Description
The progressive rise in food prices has raised serious concerns about food and nutrition security across the world, concept referring to the supply of food, and individuals' access to it. Though a coordinated response is urgently needed at international and regional levels, the decision of each country is critical for responding to the crisis and developing politics and specific action plans to the local needs. In this context, the International Food Policy Research Institute, through its “World Food Crisis” project, tries to improve and guarantee the quality and harmlessness of food in developing countries while it increases resilience of their food system against futures crises.
Within this initiative, an open data portal -Food Security Portal- has been created to provide comprehensive and detailed information country-by-country on food policy developments. This site contains over 40 indicators related to food security, commodity prices, economics, and human well-being from public, authoritative data sources like the World Bank, the FAO, UNICEF, and others.
In order to make the data contained on the site as useful as possible, the information is available to be freely downloaded through the Data API to re-use and share it without any restriction. The Food Security Portal team collects data by visiting other websites, scraping PDF files, and copying and pasting out of flat text files to facilitate easier sharing and use of the information.
Moreover, the portal contains a specific section with several materials to strengthen the ability of policymakers, food policy experts, and researchers to respond quickly to dynamic developments in the world food system. In this way, it is possible to access the latest research findings, policy tools to assess impact, and even knowledge about key concepts related to food security. Thanks to this information, it is expected that strengthen national capacity to respond effectively and adequately to food challenges such as poverty reduction, agricultural growth, and economic development.
Through this initiative, IFPRI seeks not only to increase food security in developing countries, but to improve the adaptation of global systems to the financial and food crises. Thus, the project brings together international, regional, and country-level data, news, and research aimed at meeting countries' immediate and long-term food security needs. The Food Security Portal is designed to pool information and ensure data quality and access, while it provides resources to the international community to keep working on poverty eradication and desnutrition in the world.