus between agriculture and rural development. The recommendations included strengthening advocacy and simplifying the governance structure.