FAM Early Warning Systems Network Pillar 2: Learning and Data Hub FEWS NET Collaboration Meeting on Information Flow and Coordination Report of the July 15, 2021 Meeting

The meeting brought together 21 participants representing the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the FEWS NET Early Warning (EW) team, the Learning and Data Hub (Hub) team, and the Science team, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The Joint Annual Work Planning (JAWP) session began with updates on collaborative work under the Implementation Year Two (IY2) work plan. The EW team and Science teams reported progress to date, with a focus on thematic areas such as routine reporting, data, and process and visualization automation. The team also discussed additional activities, including workshops and collaboration on communications and outreach. A key discussion point was the sharing of FEWS NET's Food Security Phase Classification data within the Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) multi-partner initiative. USAID and the EW team agreed that access to FEWS NET historical and georeferenced data would support analyses by all IPC members. The discussion also touched on options for joint use of remote sensing data combined with socio-economic and agricultural holdings in the FEWS NET Data Warehouse (FDW). The Science team proposed investigating the combination of crop production data with remote sensing data to produce new data products based on standardized geographic areas. New cloud technologies for data analysis and visualization offer opportunities to merge environmental and socio-economic data in new ways and at new scales. To close the discussion on JAWP activities, the EW team proposed regional workshops as part of the joint planning exercise. The workshops would cover the regions of Central Asia, Southern Africa, and West Africa & Latin America. The EW team will draft an agenda for review. The Joint Annual Work Planning schedule includes: 1. July 15th - Collaboration Meeting on Joint Work Planning 2. July 23rd - USAID receives draft work plans from IPs 3. July 30th - USAID distributes highlighted draft work plans to all IPs for review 4. August - Bilateral Meetings and/or joint work planning workshops 5. August - Three One-Day Regional Workshops 6. September 15th - Work plans submitted for USAID review 7. September 16th - Collaboration Meeting - Work Plan Presentation The Country Case Study (CCS) was presented by the Hub and EW team, focusing on improving the quality and efficiency of field office management, analysis, and reporting. The CCS conducted an in-depth review of these processes in a single country (Zimbabwe) to identify potential improvements that could be applied across a wide range of field offices. The objectives of the CCS were to improve the quality and efficiency of field office management, analysis, and reporting. The CCS identified potential improvements, including automated currency conversion, workbook linkages, and additional products and domains in the FDW. The Hub extended the capability of "flexible domains" to support "as-is" data storage, reducing the complexity and effort required to store data. The CCS also identified the need for easy-to-produce visualizations with a consistent look and feel across a wide range of data. The Hub recommended identifying two platforms for routine visualizations: one for development and support by the Hub using modern data programming environments, and another for user-focused reporting tools. The FEWS NET Collaboration Meeting on Joint Work Planning highlighted the importance of collaboration and coordination among the FEWS NET teams, including the EW team, the Hub team, and the Science team. The meeting also emphasized the need for effective data sharing and data sharing platforms, such as the FEWS NET Data Warehouse (FDW).