Peshawar   -  The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) conducted a Baseline Validation workshop for the USA ID-funded “Livelihood and Food Security Improvement Activity” (LFSA ) project. The event aimed to validate findings for targeted project areas and align with FAO’s MEA L framework.

Key attendees included Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Secretary of Agriculture, Javed Marwat, and high-level officials from various agricultural departments. USA ID Pakistan, UNWOMEN, FAO, and farmers from Khyber and Mohmand districts also participated.

The LFSA project, in collaboration with the Government of KP, civil society, and stakeholders, supports 150,000 rural households, especially women-led ones, over four years.

Workshop sessions validated Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) findings, covering socio-economic characteristics, food security, agriculture assets, farming systems, marketing, and value addition. The MEA L framework, baseline study objectives, methodology, and sampling techniques were explained.

Marwat stressed baseline data’s importance for project implementation and highlighted FAO’s contributions to innovative interventions and policy drafting. USA ID Pakistan Deputy Director, Stephen Berlinguette, emphasized the longstanding collaboration’s significance and the LFSA project’s goal of enhancing productivity for prosperity.

Participants formed theme-based groups, sharing recommendations across sessions. The final one validated baseline findings.