E-Agriculture

Question 4

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Towards the establishment of a Digital Council for Food and Agriculture

Question 4

Question 4. What governance structure should be in place in order for the Council to serve its purpose? According to you, do you think the proposed governance scenario is politically feasible?

Proposed information for the concept note – The proposed governance scenarioThe proposed operating model and governance structure of the council should be flexible in nature to evolve with new and emerging needs. It should also heed the lessons learned from others, and it must be designed to meet the established guiding principles.

The proposed model consists of four main operational units: 1) Executive Council; 2) Advisory Committee; 3) Secretariat; and 4) Working Groups. Each unit is described in detail below.

a) Executive Council - is an expert group that will have the ultimate decision-making authority of the Digital Council and will steer its overall efforts. It will include a balanced representation of critical mid- to senior-level voices for digital agriculture, including representatives from government institutions (varying by region), the private sector, academia/research, donors providing financing in support of the council, and members from civil society. Members will be nominated by the region’s constituent governments, according to the rules and regulations adopted for representation within FAO’s existing organs. Based on those norms, there will be a total of 21 delegates, valid for two years and every member can be elected twice. 

b) The Advisory Committee - is the organ of the Digital Council that guarantees the involvement of International Organizations and helps to avoid the duplication of efforts and strategies within the broader digital agriculture development ecosystem. It is responsible for providing the Digital Council with nonbinding strategic suggestion and will largely operate in a consultative matter. In that role, it is expected that the Advisory Committee meet bi-annually, once in-person alongside the Executive Council, and either virtually or in person for the other meeting, based on the decision of the Chair of the Advisory Committee. 

c) Secretariat - is a lean unit that provides high-quality and efficient operational and administrative services to the council. It manages the administrative and budgetary planning of the council. It also monitors the activities of the Working Groups, making sure that they execute the plans decided by the council within appropriate time frames and with a high level of efficacy and quality. 

d) The Working Groups - are task forces created to execute the council’s specific decisions. While specific roles will be decided by the Executive Council and informed by the Advisory Committee and Secretariat lead, illustrative roles could include: 

  1. Gather evidence about the problem/need the Group was created for and design a solution. The proposed solutions shall be designed to be scalable to the greatest extent allowed by the specific situation and must be based on high-quality evidence. If the council acts on building the knowledge hub, that hub will host any of the solutions that are generated. 
  2. Develop an action plan to realize the solution and enables the start of the projects. 
  3. The Working Groups can study the best way to bring the designed solutions to reality, within the shortest possible time and at the lowest costs. 

Meanwhile, a monitoring and evaluation organism is set up to help set baselines as well as monitor progress. 

Further guiding questions related to Q4 for your consideration: 

  • Do you have any suggestions in terms of the key elements to make the governance scenario more effective? 
  •  Apart from this model, do you have other preferred models? 

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Fostina Mani
Fostina ManiBetta GrainsKenya

All Ministers of Agricultural, Trade, and Other Related ministries should be part of the council, and should be held responsible by their Government or Presidents in ensuring that all countries implement whatever discussions are reached by the Council, so we don’t have some countries ahead of others.  The Internet has made the world one global market, we need to ensure that we are all on the same page especially with regard to food production and agricultural markets.  From the governance structure above it is not clear how that will happen.  There is need for  more clarity on the nature and the role of the working group.  What will their be doing, what will their represenation look like etc.

Saripalli suryanarayana
Saripalli suryanarayanaProfessional Engineer-Administrator-40 years experience-water,irrigation and infrastructure Projects conceptulationIndia

Technologies are changing.The secretariat has to have the input knowledge and contineous traing to the on going technologies innvation.

Imperative to know the nitrogen mix up in nature,methane release from various human and animal activities  as well from constant soaking of the roots of rice plants[constant water in paddy production fields] and carbon emissions from the cut crop of paddy etc.

Emmanuel Nwite
Emmanuel NwiteNational agricultural Seeds CouncilNigeria

The governance structure is politically feasible but I want to suggest that the 21 members of the executive council should not all be nominated by region's constituent government because they may nominate people who don't have interest or politicize it.The digital council should include participated individuals in the consultancy forum from each countries expect in a case where no body participated, the region government can now appoint people of their choice.

Sangya Kaphle
Sangya KaphleFAOItaly

 

When we are talking about open data, open source, open APIs, and closing the digital divide, it is important to also consider open governance structures as an alternative.

 The proposed structure is very Top Down and Top Heavy. The Executive Council who  "ultimately decides" everything is far removed from working groups, implementation, monitoring, and avisory aspects and their accountability stucture is not presented. It looks like an old political model, which is not the norm in the digital sector lead by global public agencies.

Alternative structures formed around participatory and open governance models have been endorsed by multiple UN and partner agencies (including FAO) in the Digital Principles. They are prefered by UN Innovation Network, Open Goverment Partnerships (74 National Governments, and 20 local governments are members), Transparancy International have delivered important results in countries as well as globally. Open Governance models are critical and feasible for this council since it aims for digital transformation also at the grassroots. An executive council, removed from practice, ultimately making decisions, with a pre-dermined number of seats (21) is not going to create this transformation and looks to be motivated by political reasons rather than needs, evidence and results.

Key pillars for open governance have already been identified and have also been implemented  (e.g. colaboration, participation, transparancy, accountability) and are gaining traction in countries. A Secretariate, Community Interest Groups, Technology Interest Groups, Peer-support groups, and Working groups with independant reporting structures is an alternative model. Ultimately decisions should rest with Data, Evidence, and Results shared and discussed with transparancy, including with those who are more vulnerable and are affected the most by these policies.

I would like to suggest an open governance structure as an alternative.

 

David Dion
David DionFAOTunisia

I agree with this comment and would suggest that alternative governance structures from the fields of Information Technology and computer science be examined for applicability.  I think it is also important to seek the involvement and participation of the beneficiaries on the ground in the countries that will be affected.  Concrete support should be given to the creation and maintenance of national-level councils that can act as a bridge between this international council and the public and private sector actors within the countries. It is crucial to have local buy-in as early as possible and the proposed structure does not appear to address this requirement.

Gullapalli Koteswara Rao
Gullapalli Koteswara Raoviswamatha farmsIndia
  • Success stories on digital agriculture  around the developing countries to be filmed and shown to small and marginal farmers to adopt and scale up the digital agriculture.
  • The above suggestion may be included in working group.
Guillermo Martinez
Guillermo MartinezCentro de Investigación en Ciencias de Información Geoespacial, A.C.Mexico

Yes. Structure and duties look fine. The important thing about it is linked to question 2, considering that the people conforming it should be inclusive, neutral, accessible, autonomous, efficient, ethical and some other more.