As the WSIS Forum 2019 , a multistakeholder platform facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines for advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the FAO Director-General Mr. José Graziano da Silva has delivered a video message to International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and delegates ahead of the meeting to be held on the 8th to the 12th of April 2019. The message confirms FAO commitment to ending hunger through using digital technologies to bridge the rural-urban divide; and most importantly he pledged FAO’s commitment to WSIS and FAO's co-facilitation to the E-...
In an opinion piece on CNN Business , the WorldBank Group CEO and interim presidents noted that automation and artificial intelligence (and other disruptive technologies) could revolutionize the industrialized world, and with great potential to the developing world. O n her tweeter account , Ms Kristalina Georgieva noted in order to support Africa’s digital transformation, the WorldBank Group will invest $25 billion between now and 2030 and is aiming to mobilize $25 billion more from the private sector. How can African countries leapfrog themselves for this challenge? In the above mentioned...
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...
The International Award “ Innovative Ideas and Technologies in Agribusiness ” is organized by UNIDO ITPO Italy in collaboration with the Future Food Institute . The international contest is aimed at identifying worldwide the most innovative ideas in the foodtech & agtech sectors from startups, think tanks, universities, incubators, research and technology centers, that could lead to social, environmental and economic improvements in Developing Countries. Applications must be received by 31st March 2019, at the following link: https://www.unido.it/award2019 The award ceremony will be held...
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...
EFITA or European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment is biennial conference that facilitates participants from over 25 countries focusing on knowledge sharing and thinking on the future of ICT technologies within the agri-food and bio-resource sectors...
There is a growing acceptance of blockchain use in food and agriculture. This comes as part of the growth of ICTs in the last decade and technology has promised to open many opportunities to overcome some of the challenges faced in agriculture. For example, technology can allow more inclusion, simplification of process within the agricultural systems, including on-farm and off-farm activities. In light of blockchains in agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) together with its partners have published three documents so far on blockchains. These publications are: Emerging...
EFITA or European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment is biennial conference that facilitates participants from over 25 countries focusing on knowledge sharing and thinking on the future of ICT technologies within the agri-food and bio-resource sectors. The 2019 edition focuses on Digitizing Agriculture and will have three major themes,
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...
The Digital Development for Feed the Future a project within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with their partners published a paper on Digital Farmer Profiles paper. The paper seeks to explain how technologies can be used to include smallholder farmers into the broader agri-food systems; this includes how smallholder farmers can be profiled; how farmers’ data can be shared and how the impact of agricultural services can be measured. Meanwhile, there are 500 million smallholder farmers and it has been a challenge to obtain information to or from these farmers. The...
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...
EFITA or European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment is biennial conference that facilitates participants from over 25 countries focusing on knowledge sharing and thinking on the future of ICT technologies within the agri-food and bio-resource sectors...
