Annex C - Agencies and Institutions Involved in the FIVIMS Initiative

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Agencies and Institutions Involved in the FIVIMS Initiative

The Ministries and Offices undertaking FIVIMS and related activities are:

Ministry of Public Health

The MOPH consists of different departments directly generating information crucial for the FIVIMS in the country. The Nutrition Division undertakes National Nutrition Survey (every ten years), and the Nutrition Surveillance (data collection every three months with yearly publication). However, there is no consolidated database system for the nutrition data collected through these surveys, but data management and processing up to report generation is outsourced to a private firm. The Nutrition Division also implements food and nutrition intervention programs.

An important initiative of the Division is the establishment of the Nutrition Information System that could be used in the implementation of FIVIMS in the country.

The Bureau of Epidemiological Statistics generates data on communicable and non-communicable diseases.

The Health Promotion is also an important Division of MOPH, responsible in all promotion and advocacy programs of the Ministry.

The Dental Health Division undertakes dental and related programs and projects e.g. promoting flouride fortification of milk and water.

Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives

The Office of Agricultural Economics is the Focal Agency for the National FIVIMS since OAE covers agricultural statistics and set of indicators on food availability (food production and consumption based on supply) necessary for FIVIMS database as well as vulnerable.

Some other major Departments under the MOAC generating important agricultural statistics, and with FIVIMS related activities are the Departments of Agriculture, Fisheries, Agriculture Extension and the Department of Livestock Development.

National Statistical Office

The NSO, under Sec. 5 of the Statistical Act of 1965 is authorized to perform the following statistical activities: 1) compile statistics from all statistical agencies; 2) plan and conduct censuses; 4) recommend/advise other statistical agencies on the methodology, questionnaires, and other necessary documents to be used for statistical purposes; 5) conduct research on statistical techniques; 6) issue periodicals and publish statistical data; and 7) collaborate with other agencies in the compilation and analysis of statistics.

The NSO is responsible for two important surveys: the Household Socio-Economic Survey (SES), conducted every two years, and the National Population Census for demographic and housing census.

The SES represents an exceptional and exhaustive source for “FIVIMS for Thailand” for identifying food insecure and vulnerable population. The SES is collecting information on household income and household expenditures, consumption, changes in assets and liabilities, durable goods, ownership and household characteristics including information on the living condition of households. This will serve as basis for conducting food insecurity and vulnerability assessment as well as contributing to the development of Thai FIVIMS methodologies because of its main characteristics and sample design such as:

Using appropriate cluster analysis techniques will be able to classify the 46,000 sample households according to food insecurity and vulnerability typologies. Because of the large samples and wide coverage of the survey, the typologies can be statistically significant, making it possible to define how many households belong to each food insecure and vulnerable classification and able to locate them at least, at the provincial level.

Ministry of Education

Information on the primary education for children (7-15 years of age) are generated by the ONPEC, OPEC and the DGE. These Departments are mainly responsible for the provision of basic education throughout the country. Statistics related to vulnerability issues such as enrolment, drop-outs, cohort rate and other important databases are generated and maintained by the Planning Division under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Permanent Secretary.

Ministry of Interior

The Community Development Department of the MOI manages two databases: the Basic Minimum Needs (BMN) and the Village Basic Information (VBI).

The BMN contains the household profile and other related information that would give the quality of life of the household members at specific period. The data are being presented to the Life Equality Development Facilitation Board for policy-making purposes.

The VBI is a village level census conducted on a yearly basis, with a wealth of household information including access to health centers, school facilities, marketing system, education, among others.

Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University

The role of INMU as the national planning and implementation body of the Thai Government with a mission of strengthening the National Food and Nutrition Plan, the Institute plays crucial role in the establishment and implementation of the FIVIMS in the country. It is committed to provide technical assistance to the FIVIMS in general and to the National FIVIMS Committee, Technical Sub-Committee, in particular.

As part of its function in the promotion of better nutrition for all Thai population, INMU provides services in terms of training in the conduct of nutrition surveys to determine the food and nutrition situation in the country, and in the dissemination of food and nutrition information to the relevant data-users, and to the public. To date, the chairmanship of the Technical Sub-committee is at INMU.

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