As published on fao.org 5 May 2020, Rome – Ensuring people have access to food by keeping borders open for trade is critical during this period of COVID-19 and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals , FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, said today during the first meeting of the Task Force on the impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition in Africa. The meeting - co-convened by Qu and Angela Thoko Didiza, Minister for Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development of South Africa and Chair of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water...
FAO's e-agriculture platform promotes dialogue and innovation in agriculture, now hosts China's 2019-25 development plan Technology has a growing role in agriculture. 7 February 2020, Rome - FAO today welcomes the sharing of China's digital agriculture plan on its e-agriculture platform. This contribution comes on the heels of the latest Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA), where agriculture ministers of 71 nations welcomed the advancement in creating an International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture. China's Development Plan for Digital Agriculture and Rural Areas (2019-2025...
FAO Director-General hails agreement to establish the international body to promote digital technologies for sustainable agriculture and food security As published on FAO News , and re-shared for the benefits of e-Agriculture users 18 January 2020, Berlin - The Global Forum for Food and Agriculture ( GFFA ) drew to a close today with the agriculture ministers of 71 nations, thanking FAO and the other International Organisations for developing a concept for the establishment of an International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture, as requested in the 2019 GFFA Final Communiqué. They...
The African Development Bank and Microsoft have launched the ‘Coding for Employment’ digital training platform, an online tool to provide digital skills to African youth, wherever they are across the continent. The platform teaches technical courses like web development, design, data science and digital marketing, and will be constantly adapted to respond to market demand. The following resources are included Microsoft Digital Literacy 2019 Work with Computers Access Information Online Communicate Online Participate Safely and Responsibly Online Create Digital Content Collaborate and Manage...
CFS delegates attend the side event for the establishment of the digital council Rome. 18 October 2019. The Food and Agriculture Organization hosted and led a multi-stakeholder consultation on the establishment of the International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture in a side event of the Committee of Food Security currently underway in Rome, Italy. The consultation is a follow-up of the mandate given to FAO (through the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) Communique ) to draw up in consultation with stakeholders a concept note for the establishment of an International Digital...
17 October. Rome . As a part of FAO’s work in transforming National Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services System (EAS), FAO’s Research and Extension Unit wishes to start a webinar series to raise awareness on various challenges and opportunities related to strengthening and reforming EAS. EAS are undergoing a deep transformation due to the changing environment and context in which they operate. The previous top-down approach where EAS would simply transfer the technology to producers, can no longer address modern challenges. It appears to be clear that EAS will - effectively support...
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes the importance of gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls ( SDG 5 ). There is a need to leverage information and communication technologies (ICTs) to empower women and also for the achievement of all SDG Goals. The linkages between Gender and ICTs, and how FAO seeks to mainstream gender in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for agriculture and rural development were explored in a recent publication. However, the role of digital transformation and gender equality deserves further discussion within the...
The INNOVATION Quartely Update (2019 #3) has been released! The update provides an overview of highlights from the innovation activities of UN organisations affiliated with the UN innovation Network.There are very exciting news from the UN Community, below we review a few selection of the innovations The UN Innovation Network (UNIN) is an informal, collaborative community of UN innovators interested in sharing their expertise and experience with others to promote and advance innovation within the UN System. The UNIN is open to innovators from all UN Agencies as well as external partners and...
Geospatial technology is an important topic for all FAO staff across all technical areas because it now plays a fundamental role in supporting sustainable and climate resilient agricultural practices to ensure food security. This two part workshop was organised under the Digital Innovation Dialogues an initiative by FAO CIO Division to increase FAO staff knowledge and capacity and support them in fulfilling their mandates. The workshop (s) was held on the 17th of September 2019, in FAO HQ in Rome, Italy. In her opening address, Ms. Meng Zeng, FAOs Information Technology Officer, noted that...