The World Food Programme (WFP) and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) have marked a significant milestone in their longstanding partnership with the launch of a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), reports BSS.
This MoU aims to mobilize 'Data for Life' and strengthen official statistics, focusing on achieving Zero Hunger and supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2 and 17, said a press release in Dhaka on Tuesday.
WFP's Bangladesh country director said the WFP's collaboration with BBS has been pivotal in generating crucial data over the years.
"We have jointly produced poverty and under-nutrition maps and have been involved in policy research, like the Urban Socioeconomic Assessment Survey 2019 and the Vulnerable Group Development Survey," he said.
The WFP's latest endeavour, he said, the Food Security Assessment and Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) Survey 2023, where WFP supported in training, analysis, and report writing, is a testament to the combined efforts towards addressing hunger and under-nutrition in Bangladesh.
BBS Director General Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said this MoU is not just a formalization of the existing relationship between WFP and BBS but a step forward in integrating food security indicators into our surveys, like the Sample Vital Registration System Survey.
This collaboration is essential for informing the government's 9th Five-Year Plan and enhancing our efforts to monitor progress towards the SDGs, he added.
Under the strategic MoU, the WFP and BBS will extend their collaboration to include various areas such as poverty and undernutrition mapping exercises, food security surveys, and policy advocacy studies in the fields of shock- responsive social protection and urban programming with evidence-generation activities to support the upcoming 9th FYP.
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