AMIS is a G20 initiative launched in June 2011 by governments under the leadership of France. It provides an open global agricultural market information system whose primary function is to forecast the short-term market outlook for wheat, maize (corn), rice and soybeans. FAO is housing the Secretariat which includes seconded staff from France, the World Bank and OECD. FAO’s overall engagement with AMIS has been led by Mr Hafez Ghanem, Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Development Department. The Secretariat function is housed in EST. Abdolreza (Abby) Abbassian, EST has been appointed Secretary. No specific resources have been allocated to cover the costs of FAO’s Secretariat function. Instead, it is expected that costs will be covered by EST’s existing programme resources and cash and/or in-kind (staffing) contributions from partners (described below). 

AMIS could constitute a high-visibility and valuable global public good. It will draw heavily upon FAO expertise and information. 

Aims

• AMIS is designed to: (i) improve agricultural market information, analyses and forecasts at both national and international levels; (ii) report on abnormal international market conditions, including structural weaknesses, and strengthen global early warning capacity on these movements; (iii) collect and analyse policy information, promote dialogue and responses, and international policy coordination; and (iv) build data collection capacity in participant states.
• While AMIS participants are required to provide monthly data and relevant supporting information on production, consumption, import, export, stocks and prices for the selected commodities, the Secretariat is not obliged to use this data in creating market outlook information products. This was highlighted by EST as a significant achievement, as it will improve overall data quality.
• AMIS is modeled after the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI Oil) (2001). JODI is recognized for contributing to transparent and sustainable energy data provision.

Structure

• The Secretariat: Responsible for producing market outlooks, assessments and analyses and for supporting all functions of the Forum and the Information Group. It is formed by FAO, IFAD, IFPRI, WFP, OECD, World Bank, WTO, UNCTAD, and the UN-HLTF. The three main “drivers” in the Secretariat are FAO, OECD, and World Bank. The Chair of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is a Permanent Observer in AMIS.
• The Information Group: Provides and assesses market and policy information. It consists of technical representatives from Participant countries. It meets at least twice per year.
• The Rapid Response Forum: Promotes early discussion among decision-level officials about abnormal international market conditions to encourage coordination of policies; composed of Senior Officials from Participant countries. It meets as needed, but in principle not less than once per year.

Membership

• The Participants in AMIS are the G20 countries, Spain, as well as non-G20 countries that are approved by the Participants of AMIS on the basis of their (significant) share in global production and trade for those commodities covered by AMIS . Seven non-G20 members have been invited by the Chair to join(Egypt, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the Philippines, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam).
• AMIS is “first and above all” a G20 initiative; it was pushed heavily by France as a means to address food price volatility. It was agreed in the June 2011 meeting of G20 agriculture ministers that, given its ongoing work in food market systems, FAO would house the Secretariat. FAO led the 15-16 September inception meeting at FAO HQ that produced the AMIS Terms of Reference and Rules of Procedure.
• The three main participant “drivers” are France (elected as Chair of AMIS for one year; a French civil servant has been nominated to join the Secretariat by January 2012)); United States; and the European Union (the EU has alreadystarted publishing monthly supply/demand balances “in the spirit of AMIS”).

Donor support 

While hard commitments have not yet been received, Japan, Germany, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank and IFAD are expected to make substantial contributions to AMIS; for capacity building as well as research and analysis 

For further information please contact:

E-mail: AMIS-Secretariat@fao.org

AMIS Website (from December 2011): http://www.amis-outlook.org