Jointly organized by APAARI-GFAR-FAO-CGIAR (ICRISAT)
at ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India
7-11 December 2009
Concept
The application of advances in ICT in rural development sector is causing profound changes. The shift is noticeable in the way sharing and exchange of information and knowledge are given greater importance, rather than connectivity and device development. The trend in applying ICT in development is more oriented now towards process design and scale up and assessment, rather than technical innovations alone. Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) has not generally been active in the ICT4D paradigm and, excepting some notable innovations, the use of ICT in agricultural knowledge management and sharing has been limited to improving intra-organizational efficiencies. Communication with the larger set of stakeholders, especially those in the production part of the commodity value chain, has proceeded more along older lines, with contemporary digital technologies often playing minor roles.
With the wider availability of new generation mobile telephony in many developing countries, and with improved access to the Web and to its new platforms (Web2.0 and social networking) at the level of institutions and experts, opportunities for ARD professionals have never been greater in building new ways to share and exchange information and knowledge with a wide range of stakeholders. ARD professionals developed highly effective practices for content development and distribution using “older” technologies. With the advent of non-PC-based, multi-modal architecture for information services, the existing strengths can be blended with rapidly emerging opportunities in the digital realm to build even more effective practices for rapid development, exchange and upgradation of content and information. Thus, ARD sector, which was a relatively minor stakeholder in ICT4D, can become the leader in this paradigm as it undergoes profound changes.
The global agricultural R4D community is in the process of identifying key opportunities at re-positioning itself, in the context of re-invigorated policy commitments towards ensuring food security for all. A tangible example of such reorientation has been the emergence of the CIARD initiative, which has developed as a major advocacy movement for mobilizing public goods in ARD. In other directions, there is ever greater emphasis in linking small producers to the markets. New ICT4D practices and tools are enabling factors for the fundamental changes occurring within this re-positioning, providing new ways for national, regional, and global ARD actors to act in support of rural livelihoods and food security.
The objective of the upcoming event will be to identify and define concrete areas of action that address emerging challenges and exploit opportunities for ICT in support of ARD with ICM stakeholders playing the critical, bridge-building role. Specifically, the event will draw heavily on the outputs of the workshop held at the Science Forum in June 2009 on “ICTs transforming agricultural science, research and technology generation”. The June workshop identified trends, opportunities and challenges, and then went on to define options for future directions in investment, institutions, and innovation. The format of the event will be a blend of marketplaces, “world café” discussions, workshops, and symposia/presentations, and commissioned papers. The outputs will include a range of action agendas, identified either with existing (sectoral, thematic, and/or regional) initiatives, communities of practice and working groups or with groups that have yet to be created. The outcomes of these action agendas will be linked to major development goals in agriculture, highlighting the specific role/contribution to be made by information and communication management, bringing together all appropriate categories of actors. They will feed into the GCARD2010 process of global consultations.
Key Questions
- What new strategies and policies are needed to enhance and sustain adoption of ICM that contributes through ARD and agricultural development, especially of resource poor farmers and other actors in market and value-addition chains?
- What needs to be done to make content available, accessible, applicable, and appropriated/used effectively by at all levels and among all actors in ARD?
- How can be ICM capacities in ARD be developed sustainably across all the dimensions of enabling environment, institutions and individuals?
- How can investments be targeted effectively?
Tentative Schedule of Sessions
| Mon 7th (evening): | Opening session with “market place”: posters, prototypes on display, pitching opportunities for participants to market their prototypes/processes |
| Tue 8th | Three symposium-style sessions (2 hr) with a series of short presentations (10 min) and group discussion work, considering all the ‘Key Questions’ above and aspects of (a) information and knowledge management /delivery/ exchange, (b) capacity strengthening, and (c) advocacy. Identification of 3-5 concrete areas of intervention |
| Wed 9th |
Plenary presentations (2-3). Facilitated group work focused on developing action agendas for 3-5 discrete areas of intervention identified in previous sessions. Action agendas presented in plenary for discussion. |
| Thu 10th |
CIARD Asia Regional Consultation Workshop on nature/scope of CIARD initiative in the region. |
| Fri 11th | Meeting of GFAR-APAARI Steering Group (half day); field trip in Hyderabad for the interested. |
