FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
http://www.fao.org
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger and achieve food security for all. FAO's mandate is to raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy. FAO helps developing countries and countries in transition modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all.
FAO also plays an important role as a source of knowledge and information. The Organization is enhancing its role as a Knowledge Organization, by developing and strengthening its policies, processes and practices in creating, acquiring, sharing and using knowledge.
FAO stresses the importance of addressing the rural digital divide, since the digital revolution still bypasses over a billion of the poorest of the world's poor, who live on less than one dollar a day and are located in rural areas, most of whom are directly or indirectly involved in agriculture. In the follow up to the WSIS action line on e-Agriculture, FAO continues to be committed to addressing the needs of stakeholders in agriculture and rural development in relation to enhancing information and knowledge exchange, communication, and the use of digital technology.
As Global Lead facilitator for the Action line on e-Agriculture, FAO has recently launched the first phase in the e-Agriculture Community of Expertise, a global initiative to enhance sustainable agricultural development and food security by helping stakeholders to share experiences and best practices on information exchange, communication, and the use of associated technologies in the sector.
The Community reinforces the value of global dialogue and cooperation to address emerging issues around the role of ICT as an instrument of sustainable development. The Community includes a range of participants, such as policy makers, planners, development practitioners, farmer organizations, researchers and information and communication specialists involved in agriculture and rural development.
The activities will be structured in three components:
(a) development and facilitation of a Web-based collaboration space (www.e-agriculture.org);
(b) organization of face-to-face events;
(c) in-country interventions.
Community members interact with each other and contribute a range of resources in the form of case studies, success stories and lessons learned, documents, publications, links, learning resources, and news and announcements.
See also:
|
