|
Participants felt that a more holistic global partnership was required to bring together the existing range of initiatives into a more cohesive alliance that would increase the chances of enhancing information management in agricultural science and technology, although the partnership should not take the form of a new organization. Such a partnership should have a clear identity, while being informal, strongly action-oriented, and supported by the application of significant resources by the partners. It should fulfil the expectations of the partners as outlined above, as well as address those issues identified as high priority by the partners.
It was agreed that the accumulated experiences of previous initiatives such as AGRIS and “ICM4ARD” should be fully incorporated. A clear need was also identified to develop cross linkages between thematic networks for information management in subject-oriented communities (e.g. forestry, fisheries etc).
In terms of governance of the partnership, a Steering Group lead by one or more of the convening organization(s) was felt to offer an acceptable mix of leadership and informality. The membership of the Steering Group would need to be determined. Responsibility for activities would then be attributed to specific interest groups, or Task Forces, of organizations within the partnership, which would develop communities of practices supported by electronic fora, and foster active communication to reach agreement and resolve any areas of disagreement. Initially at least, groups were foreseen for “Advocacy”, “Capacity building”, “Content Management”, with the potential for a group on “Evaluation”. Regular meetings should be organized to discuss strategic and operational issues related to the groups’ work plans and outputs. The overall initiative would benefit from a portal website providing a gateway to the various resources and a repository for case studies of experiences at regional and national level.
Participants nominated their organizations for involvement in the initial three Task Forces to be established in the follow-up to the Consultation as in the table below. Those organizations that agreed to take a coordination role in each Task Force have been identified with an asterisk.
-
Advocacy
|
Capacity Building
|
Content
|
ASARECA
CABI
CARDI
CGIAR
CTA
DFID
FAO*
FORAGRO
GFAR*
IAALD
|
AgroWEB
ASARECA
CTA
Cirad
CGIAR*
DFID
FAO*
FORAGRO
IICA
INASP
ITOCA
|
ASARECA
CABI
CGIAR*
CLAES
FAO*
FORAGRO
IAC
IICA
NAL/AGNIC
ZADI
|
Three virtual workspaces would be convened by FAO and GFAR for the Task Forces to enable participants of the Expert Consultation to contribute to further development of the outputs of the working groups. The Task Forces would look firstly to develop consensus on the actions to be taken, then to assign responsibility for their implementation, and to monitor and report on outputs and outcomes.
Annex 1 Background Documents and other Materials Distributed
-
Second Consultation on Agricultural Information Management. AGRIS – A Strategy for an international network for information in agricultural sciences and technology within the WAICENT framework. FAO, Rome, Italy. 2002.
-
Report of the Discussions on the New AGRIS Strategy. FAO, Rome, Italy. 2003.
-
Addendum to Report of the Discussions on the New AGRIS Strategy. FAO, Rome, Italy. 2005.
-
GLOBal ALliance of the Regional Agricultural Information Systems (GLOBAL.RAIS) Inter-Regional Workshop: Towards a Global Agenda for ICM in ARD, Proceedings. Global Forum on Agricultural Research, Rome, Italy. 2004.
-
Furthering the Sharing and Exchanging Agricultural Research and Development Information: A GLOBal.RAIS Proposal. Global Forum on Agricultural Research, Rome, Italy. 2005.
-
Evaluation of Agricultural Research Information System managing data on Institutions, Experts, Activities, and Research Outputs: Executive Summary. Global Forum on Agricultural Research, Rome, Italy. 2005.
-
Fertile Ground: Opportunities for greater coherence in agricultural information systems. H. Besemer, C. Addison, Ferguson. Research Report No. 19. International Institute for Communication and Development, The Hague, Netherlands. 2003.
-
Coherence in Agricultural Information: Report of an expert workshop held on 19-20, 2005 in Lexington, KY, USA. FAO, Rome, Italy. 2005.
-
Report of the FAO Expert Consultation on Mechanisms for Documenting and Disseminating Outputs of Agricultural Research in Sub-Saharan Africa, 12-14 May 2004. FAO, Rome, Italy. 2004.
Annex 2 List of Participants
Mr. Chris Addison
Communiq.org
Square de Meeus 22b
Brussels
BELGIUM
e-mail: chris@communiq.org
|
Track 1
|
Ms. Luz Marina Alvare
Head Librarian
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
2033 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006-1002
USA
e-mail: l.alvare@cgiar.org
|
Track 1
|
Mr. Thomas Baker
University of Gottingen
Georg-August-Universität
Wilhelmsplatz 1 (Aula)
37073 Göttingen
Germany
e-mail: tbaker@tbaker.de
|
Track 2
|
Mr. Koen Beelen
International Agricultural Centre (IAC)
P.O. Box 88
NL 6700 AB Wageningen
Netherlands
e-mail: Koen.Beelen@wur.nl
|
Track 1
|
Mr. Marc Bernard
Information Centre for Biological Diversity (ZADI)
Villichgasse 17
53177 Bonn
Germany
e-mail: mbe@zadi.de
|
Track 2
|
Mr. Hugo Besemer
Bircim
Bredeweg 17
6668 AR Randwijk
The Netherlands
e-mail: hugo@besemer.org
|
Track 2
|
Mr. Chun Chang
Scientech Documentation and Information Center (SDIC)
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)
12 Zhongguancun South Street
Beijing 100081
China
e-mail: changc@mail.caas.net.cn
|
Track 2
|
Mr. Jayanta Chatterjee
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Kanpur 208016
India
e-mail: jayanta@iitk.ac.in
|
Track 2
|
Mr. Gracian Chimwaza
Information Training and Outreach Center for Africa - ITOCA
11 Churchill Rd
Alexandra Park
Harare
Zimbabwe
e-mail: gracian@cyberplexafrica.com
|
Track 1
|
Mr. J. Chisenga
FAO Regional Office for Africa
FAO Building
Gamel Abdul Nasser Road
PO Box 1628
Accra
GHANA
e-mail: justin.chisenga@fao.org
|
Track 1
|
Ms. Laura Coto Royo
Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA)/Tropical Agricultural Research and Education Center (CATIE)
Turrialba
Costa Rica
e-mail: lcotor@catie.ac.cr
|
Track 2
|
Ms. Marie Claude Deboin
Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Cirad )
Avenue Agropolis, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5
France
e-mail: marie-claude.deboin@cirad.fr
|
Track 2
|
Ms. Claudette DeFreitas
Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI)
P.O. Bag 212, UWI Campus,
St Augustine
Trinidad & Tobago
e-mail: dfreitas@tstt.net.tt
|
Track 1
|
Mr. M. Demes
FAO Sub-Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe
Benczur utca 34
1068 Budapest
HUNGARY
e-mail: michal.demes@fao.org
|
Track 1
|
Ms. Elizabeth Dodsworth
CAB International
Nosworthy Way
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
OX10 8DE
United Kingdom
e-mail: e.dodsworth@cabi.org
|
Track 1
|
Mr Thierry Doudet
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)
Postbus 380
6700 AJ Wageningen
Netherlands
e-mail: doudet@cta.nl
|
Track 1
|
Mr. Clement Entsua-Mensah
|
Share with your friends: |
