Cross-posted from the Food Security Portal Food for Thought blog
Effective policymaking relies on sound knowledge. Knowing what works and what doesn’t, who the target population is and what they need, and what the situation is really like “on the ground” is crucial to ensuring that policies and programs have the desired impacts. But all too often, critical information is out of date, difficult to locate and access, or even nonexistent.
Since its inception in 2010, the Food Security Portal has aimed to fill these gaps in knowledge about food prices and food security by bringing the most up-to-date data, news, and research together in one place. Now IFPRI is proud to release an updated Food Security Portal designed to make the site’s global, regional, and country-level food security resources even more easily accessible and shareable.
The redesigned Portal features a new homepage layout that puts the latest global commodity price data right at users’ fingertips. The new Price Watch feature provides an instant overview of the volatility status of five major commodity prices from the Excessive Food Price Variability Early Warning System, as well as monthly and weekly global commodity prices and daily futures prices. The feature also links to the major international early warning systems, FEWS NET and FAO GIEWS, providing fast access to food security alerts and emergency information. From the homepage, users can also directly access the Food Security Media Analysis System and the full collection of the Portal’s datasets from the Data API.
Improvements to the Commodities section mean that users can instantly view a wider range of data, comparing global commodity prices dating back a full year. Data on the individual commodities pages has also been expanded to allow users to search a six-month range of country-level price data. And thanks to improved navigation on the Data API, users can now easily switch from one dataset to another.
The updated Portal is also expanding its reach through translation and social media features. Users can now view the Portal in multiple languages, receive automatic blog updates, and easily share content and follow the Portal’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
By gathering the latest information and making it accessible from one central location, the Food Security Portal continues to play an important part in the global food security conversation. The information and resources provided by the Portal can help policymakers prepare for and respond to the changing global food system.
