Background Young people are driving innovation in agri-food systems and have a key role to play in achieving global food security and nutrition. The current crisis has brought both new challenges and opportunities for young innovators working to transform the sector. Paramount to ensuring that young people and their transformative ideas thrive is the ability of governments and partners to deliver an enabling environment and the business and technical support they need to grow. The Zoominar will address the following questions: How have young ag-tech innovators been affected by the crisis? How...
The EvalForward posted a blog discussing evaluation in the age of big data and exploring opportunities in agriculture and food security. Evaluators working in the areas of food and agriculture are constantly seeking creative ways to produce credible evaluation findings and recommendations while working under one or more of these constraints. Big data and data science can make a difference. The potential of big data technologies is especially evident in the current pandemic context. The blog sets out various challenges that are facing evaluators today and further explains how big data and data...
The COVID-19 outbreak has created extreme vulnerability in the agriculture sector, impacting farmer livelihoods and resilience, food security, and agricultural market systems. Current disruptions—such as COVID-19—and future crises are presenting threats to the food supply chain. Because of this,...
USAID has released its first-ever Digital Strategy , charting an Agency-wide vision for development and humanitarian assistance in the world’s rapidly evolving digital landscape. Building on decades of leadership in digital development, the Strategy outlines USAID’s deliberate and holistic commitment to strengthen open, inclusive, and secure digital ecosystems in each country in which we work. These digital ecosystems are transforming how people worldwide gain access to information, goods, services, and opportunities; in today’s world, a country cannot achieve self-reliance without them. The...
BACKGROUND The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are providing policy recommendations, guidelines and tools to improve Extension Advisory Services (EAS) systems, in order to build resilience of smallholders to crises and disasters. As the world is currently struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and the farmers in countries including NENA region are facing dual burden i.e., inadequate health services coupled with timely extension services for sustaining their livelihoods. The digital disruption in EAS may define the...
Online consultation helps working group members discuss further steps and share opinion Yerevan, Armenia – An online consultation of the Ministry of Economy and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), held today, marks another step in the development of a national digital agriculture strategy for Armenia. The meeting aimed to introduce the digital agriculture framework, key findings of the situational analysis, and discuss and validate the priorities of the digital agriculture strategy. Participants included Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan, Deputy Minister...
The World Food Programme is scaling up operations in more than 80 countries with a little help from techies and creatives In a recent article , WFP has shared how the innovative use of technologies is helping the organization respond to the COVID19 pandemic. Technology and innovation have always been a key part of the WFP’s emergency response, but now, during a global pandemic, they are perhaps more critical than ever beforeWFP tapped its Innovation Accelerator to aid its response to coronavirus. Through the I nnovation Accelerator , WFP is supporting innovators and entrepreneurs around the...
In December 2020, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) will cease its operations. As part of the closure process, we would like to invite you to participate in a short survey that assesses the outcomes of " The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report 2018-2019 " that CTA and Dalberg Advisors published in June 2019. The report, the first of its kind, analysed the current state of digitalisation of agriculture in Africa. Your feedback will enable us to finalise the project completion report. The survey will take you approximately 15 minutes to complete, and we...
The GIZ agricultural Innovation fund is looking for startups or small businesses with innovative ideas for the agri-food sector in Africa (Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia) and South East Asia. The global community has set itself the goal to end hunger by 2030. To achieve this, agriculture must become more efficient and...
The summary report on the online discussion, 'Youth employment in agriculture as a solid solution to ending hunger and poverty in Africa' is now available in English | French | Spanish The online e-consultation on Youth employment in agriculture as a solid solution to ending hunger and poverty in Africa was held on the 16th of July to the 10th of August 2018 on the FAO FSN Forum. The e-consultation took four weeks and saw participants from 33 countries who shared 90 contributions. This e-consultation was organized to gather views of youths (especially those who could not attend) the 20-21...
The COVID-19 outbreak has created extreme vulnerability in the agriculture sector, impacting farmer livelihoods and resilience, food security, and agricultural market systems. Current disruptions—such as COVID-19—and future crises are presenting threats to the food supply chain. Because of this,...
