AgInfo News: CIARD research accessibility news

Stephen Rudgard of FAO recently shared some information on the CIARD initiative.

Regional Workshop with AARINENA: AARINENA called a regional workshop of information specialists from national agricultural research services in its member countries, which was held in Cairo in May 2009. One day of this workshop was allocated to introducing and discussing the CIARD agenda with the colleagues from national institutions, with facilitation provided by Ajit Maru of GFAR, Nihad Maliha of ICARDA/CGIAR, and Stephen Rudgard of FAO.

CIARD Pathways: In addition to the Manifesto and Principles, now published on the CIARD website, a CIARD Checklist and set of Pathways are being developed. The Pathways are being identified and drafted by a joint working group comprising the CIARD Content Management Task Force and an ad-hoc group comprising representatives of some of the members of the Advocacy Task Force. Good progress has been made to date, with around half of the pathways available at least in draft form. A small "writeshop" was convened in late May at the headquarters of Bioversity International in Rome, bringing together a few of the people involved in the drafting exercise. In due course, an area of the website will be opened where the Checklist and Pathways will be available for comment and input, and we will inform you of this as and when appropriate.

Capacity Building in CIARD: In association with the IMARK Steering Group held recently at CTA headquarters, a short impromptu meeting was organized with some of the CIARD partners to have an initial discussion on the role and justification of a CIARD Capacity Building Task Force (CBTF), which has long been foreseen but not yet activated.