The study entitled Arab Horizon 2030: Digital Technologies for Development is a central part of ESCWA efforts to promote radical policy changes towards utilizing digital technologies for sustainable development in Arab countries. It sets out proposals and recommendations for harnessing these technologies for social, economic and human development opportunities. The following seven thematic policy areas relevant to digital technologies are identified: digital strategies; information and communication technology (ICT) sector; ICT infrastructure; cybersecurity; the digital divide; e-applications...
The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world...
By Günther Feiler , Capacity Development Officer, FAO Rome, and Thomas Muenzel , Investment Support Officer, FAO Bangkok ( The article was originally published by the ICTworks and we reproduce for our community. All rights acknowledged) Experience has shown that substantial public investments in agricultural production, transport and storage infrastructure, combined with private on-farm investment are essential for promoting pro-poor economic growth, bringing people out of poverty and ending food insecurity and malnutrition. The FAO State of Food and Agriculture Report in 2012 found that the...
ITU has just announced 90 Champions of the WSIS Prizes contest. From the announced 90, 18 projects will be selected to be Winners will be awarded for each of the 18 categories of the WSIS prizes. The submission phase opened on the 2nd of July 2018 to the 5th of December 2018 and 1,149 submissions were received (of which 1062 were found exceptional and were nominated for the WSIS Prizes 2019). Champion Projects under Action Line C7 E-agriculture The Action Line C7 (E-agriculture) is jointly facilitated by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International...
In sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers are vulnerable to risks associated with changing weather patterns. In Uganda, the SUM-Africa project provides satellite based drought Index Insurance to protect farmers. The SUM-Africa project is supported by the G4AW program of Netherlands Space Office (NSO) and recently a Dutch Company (EARS) signed a long term contract with Uganda Agro Insurance Consortium (AIC) to continue this service. What are agricultural index insurance? Agricultural index insurance products are linked to an index, such as temperature, rainfall, crop yield or...
Since 2014, GFIA has helped over 25,000 farmers, growers and agribusinesses find innovations in sustainable agriculture. Now in its 6th edition, GFIA is one of the best attended agriculture events in the Middle East and the only one dedicated to sustainable agtech. 2019 Conference Theme : AI for...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have recently published a title called, ‘ Blockchain for Agriculture, Opportunities and Challenges ’ as part of the E-Agriculture in Action series publications. This is part of the collaboration of working together of the two UN Agencies to work together to promote the use of sustainable information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agriculture. The focus of the publication is on blockchain technology in agriculture. The aim of the book is to demystify the technology,...
The Secretariat of the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation has shared the Digital Cooperation Survey to interested persons to gather views on how to improve digital cooperation across sectors and regions. The surveys comes after the widespread use of digital technologies across regions and disciplines. The preamble acknowledges that ‘digital technologies have enabled profound changes in societies around the world, empowering people, allowing them to communicate cheaply, and spurring new businesses’. The survey calls participation from, individuals, governments, the private sector, civil...
The agricultural ministers of 74 nations who attended the just ended the 11th Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference, held during the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture issued a communique that affirms support to farmers through digital innovation. The statement acknowledge the projected increase in world’s population amidst the current hunger level of, over 821 million 9 people in the world who are suffering from hunger. The ministers called for digitalization in agriculture, innovation and smart solutions in increasing agricultural production and commitment to the goals of the 2030...
The Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN), invites interested person to join the webinar on 23rd January 2019. They published the following details To register Click this link https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4323913435173576193 About the webinar Blockchain has the potential to provide answers to a number of issues in agriculture, from farmer IDs to smart contracts, from traceability and improving certification, digital payments, insurance, consumer feedback and improved logistics. For example, to improve traceability in agriculture value chains, a decentralized...
The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW63) will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019. Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world...
Since 2014, GFIA has helped over 25,000 farmers, growers and agribusinesses find innovations in sustainable agriculture. Now in its 6th edition, GFIA is one of the best attended agriculture events in the Middle East and the only one dedicated to sustainable agtech. 2019 Conference Theme : AI for...
