Mission and Objectives
The e-Agriculture Community of Practice is a global initiative launched in partnership with the e-Agriculture Working Group in 2007 to enhance the role of ICT in agricultural development and food security. It provides an international framework to facilitate the processes of capturing, managing, and disseminating the lessons learned through national and regional activities, as well as the results and implications of multilateral processes related to the use of ICT in agriculture and rural development. The e-Agriculture Community also provides the basis for the international community to monitor development and validation of conceptual models and methodologies, and to package and disseminate them once tested. Through its collective activities some additional outputs of the Community include: the development and strengthening of innovative mechanisms and processes for information exchange and communication, including normative guidelines and tools being formulated, tested and disseminated to
address the range of demands and capabilities of different Community members; empowering networks for exchange of new mechanisms and processes among key stakeholders; relevant content in digital format being developed, filtered, mobilized and exchanged by community members; and other activities based on active partnerships and collaborative lesson-learning.
Deliverables
The e-Agriculture community has over 6,000 registered individual members. This membership encompasses development practitioners, policymakers, representatives of farmer organizations, researchers, and information and communication specialists involved in agriculture and rural development, from more than 150 countries. The Community activities comprise three components: a web-based multilingual space (English, French and Spanish) for knowledge sharing and collaboration on a neutral
domain (
e-agriculture); face-to-face events; and in-country interventions.
Over this past year, e-Agriculture Community members from around the world participated in activities such as online forum discussions (virtual meetings), international and regional meetings, and free online capacity building opportunities (through the
IMARK partnership). Participation from both the private sector and non-UN organizations was also secured.
It is envisioned that the e-Agriculture Community will grow in 2010 by building upon the current successful knowledge sharing functions, and developing an interconnected series of pilot interventions, models of action and means for assessment, based on inputs from the e-Agriculture Community. Lessons learned from the national and regional components can be captured and disseminated through the e-Agriculture Community, and through other major participating institutions in support of capacity building. In order to facilitate this effectively, the establishment of a formal Secretariat with some financial commitments from partner organizations is deemed essential.