Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Closing #webinar | #D4Ag online dialogue on shaping digital agriculture capacities | Wed 15/12/21 @ 2PM-3:30PM CET

 


Over the past three weeks, the Digital Agri Hub with the support of the Dgroups Foundation, has been hosting an online dialogue to identify capacity opportunities, gaps, priority needs and best-bet learning solutions for people and organizations working with digital agriculture.

Specifically, at the dialogue kick-off webinar and in the subsequent email-based exchanges, dialogue’s participants have been pinning down the perceived capacity needs of three stakeholder groups - implementers (extension services, farmers organisations, NGOs, etc.); enablers (policy makers,  government and international organisations, etc.); and D4Ag service / solution providers (organisations or individuals providing services in the domain of digitalisation for agriculture, including innovations and data infrastructure).

Are you curious to know what emerged from this dialogue? Do you want to know more and add your voice and ideas to the dialogue outcomes and results?
 

Join us for the D4Ag dialogue closing webinar on 15 December and contribute to shape and deliver digital agriculture capacities for the future!

Register here >> https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqc-Ggrj8vEtG9ThuSg45tGo9bSaBlUByL


Monday, November 15, 2021

Shaping digital agriculture capacities - A D4Ag online dialogue - Zoom Kick-off session on Friday 19 Nov 2021 from 1400 - 1530 CET

Do you work with digital technologies, innovations or data to deliver and transform agriculture and food systems?

Join a global network of 1,200 people to help shape future investments in digital agriculture (#D4Ag) capacities


From 19 November to 10 December, the
Digital Agri Hub’s online D4Ag dialogue aims to identify capacity gaps, opportunities, priority needs and best-bet learning solutions for people and organizations working with digital agriculture. Supported by the Dgroups Foundation, the online dialogue combines two virtual (Zoom) sessions with email based, facilitated discussions, in a rich and dynamic process.

Join us on Zoom for the dialogue kick-off session on 19 November 2021 from 1400 – 1530 CET:

  • Learn about the dialogue and how to participate 
  • Meet other D4Ag professionals
  • See what capacity building initiatives already exist 
  • Together, start to shape and deliver digital agriculture capacities for the future!

Register here >> https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rf-mhrTojHtLHKxHT3pdKq7jmOaJjUkB6

Thursday, September 10, 2015

The Transformative Power of Social Media in Agriculture: Inspiring Stories

The advent of social media has revolutionised the way people communicate worldwide. But in a growing number of developing countries, these tools are being put to increasingly good effect to drive agricultural and rural development, often with dramatic results. A new publication from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) documents the transformative power of these innovative technologies. Based on 18 case studies drawn from across African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries , Embracing Web 2.0 and Social Media: A life-changing pathway for agricultural development actors provides testimonies on how Web 2.0 and social media are contributing to better engagement of stakeholders in policy dialogue and advocacy, marketing and the provision of information services.

This booklet documents a wide range of practical applications for Web 2.0 and social media in ACP settings. Some farmers have found that Facebook can be an excellent marketing channel to promote their products. Extension agents are discovering that social media is a highly effective way of communicating with the people they serve. Agricultural organisations are using a range of social media tools to mount advocacy campaigns aimed at influencing policy-makers. Researchers are using online collaboration tools to work on joint publications, while more and more young people are using new ICT skills to blog about important rural development issues. Others are seizing opportunities to develop innovative online services and launch their own companies as agripreneurs.

“Social media has become part of everyday life for most people in the developed world. But it has created a life-changing experience for many people in rural areas who have come to use it,” said CTA Director Michael Hailu.

All the stories featured in the booklet revolve around people who have benefited from a CTA-led campaign to make Web 2.0 and social media tools more accessible to agriculture and rural development actors in ACP countries.

The figures speak volumes: more than 4,000 individuals trained, 176 face-to-face training events – known as Web 2.0 and social media learning opportunities (LOs) – held in 44 ACP countries. In 2013, the Web 2.0 and social media LOs carried off the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Project Prize in the e-Agriculture category.

Impact assessment studies conducted by CTA have revealed that its Web 2.0 and social media capacity-building activities have led to greater inclusion and empowerment for participants, often with far-reaching repercussions for themselves and the people with whom they interact. Adoption rates are high, with young women emerging as the most likely players to adopt social media, following a training course.

In Uganda, local NGOs are using ICTs to support producers, processors and other actors in agricultural value chains. Agronomists from Madagascar are using Web 2.0 and social media to develop knowledge about apiculture. In Central Africa, a farmers’ network institutionalised social media and improved its operational effectiveness. In Samoa, a Facebook and Twitter marketing campaign is producing impressive results for women weavers of ceremonial mats. And in the Caribbean, bloggers and social media reporters are helping other young people to plan a future in farming.

“Many people have told us that the training sessions have not only changed their working behaviour, but their whole lives,” said Giacomo Rambaldi, Senior Programme Coordinator at CTA.

The official launch of the CTA publication will be held on 26 November 2015 during the International Day of Vrije University (VU) in Amsterdam.

The booklet is available for order in print form or for free download from the CTA publications catalogue

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Building Capacity in using social media for agricultural development in Cook Islands

Rarotonga, Cook Islands, 14 April, 2015 – From 13 to 17 April 2015 the Cook Islands Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) is hosting a Web 2.0 and social media learning opportunity workshop and training. The event held at the MoA’s headquarters in Arorangi, is jointly supported by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), and the European-Union-funded Pacific Agriculture Policy Project (PAPP) (part of the Intra-ACP Agriculture Policy Project). The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) is the implementing agency for the European Union funded PAPP project.

Participants in the course posing together
with the Minister of Agriculture, Kiriau Turepu
Participants were drawn from government agencies, including ministries of the environment, agriculture, education and internal affairs, the police and the Seabed Minerals Authority, from the private sector and from civil-society and non-governmental organisations, including the Red Cross, the National Youth Council, national women’s group, and two youth organisations Rotaract, and organics. All were keen to learn how to make best use of online social media tools to generate and share information to achieve both personal development and organisational goals.

The Hon Minister of Agriculture, Kiriau Turepu, delivered the keynote address to more than 25 local participants. He acknowledged the partnership of CTA, SPC and the European Union for offering the opportunity to the Cook Islands to build capacity in information and communication technologies and social media.

“I am particularly pleased for the Ministry of Agriculture to take the lead in promoting social media to generate, manage and disseminate information in this ever-more-connected world we live in. The internet offers tools we can harness for the development of our people. The outer islands may have produce to sell and using the internet they can connect to consumers and markets in Rarotonga. We will be able to share and show new innovative ideas such as growing dragon fruits for example – I can show a friend in Penrhyn steps on growing these fruits using social media.

“As the first of this kind of workshop to be held here in the Cook Islands, we are expecting this group of participants to learn, and make use of the knowledge so that our people are better informed, more articulated in the affairs of development as far as agriculture is concerned.

“Today the speed with which information travels in our work places and the changing technologies that we have at our disposal is extraordinary and important to all of us. Whether it is Facebook, blogging, Twitter, photos you share, these are all extensions of individuals and their personalities. They help portray interests, views and help show people who they are. They offer a platform for you and I to be ourselves, to be creative, to be who we want to be and most importantly, have an audience for all to debate critical innovative ideas that are good and can grow for the future.”

Mr Emil Adams, PPPP Information Communication Management Officer, thanked Permanent Secretary, Dr Matairangi Purea, and MoA Director of Policy, Planning, Mr Patrick Arioka, for the planning and coordination that went into organising the workshop. The good turnout of local participants is testimony of the planning, interest and enthusiasm of stakeholders to release their officers to attend the Web2.0 and social media training.

“Social media tools allow continuous dialogue between groups of individuals to take place on the internet. This online dialogue contributes to a knowledge society where individuals continuously pull information as well contribute content, further enriching knowledge and available to other users. People are empowered when they freely express their opinions on social media, and attain a level of gratification when they get information they want when they want it,” said Mr Adams.

“Accessing the internet allows a farmer in a remote village to directly interact and feedback on government policies affecting rural livelihoods, tweet a photo of a pest outbreak back to researchers for identification and management, or post on Facebook photos of a rural development training.”
Workshop facilitator, Ms Anju Mangal, offered words of warning about the potential of social media, noting that, while it can open up a whole new horizon of possibilities that can improve lives, it can also destroy lives and upset social norms if used wrongly by unscrupulous individuals.

Ms Mangal said that online cyber security is of major concern to individuals and to organisations that want to protect their integrity. Social media policies supported by national infrastructure need to be robust to guide the use of these tools to achieve national goals. Above all, measures are needed to prevent compromising the integrity of government machinery.

In the Cook Islands broadband connection is available to more than 95% of the population, with mobile coverage reaching more than 99% of the population. On Rarotonga only, third-generation (3G) services are available to 11,000 plus mobile connections.

Agriculture currently contributes only 3.8% to GDP, but Mr Arioka expressed his confidence that this can be increased through the use of online tools supported by an enabling policy environment. The Ministry is currently developing a new Strategic Plan to help agriculture services support income streams, food consumption and self sufficiency. Healthy soils, healthy food will underpin the strength of the new Strategic Plan.

CTA, in partnership with SPC, has embarked on a series of regional Web2.0 and social media learning opportunity workshops to strengthen national capacity in the use of social media for agricultural development and climate-change adaptation. National workshops have been completed in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Vanuatu. A second national workshop for the Cook Islands is planned for September 2015.

Here is a link to follow for more information on forthcoming training events.

Follow Web2forDev on Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo and join the community on DGroups and LinkedIn


Friday, October 17, 2014

Web 2.0 and Social Media spread like wildfire in Vanuatu

Group photo of participants of the Web 2.0 and Social Media
training in Port Vila, Vanuatu 2014
Friday 17 October 2014, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Vanuatu – Vanuatu is a young state as far as information and communication technology (ICT) is concerned and the development of ICT is very important for the socio-economic growth of the country.'  The first Political Advisor for the Vanuatu Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Mrs Emily Tumukon, made this statement in her opening remarks at the beginning of a five-day training workshop on the use of web 2.0 and social media in Port Vila, Vanuatu on 13 October.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), in collaboration with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), promotes information and knowledge sharing, learning and communication for the agriculture and forestry sectors, using low-cost technology – Web 2.0 and Social Media.

CTA-developed curriculum is designed to help users interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue. Examples of Web 2.0 applications include blogs, , Google Drive, Google +, video sharing sites, photo editing, and sharing social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These web tools are used in the context of development work and are designed for stakeholders actively engaged in agriculture and rural development / natural resource management in the domains of ICT for development, policies and markets, publishing, communication and media.

Mr Hannington Tate, Vanuatu's Director of Forestry, believes that new ICT tools such as web 2.0 can improve agricultural and forestry information in rural and remote communities of Vanuatu. He maintains that this type of workshop also offers a platform where participants from the government line agencies and those representing different stakeholders can come together to share their experiences and eventually find out how they can collaborate by making use of each others’ networks in order to better reach and serve the people of the country.

The Vanuatu Government CIO (Chief Information Officer), Mr Fred Samuel, stated that the Vanuatu Government recognised ICT as an enabler for social and economic development in the country.  He emphasised that it is now important to create online content that users and citizens can access, and that is the reason such training is needed. He added that web 2.0 represents an important shift in the way digital information is created, shared, stored, distributed, and manipulated.

The five-day learning opportunity is currently under way in Port Vila. Twenty-three participants – fifteen men and eight women – from different organisations are attending it. The event is part of CTA’s effort to facilitate access to and dissemination of information in the fields of agriculture and rural development in 78 countries in the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), this being the sixth to be held in the Pacific. Similar workshops have been conducted in Papua New Guinea and Fiji and a one is planned for Samoa in two weeks' time that will focus on the agriculture and forestry sectors.

Sponsored by the ACP-EU CTA, the event, titled Web 2.0 for Development and Social Media Learning Opportunity, is undertaken by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in collaboration with the Vanuatu Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries, and specifically the Department of Forests (DoF) and Biosecurity and the Office of the Government’s Chief Information Officer (OGCIO).

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Web 2.0 and Social Media Success Stories: Nawsheen Hosenally



Dubbed as the TwitterLady, Nawsheen Hosenally shares the story of her professional career and how skills acquired in mastering Web 2.0 and Social Media have played in a role in shaping it.

At present Nawsheen is working as CT4Ag Assistant at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in the Netherlands.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Web 2.0 and Social Media Success Stories: New skills and lifelong changes



Husna Yagoub is from Sudan. She works at CTA as data assistant in the framework of the Knowledge Management & Communication Programme (KMC).

Likewise other CTA staff she has been following the Spring 2014 session of the online course "Innovative Collaboration for Development" run by UNITAR and co-funded by CTA. This is the first distance learning course she has ever attended.

Confronted with great challenges she has been perseverant and kept telling me that - while doing the course - she gained a lot in terms of self-confidence and that she is going to be much more effective on her work.

We decided to capture her thoughts on camera and it's worth listening to her story ...

Visit the Web2forDev Gateway for more information on face to face courses on Web 2.0 and Social Media.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Web 2.0 and Social Media Success Stories: from disseminating agri information to supporting drafting the new constitution



Mr Simunza S. Muyangana is Director at Digital ICE Interactive Media Ltd and founder of BongoHive in Lusaka, Zambia. He is specialised in website development, new media technologies, and web 2.0 and social media training.

On 24-26 March, 2014 a 3-day write-shop took place at CTA in Wageningen in the Netherlands. The purpose of the event was to update the curriculum which is used by CTA and partner organisations to run "Web 2.0 and Social Media Learning Opportunities" in ACP countries. The participants in the write-shop agreed on the need to identify and document success stories resulting from the adoption of Web 20 and Social Media solutions.

In this short video he briefly recalls three success stories. Let's hear his story ...

To know more about Web 2.0 and Social Media Learning Opportunities visit our site www.web2fordev.net

Web 2.0 and Social Media challenges : What about people thinking I am wasting time in networking on social media?



Pete Cranston is director of Euforic Services Ltd. He is an ICT, Communication and Digital Media specialist, with long experience as a facilitator and trainer.

A 3-day write-shop took place at CTA in Wageningen (NL) on 24-26 March, 2014. The purpose of the event was to to update the curriculum which is used to run "Web 2.0 and Social Media Learning Opportunities". In the discussions institutional barriers towards adoption were identified.

Giacomo Rambaldi, the organiser of the event, put to him a question on ... staff wasting time in fiddling around with social medial during office hours ...

Let's hear what he had to say ...

To know more about Web 2.0 and Social Media learning Opportunities visit our site www.web2fordev.net

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Web 2.0 and Social Media challenges : Could you help me convince my boss?



Pete Cranston is director of Euforic Services Ltd. He is an ICT, Communication and Digital Media specialist, with long experience as a facilitator and trainer.

A 3-day write-shop took place at CTA in Wageningen (NL) on 24-26 March, 2014. The purpose of the event was to to update the curriculum which is used to run "Web 2.0 and Social Media Learning Opportunities". In the discussions institutional barriers towards adoption were identified.

Giacomo Rambaldi, the organiser of the event, asked him: "Could you please help us in convincing bosses that it is worth investing in the adoption and institutionalisation of Web 2.0 and Social Media"?

Let's hear what he had to say ....

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Upcoming Google Mapping Technology Workshop


Last year, Google Earth Outreach partnered with the Institute at the Golden Gate to convene 80 environmental leaders spanning 40 organizations and train them how to use mapping technology to create powerful visual messages.

You can read more about that workshop in this blog post. The response to last year’s workshop was so overwhelming that the Institute at the Golden Gate has decided to host a second annual workshop.

This year, the Institute will bring back trained alumni and several Google mapping trainers from the Google Earth Outreach team to train a new cohort of environmental leaders.

The organisers encourage interested parties to apply for this free, for the two-day interactive training workshop.

What: Mapping Environmental Scenarios & Solutions with Google Technology
When: March 19 and 20, 2012, 8:30 am–5 pm
Where: Cavallo Point–the Lodge at the Golden Gate, Fort Baker, Sausalito, CA

To find out more and apply, visit http://sites.google.com/site/iggworkshop2012

The deadline for applications is February 17, 2012.

Source: The Google Earth Outreach Team
http://earth.google.com/outreach