Project Title: Establishment of an Aquatic Farming Systems Information Network for Africa

Starting Date: June 1997

Completion Date: December 1998

Government Ministries and Institutions responsible for project execution:

Côte d'Ivoire - Ministère de l�Enseignement et de la Recherche Scientifique

Malawi - University of Malawi

Mali - Ministère du Développement Rural et de l'Environnement

Nigeria - Ministry of Education

Kenya - Ministry of Research, Technical Training and Technology

Zimbabwe - Ministry of Environment and Tourism

South Africa - Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology

Comité Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS)

In Africa, sub-Saharan aquaculture is still little developed and contributes only 0.2 percent of world production. But nevertheless its production has been steadily increasing, for example from about 9 000 t in 1984 to about 40 000 t in 1994, an average annual growth rate of 16 percent. The estimated monetary value of this production now reaches about USD 75 million to which should be added unaccounted but important nutritional and sociological benefits.

Together with the 12 countries responsible for 90 percent of aquaculture production in sub-Saharan Africa (excl. South Africa), a recent FAO/ECA/EU study has identified the main constraints to aquaculture development (CIFA Tech. Rep. 23, 1994). By matching these constraints with identified aquaculture development priorities and research priorities through a logical process, they could be classified into four broad development priority areas, one of them being Aquaculture Information.

Eight regional research programmes were then designed to meet the identified aquaculture development priorities in each of these priority areas, most of them being formulated at the regional level to address constraints within and among the five sub-Saharan agro-ecological regions. A ninth programme, Information, was formulated to guide and support these regional research networks which need to have direct access to past and present development/research data. It was proposed that an improved information flow throughout Africa be facilitated at least in its two main official languages, English and French.

It was felt that an Information Network made of geographically separated but closely linked anglophone and francophone information centres would be more effective at collecting, storing and disseminating relevant information, both on a sub-regional and regional basis. From past experience, it is known that for such an Information Network to be effective and sustainable it should:

• be based on existing institutions, with the required capabilities;
• be built on existing networking experience;
• be geographically diversified, involving as many of the existing sub-regions as possible, both from language and agro-ecological points of view;
• provide its information services as far as possible on an exchange basis;
• actively promote regular personal contacts between its staff members;
• be equipped with reliable, simple equipment, easily serviced locally;
• be able to rely on efficient communication facilities.

If the purpose of such an Information Network is to support the identified research programmes (e.g socio-economics, integrated aquaculture/animal husbandry, aquaculture integrated with irrigation schemes, fish production enhancement in small water bodies) and to serve aquaculture development activities in general, the approach to information needs should be multidisciplinary. It should address not only aquaculture technology but the production system as a whole. This involves all non-living and living components of the environment, including the producers themselves. Although fish production through small to medium scale freshwater aquaculture and the management of small water bodies should remain the central focus of the African information network, it would be essential to be able to access also information on rural sociology, agricultural economics, human nutrition and food security, water and soil conservation, rural extension methods/services, environmental impact, etc.

1.2 Justification

The diversity of institutions and the range of research programmes which they cover is indicative of the multidisciplinary nature of aquatic farming systems itself, ranging from the more technical aspects of aquaculture (i.e. fish production) to the sociological, environmental and economic aspects of rural development and the communities involved in the activity. It is also indicative of the level of activity in freshwater aquaculture development and research in the region compared with other regions. There are, for example, no institutions which have aquaculture as a primary programme and it is normally one component among many other programmes for food production and rural development.

However, the increasingly important contribution of aquaculture to food security is reflected in an expansion of training, research and extension activities at national level. One of the constraints to effective research at national level has been identified, by SIFR and CIFA amongst others, as the lack of access to relevant information.

In most of the countries, there is a continuing loss of institutional memory due to the fast turnover of responsible personnel and frequent administrative reorganizations coupled with the absence of a central repository for technical reports on aquatic farming systems at national or sub-regional level; documentation of past research programmes and development project activities becomes rapidly inaccessible to most researchers and developers; it has even been observed that it may physically disappear from the country after a few years only.

The differences between the individual libraries, even within countries, are substantial in terms of facilities, collections and access to information. However, some general comparisons can be made between libraries in the geographical sub-regions and between the francophone and anglophone countries. Most notably is the advantageous position of those libraries in Eastern and Southern Africa in terms of:

• size of the current collection and availability of a budget in order to maintain acquisitions;
• library facilities and equipment;
• level of professional education and training of library staff;
• significant donor funding for information activities;
• within the sub-region there are substantially better library resources in South Africa and Zimbabwe, the only two countries with full Internet connectivity and access to external electronic information. Here also are the only libraries actually subscribing to current CD ROM databases.

Despite the relative disadvantages of those libraries in Western and Sahelian francophone Africa related to the above, there are many important information and documentation activities undertaken by all libraries:

• active participation in, and in some cases coordination of, at least national but often regional or international information networks;
• the organization, management and retrieval of information using PC based software. With the exception of South Africa, Micro CDS/ISIS is used in all the countries visited;
• the provision of information services to a broad user community, including external users, in the subject areas relevant to development and research in aquatic farming systems. In most cases the libraries have direct access to agricultural CD ROMs (mainly donor supplied) but even those libraries without CD ROMs are availing of search facilities at other institutions on behalf of users;
• participation in regional or international training programmes, for example in the use of Micro CDS/ISIS, often with donor support from FAO, BIEF, CTA etc., and many are now involved in providing training.

In general, one can conclude that the differences in the physical facilities and budgets of the libraries are enormous, but that the types and level of activity and information services have many features in common. It is also a common experience that the libraries, even the wealthier ones, rely more and more on access to external information sources and on the sharing of resources. Budgetary constraints and the increasing amount of information sources available at ever increasing cost, particularly in a subject area with the breadth of aquatic farming systems, make it impossible for libraries to acquire all of the relevant publications necessary to satisfy user demand.

In addition to the economic burden of access to international and commercially available information, the lack of access to the results and findings of research between the different sub-regions and between the anglophone and francophone African countries is a major obstacle to development. The barrier separating the francophone and anglophone sub-regions results not only from linguistic problems but also from the distribution pattern of information resources. The research and development results/problems in one sub-region are therefore mostly ignored in the other one and ignorance of information older than 20 years in the other language is practically total in the young generation of researchers and developers.

With regards to the disappearance of information from national libraries, a network of libraries could be effective in repatriating missing publications.

These constraints can be summarized as:

• the development of aquaculture and aquatic farming systems in Africa is at a relatively early stage;
• there is limited or no flow of information between institutions;
• the research results of these institutions are mainly published as grey literature;
• they are not being collected and disseminated by readily available information systems, if at all.

The main objectives for an information network between institutions with programmes in aquatic farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa would be to support research and development activities by:

• improving access to aquatic farming systems information resources in sub-Saharan Africa;
• developing mechanisms for information resource sharing between the institutions involved and particularly to encourage links between the different sub-regions and between the francophone and anglophone countries;
• ensuring that the findings and results of aquatic farming systems programmes in sub-Saharan Africa are disseminated widely, both in the region and also to the international community.

Organization at the regional level would provide a more cost effective means of collecting, managing and disseminating information. The network would also strengthen national capacities in access to information, promote regional cooperation and complement existing national and international information networks.

The immediate objectives of the African network would be:

• stimulated collection and organization of information relevant to aquatic farming systems at sub-regional level;
• improved access to and dissemination of existing information resources and improved document delivery;
• harmonization of the tools and methodologies for sharing this information throughout the region;
• human resources development by means of courses, workshops, meetings, bulletins;
• incorporation of the findings of research and development activities in international as well as regional information systems;
• promotion of repositories of publications from within sub-regions;
• production of bibliographic outputs which will benefit users in the whole region.

The guiding principles for the operation of the network should include:

• participation means partnership in technical decisions, in adapting the network to changing technology and evolving needs, and in sharing the wealth of data gathered;
• duplication of the work done for existing national or regional networks should be avoided;
• complementing existing national, regional and international networks for the benefit of research and development in aquatic farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

The immediate objectives of the project would be the establishment and initial operation of the network with the above-mentioned immediate objectives and guiding principles.

The primary beneficiaries of the network would be the broad spectrum of users of the network libraries i.e. researchers, students and staff at the institutions; development agencies, including governmental and non-governmental; policy and planning officers; training and extension workers, the private sector and the international community via organizations such as ECA, UNDP, EU, ICLARM, FAO.

The network would aim to guide users to appropriate sources of information and provide targetted and timely services, responsive to user feedback.

Specific details of the outputs of the network will be agreed by the participants but some important information gaps have already been identified as well as material suitable for information exchange purposes.

The expected outputs of the network would be:

• a union catalogue of periodicals relevant to aquatic farming systems, with details of holdings in the region;
• a Directory of information resources on aquatic farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa.
• repositories of national/regional documents would be maintained in the sub-regions;
• specialized bibliographies as published products or in response to requests;
• exchange of products such as own publications, new acquisitions bulletins, contents pages of journals, extracts from CD ROM databases;
• exchange of information on new research projects, developments in technology and Internet access.

The expected project outputs would be:

• information network on aquatic farming systems established;
• two workshops, one for the constitution of the network and the organization of its initial operation and the second for review of project achievements and discussion of future development;
• training of project coordinator, support personnel at IDESSA and nine professional librarians at participating libraries;
• bibliographic outputs for the region:

  • Union Catalogue of Serials;

  • Directory on Information Resources on research and development activities;

• Constitution of the Network Document;
• Network News Bulletin;
• links with regional and international information networks and with CIFA;
• proposals for future development.

The Aquatic Farming Systems Information Network for Africa (AFSINA) will initially be composed of libraries at:

• two coordinating Lead Centres, one in each linguistic sub-region as follows:

• eight Satellite Centres, three francophone and five anglophone as follows:

Such an Information Network has the following characteristics:

• it is bilingual English-French;
• it represents four of the five agro-ecological regions of sub-Saharan Africa;
• it is based on regional and national institutions (exc. ALCOM to be institutionalised);
• it includes fresh-, brackish- and marine water expertise;
• it is primarily made of multidisciplinary libraries with an aquaculture component.

The network should maintain links with the FAO HQ library. In the future, it should progressively expand within Africa as other libraries join. Links with information centres and networks from Asia, Europe and North America could also be envisaged.

• Nomination of Project Coordinator (research staff member of IDESSA, agricultural engineer and specialised in aquaculture research/development, with experience as FAO Project National Director for several years).
• General orientation training of Project Coordinator at FAO Headquarters David Lubin Library and Inland Water Resources/Aquaculture Service (FIRI) for two weeks, on information resources/services, available FAO information resources/databases, access to external databases and networking.
• Following immediately as a practical exercise, in FAO Headquarters for another two weeks, preparatory work for the workshop (see Second Phase) by the Project Coordinator to assess information resources (in particular in French) useful to the network and to prepare a list of this material using a micro CDS/ISIS format.
• Training of an additional library staff at the paraprofessional level for IDESSA Lead Centre, for example at ADRAO near Bouaké.
• Purchase and installation of equipment (see Section 4.4).
• Organization of the IDESSA Lead Centre: office of Project Coordinator and aquaculture library in its new building in Kokondékro.

• Purposes of the Workshop:

• Preparation of the workshop (1.5 months): all members of the network to prepare an inventory of information relevant to aquatic farming systems research/development and to collect data on current research/development projects, taking advantage of existing materials and data. The contract for the workshop should also be finalised during this period (see next). Draft of the Constitution of the Network to be prepared by Project Coordinator and circulated to the member countries in advance.
• Holding of the workshop (0.5 month): in Bunda College of Agriculture (anglophone Lead Centre), near Lilongwe, Malawi, where all necessary facilities are available during holidays, including meeting room, computers, multidisciplinary library collections/databases and competent staff . In 1997, holidays are scheduled from 26 September to end of December and the workshop could take place in mid-October. It should last for 10 days. Participants will be as follows:

• Follow-up to the Workshop (1 month): production of the first versions of the Union Catalogue of Serials (UC) and Directory of Information Resources (DIR) on research and development activities in the region.

• To initiate regular exchanges of information on new acquisitions relevant to aquatic farming sytems, ongoing research programmes, development projects, developments in database/ e-mail/Internet access.
• To consolidate this information at IDESSA (francophone sub-region) and Bunda College (anglophone sub-region) in the form of a regular Network News Bulletin to be distributed to all members.
• To expand the activities started at the workshop, constantly improving the information available in UC and DIR.
• Project Coordinator visits twice the network centres to review progress in network services and define new output products.
• To develop output products for sharing within the network.
• Travel of FAO backstopping officer to network lead centres and selected satellite centres according to needs.

• Meeting of all members, FAO backstopping Officer and Facilitator Consultant at least three months before the end of the project to review progress and to agree on future activities of the network, including services to be offered to potential users (seven days).
• To inform all other sub-Saharan countries of the existing activities of the network, for example through a seminar organised simultaneously with a session of the Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa (CIFA).
• FAO backstopping Officer to prepare at above meeting draft of Project's Terminal Statement, in collaboration with the Project Coordinator (three days).
• To prepare relevant recommendations for donors future support.

• Project Coordinator from IDESSA for 18 months.
• Consultant Facilitator for Workshop (0.5 month) and final meeting (1 week), Terms of Reference annexed.
• Technical backstopping visits to the project by FAO HQ Officer: 7 weeks.

workshop and visit IDESSA 3 weeks; one visit to network in 1998 for 3 weeks; one visit at final meeting of project 1 week).

• Organization of workshop at Bunda College of Agriculture in October 1997 for 10 days and 12 external participants; preparation of information material and equipment; use of computers by participants; supplies and staff; bus transport.
• Organization of final meeting at IDESSA in 1998 for four days and 11 external participants; secretarial assistance; transport Abidjan-Bouaké and return; local transport during meeting.
• Institut du Sahel to locate, to retrieve as photocopies or microfiches, to input to RESADOC and to make available information on aquatic farming systems to the network, with assistance of its national partners in Sahelian countries.
• E-mail and Internet connections at IDESSA whenever possible.

• Project Coordinator: general orientation training at FAO Headquarters for one month, on information resources (multidisciplinary) and services, on existing FAO resources/databases, on access to external databases and on networking; practicalities in preparation for workshop (see Section 3.2.1).
• Paraprofessional librarian (aquaculture ): 6 months in Bouaké.
• Workshop for network members at Bunda College, Malawi (see Section 3.2.2).
• Meeting for network members at IDESSA, Côte d'Ivoire (see Section 3.2.4).

• One microcomputer Pentium, 133 Mhz, 2 drives for floppy disks, minimum 200 Mb hard disk, VGA colour monitors, international keyboard English/French
• One CD-ROM drive
• One modem + communication software
• One laser printer LaserJet
• One Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) unit
• One photocopying machine
• One microfiche reader/printer
• One scanner (text)
• One fax machine
• Library shelving, filing cabinets, office furniture

• One fax machine

• One fax machine

• One microfiche reader/printer

• Acquisition of reference material and documents related to aquatic farming systems in general, with particular emphasis on semi-intensive aquaculture and management of small water bodies, for the two Lead Centres.
• Supplies for microcomputers, photocopiers, microfiche printers and fax machines at the two Lead Centres.

• Equipment maintenance
• Office supplies and services
• Reporting to FAO Headquarters

• For project operation at FAO Headquarters

• The Project Coordinator will submit a report to the backstopping FAO Officer within one month of returning from training and from visiting the network centres.
• Each network member participating in the Workshop will submit a report to the Project Coordinator within one month of his/her return.
• The Project Coordinator will consolidate these reports and submit the Workshop Report to the backstopping FAO Officer for final processing and publication, within two months of his/her return.
• The Project Coordinator will submit a progress report in April 1998, including proposals for holding the final meeting later that year.
• At the completion of the project and in close collaboration with the Project Coordinator , the backstopping FAO Officer will draft a Terminal Statement according to FAO procedures, for finalisation and submission by FAO to participating Governments.

The contributions of the Governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Malawi will consist of:

• establishment of coordinating lead centres for the network at the libraries of IDESSA (Aquaculture) and Bunda College of Agriculture;
• assignment to these libraries of at least one professional librarian, one assistant-librarian, and additional technical and clerical staff as required;
• provision of adequate office space for the libraries and maintenance of their premises;
• administrative and financial arrangements which will ensure the proper functioning of the network lead centres and the execution of the project.

The other Governments of Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe will actively participate in the network (telecommunications, photocopies, mailing costs, staff), ensuring that the necessary operating expenses are available.

During each of the two project workshops, the facilitator will assist the Project Coordinator to bridge the linguistic and technical gaps existing between the participants:

• a mixture of anglophone and francophone technicians;
• mostly educated as librarians, with very little theoretical and practical knowledge about the problems related to research for and development of aquatic farming systems in general and aquaculture in rural ponds and small reservoirs in particular.

• The consultant facilitator should be fluently bilingual English-French, in particular for the various technical subjects to be discussed.
• He should have a wide African experience in rural development in general, and in small-scale aquaculture development in particular.
• He should be familiar with the existing literature (serials and monographs), both in English and in French, existing on research and development of aquatic farming systems.