EAGC participated in the physical demonstration of the digital Regional Food Balance Sheet platform, that was held on 10th June, 2022 in Lusaka, Zambia. The demonstration was set for review by representatives from six pilot countries, representing ministries responsible for agriculture, food security, and national statistics agencies, as well as regional private sector associations and development partners.

The development of the digital Regional Food Balance Sheet (RFBS) is led by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and COMESA in an effort to develop a regional balance sheet that uses data from a variety of public and private sources to develop near real-time and forward-looking food balance estimates.

Once fully developed and operational, the RFBS will inform data-driven decisions around production support, trade policy, and stock management by governments, business decision-making and investment by the private sector, and food assistance by donors and emergency response organizations.

Six countries are so far involved in the pilot phase – Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania.

This initiative was in response to the lack of reliable, timely, and accurate data for food and nutrition security related decision-making in many Sub Sahara Africa countries, a situation that was exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In recognition of these data gaps and needs, COMESA Council of Ministers, in 2020 directed COMESA Secretariat, to implement a COMESA-wide RFBS initiative.

Data for the RFBS will be sourced from historic records from national governments and validated by the Food and Agricultural Organization, current season estimates from private and public data partners throughout East and Southern Africa, and both real-time and future estimates which use advanced analytics from satellite imagery and other technologies.