Official Launch of the Arab Forum for Rural Advisory Services (AFRAS)

Background

Rural Advisory Services (RAS) play a key role in empowering small-scale farmers with the skills and practices they need to address their productivity and profitability challenges and improve their livelihoods, hence contributing to rural transformation. Small-scale farmers in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region represent the bulk of the agricultural producers, yet their accessibility to the varied RAS needed to improve agriculture-based livelihoods remains inadequate.

Several institutional, organizational, and financial factors impede the performance of RAS in the region, limiting their availability at the scale and quality required. In 2021 and 2022, FAO conducted the regional study “Advancing rural advisory service in Arab countries to promote market-orientation and inclusive transformation.” The study assessed RAS from the perspective of market-orientation, pluralism, and responsiveness to the needs of various categories of farmers, focusing on smallholders and vulnerable producers.

Recommendations of the study included strengthening of regional networking and cooperation on RAS – a long-overdue need – through the establishment of a dedicated forum on RAS, operating under the umbrella of the Global Forum on Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS). The opportunity of establishing such a forum was discussed and endorsed during three consecutive regional consultations organized respectively in June 2022, February 2023, and July 2023. These symposia brought together key RAS stakeholders across the region including policymakers and representatives of regional and international organizations, RAS experts, and champions, who reached a consensus on the vision, mission, values and principles, functions, and roadmap towards the establishment of the forum.

Denominated Arab Forum for Rural Advisory Services (AFRAS), the forum is primarily dedicated to networking among RAS stakeholders; information sharing and exchange of experience; and knowledge management. Upon request by AFRAS’ stakeholders, FAO in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and GFRAS, has been supporting AFRAS’ incubation process by facilitating the interaction among stakeholders at regional and country levels, as well as supporting the diverse technical, institutional, and organizational arrangements required for its operationalization, making it ready to be officially launched.

The official launch

FAO Regional Office for the Near East in collaboration with IFAD and GFRAS is organizing the official launch of the Arab Forum for Rural Advisory Services on 8 February 2024 as a side event of the Near East Regional Conference NERC 37 held in the context of NERC Senior Officers Meeting.

The launch, which will be officially opened by FAO and IFAD, will introduce the institutional structure of AFRAS, will feature key messages from AFRAS community and will present the AFRAS web platform, as per the below agenda.

Participants

In addition to the Senior Officers of the Ministries of Agriculture of countries in the region attending the Near East Regional Conference, all members of the AFRAS Community are invited to the event along with representatives of GFRAS. The AFRAS Community currently comprises 100 members including RAS policy makers, champions, expert and practitioners.

Format

The event will take place online on zoon 8 February 2024 from 11:30 to 13:30 Amman time (GMT+3). It will be held in Arabic, English and French. Simultaneous interpretation will be available. 

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