Accessing agricultural research information for development

The 2nd Expert Consultation on International Information Systems for Agricultural Science and Technology (IISAST) was held on 23 – 24 September 2007 in FAO, Rome, and organized by seven organizations CGIAR, CTA, DFID (UK), FAO, GFAR, IAALD, and MAE (France).

In January 2008, IAALD joined the other partners at the subsequent planning meeting of the initiative to examine ways forward. The partners agreed that a 'manifesto' would be highly beneficial for the initiative, in terms of laying out the substantive agenda that was being addressed. This could act as a common declaration at a global level on collaboration and consistency between various organizations building, supporting, and maintaining information systems in agricultural research for development.

After considerable discussion, it was also agreed that the initiative should henceforward be known as: 'Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development' – CIARD rather than IISAST. The manifesto is being drafted and will be launched later this year.

Download the report of the consultation (pdf); see more consultations organized by FAO.

Tags: agricultural information research fao

Experts discuss international information systems for agricultural science and technology

In October 2005, FAO and partners convened the first 'Expert Consultation on International Information Systems for Agricultural Science and Technology.' The participants initiated three collaborative task forces: Advocacy (policy level issues), Content Management (standards and services issues), and Capacity Building.

To assess progress of these Task Forces and to determine next steps as well as gain input from national-level agricultural research organizations, a 2nd IISAST Expert Consultation was held 23-24 September in Rome as part of e-agriculture week.

The first day included case studies from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Peru, and Thailand. Discussion points included the need to address national ICT policies and advocacy as well as agricultural policies, problems with high turnover of decision-makers, need to build on existing institutions (i.e. libraries), lack of local content, incentives for researchers to submit content, need to follow common standards, more coordination among donors, and limited human and infrastructure resources. On the 2nd day, reports from the Task Forces were presented that outlined progress made and potential opportunities for the future.

Based on this combined input, participants met in working groups to discuss lessons learned, to identify needed products and services, and to determine next steps for Task Forces. Included in the recommendations were short term priorities including the initiation of a coordinating body for IISAST, the development of terms of reference for the three existing Task Forces and securing additional participation, establishing a repository of case studies, strengthening communication both internally within the Task Forces and externally to all stakeholders, and developing a “Starter Kit” of open source software. Longer term priorities include creating a monitoring and evaluation program.

contributed by Barbara Hutchinson

Some photos from the meeting; report of the consultation (pdf)

Tags: agricultural information research fao

FAO convenes expert consultation on international information systems for agriculture

From 19 to 21 October 2005, FAO joined with the CGIAR, CTA, GFAR and INASP in organising an Expert Consultation on 'International Information Systems for Agricultural Science and Technology: Review of Progress and Prospects.' The goal of the meeting was to "develop coherence in international information systems for agricultural science and technology." The consultation is linked to an FAO-led coherence in agricultural information initiative.

Participants explored the global agricultural information management scene, investigating strengths and weaknesses of national, regional and international information networks. The metaphor of an onion was used to characterize the various networks - with a network's goals, strategies, and outcomes at the centre of the onion. The central core was surrounded by areas like partnerships, infrastructure, content, and capacity building; the outer skin of this network onion comprised advocacy.

Participants discussed the issues of the meeting in two tracks - the first dealt with 'institutional' issues like advocacy, capacity building and content. The second track looked at more technical issues and came up with actions related to distributed semantic searching across open archives, inventories of community directories and databases, collaboration in making news and events information more accessible and work on multilingual agricultural subject vocabularies.

In the final session, participating organisations committed themselves to contribute to actions on advocacy, capacity building, and content.

Tags: agricultural information