The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) invite you to the ‘"e-Consultation on digital agriculture investments and digital transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa"
The e-Consultation will take place on the e-Agriculture platform from the 27th of October 2020 to the 9th of November 2020.
In an era of digital inclusion, Africa stands to gain exponentially from the adoption of digital technologies towards the realization of SDGs. In the agriculture sector, digital technologies are opening great opportunities to develop solutions and digital market places to connect farmers to markets, improve extension service delivery and productivity in agricultural value chains. Also, the adoption of digital technologies can create alternative livelihood streams for the youth, women and smallholder farmers with commercial opportunities that increase their income and the development of rural areas in general.
To achieve that, collaboration between the Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and agriculture sectors is critical to formulate a common vision and action plan for the use of ICT in agriculture and to create synergies between the two sectors through policies and initiatives.
As evident, the Malabo Declaration, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), and the African Union’s current Agenda 2063 confirm consolidated efforts to reduce poverty and improve the well-being of Africans whilst leveraging ICTs and digital solutions.
Against this background, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) are jointly set to undertake several investments in different aspects of digital agriculture and digitalization in their respective member countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen country capacities for innovation, enhance policies and practice, and provide supportive investments in the form of infrastructure and services relevant for this transition.
To guide investment decision-making, a digital agriculture readiness assessment study was commissioned as a baseline study to better understand the state of digitalization and digital agriculture in their respective focal countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. As part of this study, FAO and ITU would like to open up the consultation to a wide range of stakeholders or experts with insight on Sub-Saharan African country contexts.
This stakeholder consultative process forms part of data collection and stakeholder engagement initiatives and aims to:
The scope of the African countries for this e-consultation will be FAO/ITU countries for Africa Region. For a full list of these countries, please consult the FAO Africa countries or the ITU Africa countries.
Q4. What specific interventions/programmes (hackathons, bootcamps, etc) have been implemented by government or the private sector to enhance digital skills and innovative capacities especially of the youth in rural areas in a particular country? Please share links to reference materials where possible.
French Version
Q4. Quelles interventions / programmes spécifiques (hackathons, bootcamps, etc.) ont été mis en œuvre par le gouvernement ou le secteur privé pour améliorer les compétences numériques et les capacités d'innovation, en particulier des jeunes des zones rurales d'un pays donné? Veuillez partager des liens vers des documents de référence lorsque cela est possible.
