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...
This news item was first published in FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia Climate change adaptation and mitigation, rapid urbanization, increasing natural disasters, migration issues and unresolved humanitarian conflicts... how can digital technologies, data, related policies and legislation help address these complex challenges that today’s world is facing? More than 200 experts from 21 countries and 12 international organizations will meet starting today in Vrdnik, Serbia, to discuss this question and its particular relevance for the region at a conference titled “ Digitally...
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...
DIGITAL INNOVATION DIALOGUE: Session 4 - Digital Transformation and Gender Equality Digital Innovation Dialogue was launched in early 2019 by the FAO IT Division (CIO) to serve as a forum for increasing and exchanging knowledge between industry experts and FAO staff actively working on digital innovation projects or new technologies with the ultimate aim of transforming small-scale successes into large-scale digital services. Multidisciplinary innovation frontrunners and practitioners are coming together to exchange ideas, knowledge and experience through open and informal discussions. So far...
23 September 2019, New York and Rome - Putting the world's eyes in the skies to work to improve human lives and combat climate change is now easier thanks to an overhaul of the Food and Agriculture Organization' innovative geospatial monitoring system. A new version of SEPAL - System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring - has been developed that enables advanced forest monitoring from mobile phones. It also provides access to high-resolution data updated daily by a fleet of more than 190 satellites run by Planet , an integrated aerospace and data...
Background Today, there are more than 7 billion people on the planet, a figure that is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Overall food production needs to double in a relatively short period of time to meet food demand of the world's population. It is therefore an imperative for the different agricultural stakeholders to revolutionize the traditional agriculture. On 19 January 2019, Agriculture ministers from 74 nations adopted a number of resolutions stated in a political communiqué on digitalization in agriculture, which was issued during the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA...
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations together with the Pan African Farmers’ Organisation (PAFO) are pleased to call for applications for a new online course “Farm Data Management, Sharing and Services for Agriculture Development”. There is an exponential growth in data accompanying the digitalisation of agriculture through the proliferation of mobile technology, remote sensing technologies and distributed computing capabilities among others. The effective management of this data will open up new...
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...
The International Telecommunication Union in conjunction with partners is holding the ITU Telecom World ’19 , in Budapest, Hungary from the 9th to the 12th of September 2019. The theme of this edition is ‘ Innovating together: connectivity that matters ’ and brings a cross spectrum of participants from governments, private sector, practitioner and academia. The 5 day events will see dynamic sessions, parallel sessions, interviews, ITU Telecom Awards and the exhibition . FAO is supporting three sessions during this week. These are Wednesday, 10 September 2019 Theme: Developing Digital...
The joint ITU-FAO session will will take place on 11 September 2019 at 11.00h. This session will be held within the framework of the ITU Regional Initiative for Europe on ICT-centric innovation ecosystems that aims at establishing a sustainable culture of innovation through concrete strategic...
The joint ITU-FAO session will will take place on 11 September 2019 at 11.00h. This session will be held within the framework of the ITU Regional Initiative for Europe on ICT-centric innovation ecosystems that aims at establishing a sustainable culture of innovation through concrete strategic...