ISLAMABAD   -  In order to transform Pakistan’s Food Systems to address food security challenges, the Govern­ment of Pakistan in col­laboration with the Glob­al Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Mon­day launched the “Paki­stan Subnational Food Systems Dashboard”. 

In this regard, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Ministry of National Food Security & Research (M/o NFS&R) and GAIN hosted the in­auguration ceremony of the Pakistan Subnational Food Systems Dashboard (PSFSD).

The Pakistan Subna­tional Food Systems Dashboard is built upon the global Food Systems Dashboard through col­laborative efforts be­tween GAIN, FAO, Johns Hopkins University, and the Columbia Climate School at Columbia Uni­versity. 

The event showcased the Government of Paki­stan’s high-level political ownership for strength­ening Pakistan’s food systems transforma­tion process. The event was inaugurated by Cap­tain (Retd) Muhammad Mahmood, Federal Secre­tary, Ministry of National Food Security & Research of the Food Systems Secre­tariat at PARC, which will now house the Pakistan Subnational Food Systems Dashboard (PSFSD).

The federal secretary highlighted the impor­tance of authentic data for the formulation of public polices and the programmes.

In his welcome speech, Chairman, PARC, Dr. Ghu­lam Muhammad Ali ap­prised the efforts of all stakeholders and de­velopment partners es­pecially GAIN, FAO and WFP for their contribu­tion in developing this prototype Subnational Food System Dashboard. 

Country Director GAIN, Farrah Naz highlighted the importance of data and ensured GAIN sup­port in future policy re­view and formulation.

Country leadership from FAO, WFP, and GAIN provided technical in­sights on Pakistan’s re­search gap and data col­lection challenges, and the opportunities ahead for transformative poli­cymaking which enhanc­es food security, builds climate resilience, and brings economic pros­perity. 

The Pakistan Subna­tional Food Systems Dashboard holds the potential to track the progress and account­ability of action plans that support food sys­tems transformation, support policymakers in strengthening the country’s policy land­scape, and ultimately benefit people at risk of hunger, malnutrition, economic and climate shocks, and environ­mental degradation.