Approaches which “Save and Grow” in the Horn of Africa

Many if not all countries of the Horn of Africa region have expressed an interest in the sustainable increase in productivity of crop production in their countries. Here, the challenge is to produce more in ways which do not compromise the future. Yields can be boosted in the short term, but practices may lead to land degradation, contamination of water resources, future pest or disease outbreaks, loss of biodiversity.

Sustainable Intensification is one of the key topics covered at the AgriKnowledge ShareFair on October 24th. 

FAO promotes practices for intensifying crop production which are not only environmentally sustainable – increasing production while conserving vital “ecosystem services” , and mitigating climate change - but which are also socially and economically sustainable. 

What does this mean, to be “socially” sustainable? A practice (such as reduced tillage) may be better for the environment, but it may also increase the amount of labour required, for instance to manage weeds. In traditional societies, land preparation may be regarded as “men’s work”, while increasing the effort for weeding may place a disproportionate and unsustainable burden on women. Similarly, for practices which are good for the environment to be adopted at scale they must also deliver economic benefits in the short term. Trade offs work both ways . Greater inefficiencies could be gained by concentrating on a small number of crops but smallholders with limited access to land have evolved highly diverse patterns of cultivation.
How to address these complex challenges to the adoption of improved practices in crop production is among the topics covered in the FAO publication Save and Grow a policy makers guide to the intensification of smallholder crop production available at: http://www.fao.org/ag/save-and-grow/.

Reflecting on Agknowledge Africa Knowledge Share Fair #sfaddis

Originally posted on IFAD social reporting blog

I am still all jazzed up and energized by the great Addis Share Fair experience. So, what was so special about this event?

An African event for Africans
Well, for one thing, it was an African event, organized primarily by African for Africans. I do not have the list of participants handy, but I think I am correct to say that 90% of the participants came from Africa! We did a spectogram in the water pathway - where we organized ourselves between North and South pole. It was amazing to see that only 3 people were from the North and the rest came from the South!!

Fully immersed in Ethiopian culture
In true spirit of knowledge sharing, the organizers - the incredible ILRI team - did a remarkable job of weaving in local culture in almost every aspect of the Share Fair. Starting with the wonderful Bunna ladies serving us coffee, to the Ethiopian horn blower - our official time keeper - to creating an Ethiopian market place where participants spent an entire afternoon learning and sharing with each other and last but not least the exquisite Ethiopian food.

Share Fair footprint
Often as KM practitioners we are asked to show the impact of our work. The Addis Share Fair provided numerous opportunities to see the impact and footprint of our collective knowledge management and knowledge sharing efforts.

For example, no matter which session you attended, be it a pathway or a focus group, we saw quite a number of highly engaged and passionate African colleagues facilitating the different sessions using different knowledge sharing methods. We also have a relatively big and vibrant social reporting team. What was wonderful was how participants immediately embraced and put to practice what they learnt on day zero.

We started off with almost no audio coverage. Thanks to Day Zero "I know how day", we ended up having a great podcasting site on Podomatic, a flourishing video section, an equally flourishing blog, many participants contributed to the photo gallery, we had an extraordinary buzz on Twitter.

Inspiring keynote address
Unlike other events that have a rigid and stiff opening session - with lots of rhetoric and formal speeches - the opening session for Addis Share Fair ended up being pretty informal and genuine. All those who took the floor talked about how their respective organizations are engaged with and have embedded knowledge sharing in their core business.

Owen Barder - a charismatic and compelling speaker - delivered an inspiring speech on the importance of knowledge for development. Listening to him talk about importance of concentrating on making knowledge in development more evolutionary and the fact that perhaps we do not really need authoritative answers but rather diversity in answers and as he said "We need diversity, engagement and feedback process", made me realize that if had more people like Owen who can so eloquently offer different perspectives, people who think and conceptualize out of the box, people who bring something new to the table, perhaps we would make huge leaps in achieving both our development and knowledge goals.

Owen is perhaps one of the kind, but at least his refreshing and unconventional talk inspired many of us to the point that we are still talking about it and sharing the gems with colleagues. So who knows, maybe as a result of his talk, we will start a change process within our respective organizations and a year from now, we can claim that this too is a result and footprint of the Agknowledge Africa Share Fair!

Learning pathways and focus groups

In retrospect, the idea of the learning pathways was quite a happenstance. In June, Peter was passing through Rome and our PROCASUR colleague Ariel also happened to be in town. In our conversations with Peter, we suggested that he meet Ariel and pick his brain... and so the idea of "learning pathways" was born from this short but intense brainstorming session.


On the last day of the fair, we heard a short summary of the learning and sharing that happened in the various learning pathways. While all the participants seemed to have enjoyed the experience and learnt from each other, perhaps we could have got more mileage from this new learning and sharing paradigm by providing a space for the pathways to intersect. For example, we could have organized a joint session between the land, water and livestock pathways. This would have allowed participants to exchange and cross fertilize ideas and would have provided the space to get to know more about each others' work, aspirations and challenges - and who knows perhaps we would have achieved different outcomes!

Another innovation in this share fair where the numerous focus groups which provided an opportunity to discuss and share experiences on a wide variety of topics - ranging from reporting on agriculture, to use of mobile telephony, the future of telecentres, process of write shops, how to make sure content travels, challenges and opportunities of working with researchers, and the hot topic of how to engage with young people and what is that we need to do to make living in rural areas enticing!

I think we should definitely replicate the focus groups at future share fairs and if we have hot topics such as youth, we should try and see how to have repeat sessions or even better, how we can have multiple sessions building on each other.

Lessons learnt
Talking of lessons learnt, at the penultimate session of the Share Fair, we finally had the pleasure of hearing the voices of farmers - the very people that we serve. The farmers were indeed the "missing link"  in the Share Fair. Perhaps the biggest lesson learnt for future share fairs is to make sure that we have adequate representation from all the people who we work with and serve - this means smallholder farmers, producers but also decision makers.

When we talk about decision makers, I do not necessarily mean exclusively policy makers - that is ministers of agriculture or finance - but also our organizational decision makers. I believe senior colleagues would have benefited from experiencing the buzz and energy of the Share Fair. They undoubtedly would have learnt from the participants and it goes without saying that they would have had a lot to offer. So perhaps for next time, collectively we should make sure that these events make it to their busy agendas and they take the time to participate in similar events.

As mentioned above, it was really great to see our African colleagues facilitating the various sessions. What we need to do now, is to make a concerted effort to train and build the skills of a new cadre of African facilitators, so that at the next share fair we see new African colleagues taking the lead in training participants and facilitating many more sessions.

Building on this extraordinary experience, we should try and organize more regional events organized by the region for the region and involve much more stakeholders both at grassroots and decision making levels.

What next?
Almost a week after the share fair, I am still living off its energy - and believe me this is really extraordinary! I think I can safely say that as a result of this event, we all managed to expand and extend our networks. We met new colleagues and for sure we'll be calling on each other as and when needed.

So when will be coming back together in another Share Fair? We're all working towards orchestrating a global knowledge share fair late 2011. In the meantime, hopefully there will be more  regional and why not more focused thematic share fairs.

Last but not least, I hope that the #sfaddis blogposts have managed to transmit the spirit of learning and sharing, openness, fun and satisfaction of building colleagues capacity to take on new roles and become agents of change.

All good things come to an end: Chronicle of last day at Agknowledge Africa Share Fair #sfaddis

Originally posted on IFAD social reporting blog

I am now sitting at the penultimate session of the Agknowledge Africa Knowledge Share Fair - Focus on Farmers. I am sorry the event is coming to an end. The purpose of this share fair was to share and learn and I believe that we've achieved this goal. I hope that the fair has left a footprint in the hearts, minds and souls of the participants.

Earlier in the day I attended the radio and telecentre focus groups. The radio session was a great example of the impact of the Share Fair. The room was packed with participants who before the share fair did not know anything about podcasting, podcasting/audio software and hardware. Three days later here they were showing us the audio files they have created, sharing tips on how to conduct an effective interview and discuss challenges of interviewing with the help of an interpreter and avoiding being lost in translation.

We closed the radio session with one of the participants saying: "YES WE CAN. I now know HOW TO." That was such a wonderful way of finishing the session and showed the footprint of the share fair.

Often we are asked "what has been the impact of events such as share fair". The impact of these events are transformative. They change the way people work. They open your mind and remove the cobwebs in your mind and as a result you inevitably change behaviour which is transformative.

The telecentre session discussed issues of sustainabililty and how to generate local content. I think we came out of the session agreeing that we should rebapitze telecentres to "Knowledge hubs" or "Service centres".

On issue of sustainability, Paul offered some pragmatic advice on how to create a sustainable service centre, namely make sure:

• your services are competitive


• have a number of subsidized services so that you can keep your competitive edge


• provide a number of free services - especially services that really add value and improve the livelihoods of the smallholder producers, smallholder farmers and rural people

During the session participants mentioned that farmers are willing to pay for information and knowledge which is relevant to them. Personally, I have a problem with that, as we should consider knowledge is public global good and should be made available free of charge. But I stand to be corrected.

The group talked about how in Africa the village experts do not recognize themselves as experts and this is one of the reasons why local knowledge is not documented and shared. We talked about how Africans should exploit and make sure to systematically use their oral culture, their tradition of drama and songs to share local content.

One of the best reflections of this session was the fact that often indigenous knowledge is not valued and challenged by experts/researchers. This made me reflect that it seems to be human nature to underestimate one's own knowledge, perhaps this is why sharing tacit knowledge is a challenge?

We just finished the small group reflection and learning session and have successfully summarized the footprint and impact of this remarkable event in a tweet. Stay tuned and we'll be tweeting them live shortly. Follow #sfaddis

Land pathway getting on their Learning route!

Post by Willem Bettink, originally posted on IFAD social reporting blog



This second day has been very dense with discussion and sharing of experiences that has moved the land pathway onto developing its initial thoughts for the learning route(s). The morning session opened by presenting a first digestion of thoughts based on the country experiences presented yesterday. The experiences with various local land use planning shared the concern of the risk to exclude some particular groups of the local population from access to land in particular pastoralists, and very poor women.

An innovative approach by the SWADE-project in Swaziland enabled the integration of local land use planning into local development planning involving the communities throughout the process. This led Sharefair participants in the land pathway to consider if they should address the local land issues in the broader context of a sustainable livelihoods plan instead of as a stand alone issue.

These reflections fitted well with the presentation of the scoping paper¹ prepared by Fiona Flintan, which provides an overview of the benefits and challenges of customary land tenure systems. These include aspects such as: a focus on groups versus individuals; what factors influence the development of the customary system; and what are the challenges for various stakeholders involved.

But how does all of this work in practice-what was learned so far? There needs to be an enabling environment in place; achieving a shared vision and consensus between stakeholders; provision of legal backing for defining roles and responsibilities and a CBO with strong leadership, ownership and capacity.

Halfway though the day the land pathway opened its doors to Ariel Halpern of PROCASUR who completed his Odyssey leaving Chile last Saturday arriving today at the Sharefair at ILRI in Addis. For sure he had not lost his energy to stimulate us with his personal reflections and thoughts. He took us through what is known as the learning route –a tool developed and successfully delivered to support small farmers, women and youth in about 23 countries by PROCASUR.

Learning Routes has proven to be a flexile tool adapting it’s use to a diversity of topics(e.g.local government, land, gender, culture assets, rural business, rural ICTs, rural youth) and a wide range of people and countries specificity. Ariel defined the learning route fundamentals to be:

• Recognize that in rural areas it is possible to find successful solutions to existing and common problems which can be adapted and multiplied in other context; and


• Use a learning strategy that enables participants to acquire direct knowledge and arouse their curiosity and interest in learning.

Mino Hardi from Madagascar, who participated in the learning route on Women and Land rights, said that she started the learning route with a lot of ideas about what to do. The powerful experience for her was to visit communities and see how people had achieved putting similar ideas she had into practice –this gave an enormous push to her motivation to pursue her ideas once she returned form this learning route to Madagascar.

At this deep hour into the day, maps of Africa were pulled out! Participants were asked to map out the challenges they face in their countries, what they have to learn and what experiences/practices they can share. Enough for now, but more to follow tomorrow from this committed lot of practitioners!!!

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[1] Recognizing, formalizing and supporting customary land tenure in multi-use landscapes- Scoping paper (work in progress) by Fiona Flintan for the International Land Coalition.

Day two of Agknowledge Africa Knowledge Share Fair features focus groups

Posted by Roxanna Samii, originally posted on IFAD social reporting blog

Day two of the Agknowledge Africa Share Fair featured a series of focus groups. Participants had a wide choice and seamlessly distributed themselves among nine different focus groups.

I attended a fascinating session entitled "reporting agriculture" followed by a frustrating session on "mobile devices".

Susanna Thorp from WRENmedia gave a great presentation highlighting the challenges and opportunities of reporting on agricultural related issues. "Agriculture is a multidimensional and multifaceted subject", said Susanna. I was so pleased to hear Susanna refer to smallholder farmers as entrepeneurs. This statement resonates exactly with IFAD's vision!

She then proceeded to touch upon another topic close to IFAD's heart - young people. "We need to reach out to the young people, agriculture is not SUBSISTENCE only. Agriculture is a source of business!", said Susanna.

Not pre-empting the youth session later during the day, we talked how we can keep young people in the farming business. There was a consensus that for this to happen farming has to become a source of income.

The participants recognized that farmers do farming in an integrated manner and they do not just tackle one single aspect. This may be a challenge when one has to report about the topic. At the same time everyone recognized that farmers need to trust their information/knowledge source.

Moving to challenges and opportunities of reporting on agriculture, participants mentioned that one of the challenges we collectively face is to make journalists understand the value of reporting about agriculture. How can we make agriculture an enticing and attractive subject matter?

Rob Burnet shared a wonderful story of convergence of various technologies to communicate effectively. So we start with gold old radio. There was unanimous recognition that radio is an important communication tool for farmers to share information and knowledge.

Rob talked about an FM station run out of Kenya by young people called Shujaaz. What these young people are doing is absolutely remarkable. Besides running the FM station, they are disseminating agriculture related stories via a comic book, which they are distributing through the National Kenyan newspaper and through 12,000 M-PESA kiosks!!!

Moving on from radio, more convergence with social media tools. Shujaaz.fm also has a Facebook account with over 5000 followers, uses Twitter and of course the ubiquitous SMS messaging.

Susanna concluded the session by saying: "If you want to sell anything - especially if you wish to share and report on agriculture you need to be passionate!" And believe me there were many many passionate participants under the tent!!

Later during the day, I attended the mobile session and also virtually participated in the youth session thanks to Gauri's tweet coming out of that session.

I was very frustrated by the mobile session, as I heard more and more about pilot programmes which did not quite make it to the real world. This is really sad. I fail to understand why we need to duplicate and reinvent the wheel when it comes to developing mobile applications. How many market information applications do we need? How many pest control applications do we need.

I came out of that session thinking that there is little or no hope for private-public partnership. I think the only viable way of making any head way is for governments to play a much more prominent role and take things into hand!

In my virtual conversation with Gauri it was nice to see IPSAfrica (@ipsafrica) chipping. I hope they take the suggestion of hosting a virtual converation with young African people to see what is needed for them to stay in rural areas and become the future entrepreneurs!

We finished the morning with a lovely typical Ethiopian lunch. As today was Wednesday, we had a special "fasting lunch", which was based on beans, fish and vegetables!

I've now become an addict to the Bunna, so I proceeded to the Bunna corner and thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful Ethiopian coffee.

Tonight promises to be an exciting night. We'll be having a barbecue and we've been promised good music by the best DJ in town!!!

Sharing practices to make land tenure securer #sfaddis

By Willem Bettink, IFAD. Originally posted on IFAD social reporting blog

The land pathway got underway with knowledge from land right practitioners from Benin, Tanzania, Niger, Madagascar, Swaziland, Ethiopia and the Philippines. The focus of this pathway is to map out complementary good practices and innovations as part of a knowledge exchange programme on the customary land tenure and management systems.

Mike Taylor of the International Land Coalition opened by saying that, “Access to land and secure land tenure are key to poverty reduction”. During this first day participants shared their experiences with local customary land issues. Michael Odhiambo(Reconcile) identified a set of challenges they face in working with pastoralist in East –Africa and how empowerment of smallholder producers- pastoralist, farmers and fisher folk-is one of the ways to address these challenges. A participant stated” Can we empower pastoralists? Or have they been disempowered-as it is they who have all the knowledge about the land.”

As the day progressed it became clear that different countries (Tanzania, Benin, Madagascar) are facing the same challenge. As so often the problem is how we address the challenge together building upon each other knowledge rather then facing it alone deprived of that shared knowledge.

All in all the land practitioners proofed to be people of endurance and passionate commitment as this pathway went on for the whole day- and two more intense days will follow. Hopefully as of tomorrow with the participation of Ariel who has been travelling with his knowledge from Chile since Saturday!!

An afternoon well spent at the agknowledge Share Fair market place!

One of the great things about the Addis Share Fair is how the organizers have weaved in the local culture in this event. We're now got used to drinking Bunna - Ethiopian coffee, have wonderful Ethiopian lunch. Tomorrow we'll have a special lunch - because it is fast day!!!

The market place was the "pezzo forte" of the day! In line with the underlying principle of sharing the local culture, the market place mimicked an Ethiopian market place. The idea was that everyone walks around the market place and share their knowledge.

The participants had a great afternoon walking through the ILRI complex and visiting the various stalls. At the merkato we found wonderful ladies selling typical Ethiopian garments, scarves, shoes, belts and jewellery.

The climate change stall used GIS maps to show the impact of climate change. At the Guilt we saw lots of knowledge sharing happening. The art exhibition and the Bunna station was a nice pit stop to replenish and where you could see some beautiful paintings and have a nice cup of coffee.

Since ILRI is hosting this wonderful event, all the organizers were equipped with a livestock head - a donkey. We used this means of transportation to share our knowledge within the market place. It was FUN!!!! Everyone had a great time and everyone found the use of this innovative transportation mean very amusing. We finished off the day with "tasting session" where we tasted different types of honey and were served local Ethiopian drink.

It was a great day! Now we are doing the after action review of the day and we'll be going out to celebrate PierAndrea's birthday.

Tomorrow the pathways will continues and we'll start with focus groups!!! So stay tuned.

A domani!

Agknowledge Africa Share Fair officially opens with a compelling talk by Owen Barder #sfaddis

Originally posted on IFAD social reporting blog


At 8:50 on the dot, our Ethiopian horn blower - the official time keeper - called us to order and over 300 participants gathered in the big tent for the opening session of Agknolwedge Knowledge Share Fair. What a nice turn out!!!

For the opening session we had short statements from Bruce Scott ILRI's boss, followed by Lamourdia Thiombian, FAO representative, Koda Traore, CTA and I had the honour of representing IFAD.

Bruce talked about the how important it is for smallholder farmers to have the required knowledge to support and boost the agriculture sector in Africa. He talked about how smallholder farmers hold the key to transforming agriculture in Africa - something very close to IFAD's heart, mission and vision.

Mr Thiombian stressed the importance of informal gatherings, such as this very event to facilitate knowledge sharing across all levels. He also underscored the fact that people in Africa have a very good culture of sharing knowledge which has not necessarily been used for scientific purposes.

Mr Thiombian very succinctly shared the connecting and collecting dimensions of knowledge management, knowledge sharing in this soundbites: "Knowledge sharing is not only about sharing, it's about people networking and working together".

Koda representing CTA talked about how we should not confine knowledge in a box and highlighted the importance of sharing it and allowing knowledge to flow freely, horizontally and vertically.

I gave a bit of history of how this share fair came to be and how Share Fair 2009 co-organized by the Rome-based agencies has positively impacted our respective organizations and helped us to demystify knowledge management. No doubt, this Africa Share Fair will bring another wave of these changes.

I also talked about importance of puttinglocal knowledge in the forefront and sharing it, sharing it and sharing it!

Owen Barder gave a compelling talk entitled "is agriculture the key to development". You can download at http://www.owen.org/wp-content/uploads/101019-Addis-Share-Fair.pdf. Owen is a very charismatic and compelling speaker, so I probably will not do him justice by trying to summarize the salient points of his talk, that is why I recommend you look at his presentation yourselves - especially the slide on

He talked about why knowledge is important for development. He talked about how through out history information and knowledge matters because it is a fundamental driver for economic growth. He then introduced the concept of wicked problems which are at the heart of development, and how we sometimes fail to understand these problems let alone even dreaming to coming up with a solution for them.

He showed a video to make the case that all successful complex systems are the result of evolution!!! What a concept, right?!!! And proceeded to make the point that development is "wicked problem" and has many complexities.

He made the case that we need to concentrate on making knowledge in development more evolutionary and the fact that we do not need authoritative answers, but diversity in answers. He said: "We need diversity, engagement and feedback process".

He underscored the importance of feedback loops as they drive performance in terms of service delivery and made the case that as change makers we need to build feedback loops. He proceeded to say that people get information in the context of something that they are doing and in the context of their daily life!

He made the case for publishing information in an open standard way to allow a seamless sharing of information.

His slide on shift of paradigm and how knowledge for development has evolved over time from secrecy to communication to being wired - or rather all the concepts that have expired, or are tired and finally the new paradigm of engagement is a gem!!!! One to live by!!

Thank you Owen for such a refreshing and unconventional talk. Much appreciated. I sincerely hope our paths will cross sooner rather than later, because all of us have a lot to learn from you!!!

So this was just a short summary of this morning. As I am writing this blogpost, the market place is well under way. I'll be posting the pictures shorty, so do not run away!!! Stay put. More coming soon.

Agknowledge Africa Share Fair: The show is on the road

It is months that we've been planning the Agknowledge Africa Share Fair - and now finally the show is on the road!!!

We're seeing the ILRI complex getting busier and busier by the hour. It is so nice to see old friends and colleagues. There is a nice feeling of anticipation about the event. Everyone is looking forward to meeting new people and to learn and share with each other.

The organizers met earlier today to go over the agenda and to iron out the last logistical issues before the big day. The social reporters will be meeting in less than 20 minutes to organize themselves. Make sure you follow us on the blog and on twitter. The hastag to follow is #sfaddis.

We're going to start tomorrow with what is now known as day zero. Day zero is a learning and sharing day, where a number of colleagues from various organizations will host different sessions on a range of topics such as:

• blogging
• collaborative writing
• knowledge sharing methods
• Google geo products
• journalistic reporting

The big show starts on Tuesday and it promises to be an super EXCITING event. One of the great attractions of this event is the Ethiopian style market place, followed by the learning pathways - inspired by IFAD-funded PROCASUR programme. The learning pathways will focus on:

• water
• livestock
• land
• climate change

The event will also benefit from 5 thematic focus discussions on topics such as:

• Young people
• Documenting farmer knowledge
• Writeshop process
• Telecenters
• Mobile devices
• Storytelling
• Make knowledge travel
• Radio
• Indigenous knowledge
• Value chains
• Reporting agriculture
• Spoken web
• KM impact assessment

So keep tuned on this channel. We'll be reporting live. If you have any queries, want to know more about the share fair please use this blog or twitter (#sfaddis) and share your thoughts with us!

Balance muy positivo para Feria del Conocimiento

Con un balance altamente positivo y con una excelente evaluación por parte de casi 200 participantes concluyó la Feria del Conocimiento para América Latina y el Caribe, realizada en el CIAT entre el 25 y el 27 de mayo.

Durante 3 días, representantes de 70 organizaciones de 18 países compartieron experiencias y buenas prácticas en el tema de la gestión de conocimiento, centrándose en las áreas de agricultura y seguridad alimentaria.

Para la mayoría de los asistentes, lo novedoso fueron las metodologías empleadas para las diferentes presentaciones, talleres y exposiciones, que generaron un ambiente amigable y disposición de todos para compartir y proponer acciones que incrementen la gestión del conocimiento en la región.

La feria fue organizada conjuntamente por el Programa de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (ICT-KM) del Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAR), la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), el Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA) y la Comunidad de Gestión de Conocimiento para el Desarrollo (KM4Dev).

Durante los talleres hubo enorme demanda para conocer más sobre bases de datos, portales web, comunidades y redes, monitoreo y evaluación, cadenas de valor, conocimiento local. Hubo sesiones dedicadas al uso de medios sociales (blogs, wikis, Twitter, redes sociales), herramientas de colaboración (Google Apps) y métodos de gestión de conocimiento, tales como análisis de redes y dinámicas para reuniones.

En la sesión de clausura, el Director General del CIAT, Ruben Echeverría, se comprometió para que esta institución siga propiciando espacios para eventos de esta naturaleza, que permiten el fortalecimiento de redes regionales e internacionales y, a la vez, consolidan el reposicionamiento del CIAT en América Latina y el Caribe.

"Estamos de vuelta a la región y vamos a tomar muy en serio los resultados de esta feria", dijo. "Analizaremos sus propuestas para hacer que el CIAT no sea sólo un sitio donde se realizan investigaciones de alto nivel, sino que vamos a convertirlo -con el apoyo de socios claves- en una plataforma abierta del conocimiento, a disposición de todos los países de América Latina y el Caribe", dijo Echeverría.

Por su parte, la Directora del Programa de Nuevas Tecnologías y Gestión del Conocimiento (ICT-KM) del CGIAR, Enrica Porcari, también se mostró satisfecha por los resultados e hizo un llamado a todos los representantes de las organizaciones presentes para seguir trabajando en esta tarea de compartir conocimiento, pero "de manera más inteligente" para llegar a más comunidades.

Steve Katz , de la FAO, en Roma, recordó tener en cuenta que “la gestión del conocimiento es un medio y no un fin”. Él, junto con otros funcionarios de esa organización, tuvieron presencia virtual tanto al inicio como en la clausura de la Feria e interactuaron con el público.

A su turno, el Director de Liderazgo Técnico y Gestión del Conocimiento del Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA), James French, dijo que se ha demostrado que "somos una comunidad que estamos aprendiendo, intercambiando, avanzando", y manifestó el compromiso del IICA para seguir apoyando estas iniciativas regionales. "La gestión del conocimiento es uno de nuestros pilares", aseguró.

A manera de talk show se llevó a cabo el taller temático de Cadenas de Valor

Más de 40 participantes de la Feria aprendieron y compartieron su trayectoria e inquietudes alrededor de 5 experiencias compartidas:

• "Unidos, abriendo puertas. La asociatividad como salida comercial para las microempresas rurales”, Programa Oportunidades Rurales – Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, Colombia
• Conformación de un centro de gestión veredal (CGV) para los productores de Tomate de los municipios de Villa de Leyva, Santa Sofía y Sáchica, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia
• Experiencias de Red SICTA en gestión de conocimiento de innovaciones en cadenas agroalimentarias de maíz y fríjol en Centroamérica, IICA/Red SICTA, Nicaragua
• Gestión del Conocimiento para 6.000 familias Centroamericanas productoras de cacao. CATIE, Costa Rica
• Forjando Alianzas Dinámicas para la Competitividad - Gestores de Innovación en Agroindustria Rural (GIAR), CIAT

La sesión, facilitada por Mark Lundy  y Simone Staiger-Rivas, ambos del CIAT, inició con una rápida presentación de todos los participantes. Nombre, actividad e intereses alrededor del tema rompieron el hielo en cada uno de los grupos.

Del Cómo Voy Yo al Cómo Vamos Nosotros
Mark Lundy, hizo una breve introducción al tema. Luego dio paso a una clara y precisa diferenciación entre cadenas productivas y cadenas de valor y esto se convirtió en el componente clave de la sesión.

Las cadenas tradicionales son conocidas como cadenas productivas, en ellas priman los intereses personales. La filosofía de este tipo de cadenas está relacionada con el nivel propio de competitividad.

Por otra parte las cadenas de valor hacen referencia a modelos donde el flujo de información es más abierto y constante. Estas cadenas se enfocan en temas de calidad y el valor agregado del producto. Sus productos son diferenciadores. Su filosofía le apuesta a la competitividad del sistema.

5 experiencias ejemplares
Asuntos como buenas prácticas agrícolas, trabajo integral con familias productoras, escuelas de campo, trabajar proyectos de vida, articular juntos la producción, formar alianzas, utilizar medios tradicionales y nuevos medios de comunicación para la divulgación fueron algunos de los métodos que las experiencias emplearon para lograr gestionar el conocimiento y dar paso a la consolidación de cadenas de valor.

De todas las reflexiones surgieron nuevos interrogantes:

• ¿Cómo obtener indicadores de pobreza?
• ¿Cómo las cadenas de valor han mejorado el nivel de vida?
• ¿Cuán importante son las relaciones de confianza entre actores de las cadenas?
• Y ¿cómo la convergencia de medios pude contribuir a gestionar el conocimiento?

Los invitamos a participar con sus comentarios e interrogantes y juntos, seguir cosntruyendo conocimiento

Herramientas digitales en red para la participación ciudadana

 Por Claudia Calderón, periodista CIAT

Eliana Quiroz, representante del Programa de la Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD), expuso dos proyectos durante el espacio abierto de la Feria del Conocimiento.

El primero de ellos fue  www.gobernabilidad.org.bo , un portal que le apuesta a la gestión del conocimiento y la inclusión.  Desde el inicio de la propuesta, se analizaron los diferentes públicos interesados en el tema y se diagnosticaron las herramientas digitales en red óptimas,  que le brindarían a la comunidad los recursos necesarios para el análisis y la entrega de información relacionada con gobernabilidad.



Un blog, una página web, Twitter, Flickr, Blip tv , Youtube, entre otros fueron las herramientas digitales que se utilizaron para ser puente de información y debate en las comunidades interesadas en participar.

Hasta el momento las estrategias que se han aplicado a cada uno de los medios han sido exitosas.

El segundo instancia se explicó el caso www.ushahidi.com, una herramienta que se empleó en las elecciones departamentales y municipales del 2010 en Bolivia. La población civil tuvo la oportunidad de georeferenciar los reportes de las experiencias vividas por las personas que habían acudido a las urnas de votación. Facilitar esta herramienta y difundir su uso generó la participación activa de la comunidad.

Ver la presentación realizada por Eliana Quiroz.
Contacto en Twitter: twitter.com/e_liana

Aplicación de redes: 3 casos para debatir

Por Claudia Calderón, periodista CIAT

3 experiencias de aplicación de redes sociales para gestionar el conocimiento en diferentes espacios para el desarrollo fueron expuestas en el taller Comunidades y Redes, bajo la coordinación de Germán Escobar (RIMISP, Chile) y Viviana Palmieri (IICA, Costa Rica).



Las Experiencias compartidas:

·Hernando Riveros presentó el caso de PRODARNET: Comunidad Virtual para la Promoción de la Agroindustria Rural en América Latina y el Caribe, IICA, Perú.

Se expusieron los medios de comunicación más utilizados para comunicarse con su público externo y la experiencia que han tenido en su aplicación. La página web del IICA, donde publican comunicados que dan cuenta de los avances de las investigaciones, es una herramienta que les ha permitido mantener informado al público y se ha caracterizado por un gran flujo de visitas.

Sin embrago, optaron por aplicar una red social llamada la Red Social sobre Agronegocios en Espacios Rurales la cual les ha generado mejor experiencia e interactividad con el público, ya que se ha convertido en un espacio para compartir experiencias y proponer soluciones en diferentes áreas de trabajo donde están involucrados los técnicos y campesinos.

·      Ángela  María Zuluaga, representante del Proyecto de Fortalecimiento a la Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional en Colombia – PROSEAN, PROSEAN-Convenio Acción Social – FAO, Colombia.

Ángela mostró la página web de PROSEAN y las herramientas digitales en red que utilizan para informar, comunicar e intercambiar información con el público para dar a conocer los procesos en Seguridad Alimentaria.

Estos espacios en red generados han sido con el fin de construir cultura ciudadana con respecto a los temas nutricionales del país.

·      Dora Arévalo presentó el caso del Programa Alianza Cambio Andino: Innovación agrícola con mayor inclusión, CIAT-COLNODO, Colombia.

El Portal en línea, las listas de distribución, las bases de datos en internet y los foros electrónicos que utilizan para comunicarse con el público son aplicadas para llevar a cabo direcciones estrategias de la Alianza Cambio Andino que busca generar espacios donde se fortalezcan y se promuevan las metodologías participativas.

Estas herramientas brindan un espacio de discusión, propuesta de soluciones y puesta en marcha de proyectos para promover políticas que fortalezcan el desarrollo de las comunidades más pobres.

Al terminar las exposiciones se conformaron grupos de discusión para hablar acerca de los tres casos y dar opiniones acerca de cómo motivar para que las personas se sigan apropiando de estas iniciativas, qué hacer para llegar a otros públicos de interés y qué argumentos o indicadores utilizar para demostrar la importancia y el impacto que tiene estos medios.

Para el primer caso se destacaron dos clases de redes: la primera la definieron como un grupo de personas que tienen objetivos en común para llevar a cabo un proyecto y unen esfuerzos para llevarlo a cabo; la segunda corresponde a un grupo de personas que comparten un espacio en común para dar a conocer sus ideas, pero no realizan tareas en conjunto.

Para que las redes logren impacto, los productos deben estar alineados a los objetivos propuestos e incorporar grupos que permitan llegar al usuario final.

Para medir el impacto de los productos se propusieron algunos indicadores:

·         Indicadores de gestión (número de registrados, participación, etc.)
·         Medición con respecto a una línea base, en proyectos con inicio y fin definidos.
·         A través de concurso, para que los participantes aporten los argumentos para su continuidad.
·         Medir cuantas organizaciones se han vinculado a la red, las cuales no lo harían por otros medios.

Para continuar con las redes y seguir logrando gran impacto se sugirió continuar con el papel del facilitador, quien promueve constantemente la participación de los usuarios.

Para el segundo caso se recomendó vincular o hacer alianzas estratégicas con otros actores, como las universidades, para introducir las nuevas metodologías de participación para generar políticas públicas e involucrar a los ministerios y gremios para incorporar en la toma de decisiones para generar políticas públicas.

Se destacó la importancia del banco de argumentos y evidencias como instrumento de sensibilidad y documentación para las personas encargadas exponer propuestas frente a los tomadores de decisión.

En el tercer caso se identificaron tres posibles estrategias para la continuidad de su red:

·         Identificar los usuarios y sus intereses.
·         Educar formadores de redes.
·         Generar alianzas (departamentales, comunales, etc.) con “expertos” temáticos que estén vinculados a la comunidad.

Después de esta lluvia de ideas para fortalecer las redes de los casos expuestos, algunos de los participantes manifestaron sus inquietudes acerca de la existencia de una formula o metodología para hacer una red, algunos expertos en el tema respondieron que no existe ninguna metodología a seguir, pero que en el momento de desarrollar una red se debe diagnosticar las necesidades de las personas y mantener su gestión.

En el 'bar de la feria' se llevó a cabo el conversatorio con los moderadores

En medio de comentarios informales y en un ambiente propicio para compartir conocimiento 7 facilitadores compartieron con el auditorio las conclusiones generales a las que se llegó en las sesiones temáticas del día anterior.

Monitoreo y evaluación, bases de datos, cadenas de valor, métodos y herramientas, conocimiento local, comunidades y redes fueron los temas sobres los que se compartieron experiencias.



Se concluyó que el tiempo de discusión durante las sesiones fue corto, pero las experiencias muy importantes como modelo de aprendizaje. También hubo espacio para que los participantes de la Feria complementaran la información que sus moderadores presentaron.

En próximos posts les compartiremos las conclusiones generales a las que se llegó en cada uno de los talleres.

Blogs: una manera fácil y dinámica de comunicar

Por Claudia Calderón, periodista CIAT

Antes de entrar explicar el paso a paso de cómo crear un blog, Camilo Villa quien fue el encargado enseñar el uso de esta herramienta durante las sesiones paralelas de la Feria, la definió como un diario o bitácora en red que permite publicar imágenes, videos y textos de temas diferentes temas o contenidos específicos para un público determinado.



Villa mencionó las características y las ventajas de las diferentes plataformas en línea. Sin embargo, escogió Wordpress para que los 20 participantes observaran cómo se realiza un blog.

Cómo utilizar categorías, escoger la plantilla, publicar artículos, permitir el acceso a otros autores, hacer páginas dentro de la bitácora, agregarle etiquetas a las publicaciones, compartir videos y fotos que se encuentran en otras plataformas y, algunos tips que deben tener en cuenta para escribir fueron los puntos desarrollados durante la sesión.

Entendiendo el Acceso Abierto y la Propiedad Intelectual

En la tarde del martes Kemley Camacho (Sulá Batsú, Costa Rica) nos acercó al tema del Acceso Abierto y la Propiedad Intelectual en todos aquellos productos o recursos derivados de la investigación científica, el saber local o la academia, entre otros.

Para ello se valió de la técnica de la pecera, una dinámica donde los representantes de las diferentes experiencias compartidas se ubicaron en el centro del salón, mientras nos contaban de qué se trataba su propuesta de trabajo. Se dejaba una silla vacía para aquellos "por fuera de la pecera" que quisieran entrar y compartir su vivencia. También se invitó a participar a Partha Mudgil, experto del CIAT en el tema de Propiedad Intelectual.

Después de las expocisiones se crearon grupos que debían trabajar sobre cuatro grandes temas:

• Qué entendemos por acceso abierto y propiedad intelectual
• Retos y factores de éxito para América Latina y el Caribe
• Por qué es importante este tema para América Latina y el Caribe
• Acciones que se deben tomar

Al final se expusieron las conclusiones más importantes en cada tema. Como acuerdo general se expuso que el acceso abierto es un medio para que el público acceda a los resultados de investigación, pero no es el fin.

Así se vivió el taller de portales web

Más de 20 participantes de la Feria compartieron sus opiniones para responder cómo los espacios web están ayudando a compartir conocimiento y cómo se lleva a cabo su proceso de empoderamiento.







Temas como el idioma y el lenguaje (coloquial o técnico) empleado, los medios de difusión para llegar al público objetivo y el uso de ciertas tecnologías que ayudan a acercarse al usuario fueron abordados durante la sesión.

4 experiencias fueron compartidas como ejemplo de portales:

• Red de información y comunicación del sector agropecuario – AGRONET y Red de información en ciencia y tecnología agrícola y afines en Colombia, Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural – AGRONET, Colombia

• Nuevas tecnologías aplicadas a la gestión de pequeñas producciones de frutas de Argentina (Proyecto fruTIC), Asociación Cultural para el Desarrollo Integral, Argentina

• VERCON – Virtual Extension Research Communication Network, FAO, Italia

• TECA “Technology for Agriculture”, FAO, Italia

• El SISAV-Sistema de Información del Sector Agropecuario del Valle del Cauca, una herramienta articuladora de información, conocimientos y saberes, Sociedad del Conocimiento del Valle del Cauca, Colombia
  
  

A través de un juego de roles y presentaciones muy dinámicas, los expositores compartieron sus experiencias y explicaron cómo se generan esos procesos de conocimiento y los mecanismos o herramientas que usan.

Los facilitadores fueron Miguel Saravia y Musuq Briceño, ambos de Condesan, Perú.

Para ver más información sobre las propuestas visite: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZfQ80AMm5DBZGZ4Y253ZndfOWN6dDVoM2tk&hl=en

Google Apps: un mundo de posibilidades

Google Apps reune en un solo sitio todas las herramientas online que permiten, de manera sencilla y ágil, compartir y organizar la información entre grupos de trabajo.

Tania Jordan, coordinatora técnica del programa ICT-KM, nos explicó una por una las diversas aplicaciones con las que cuenta Google Apps. Empezamos con el Gmail, que ofrece el servicio de correo electrónico e integra chat (Google Talk), mensajes de voz y videoconferencia. El acceso a Gmail se puede hacer en cualquier momento y desde cualquier lugar, incluso a través del teléfono móvil. Cuenta con un sistema de filtro de spam que ofrece una alta protección para el correo.

La siguiente aplicación que exploramos fue la de Google Calendar, que ofrece la posibilidad de organizar reuniones en línea. Esta aplicación también está integrada con Gmail, se puede compartir con grupos de trabajo, permite añadir attachtments y tiene la opción de notificaciones vía SMS, en los países donde ese servicio esté disponible.

Google Docs es otra de las herramientas de colaboración que permite compartir documentos en línea. Google Docs tiene las funcionalidades básicas, similares a las ofrecidas por Office. Cuenta con documentos, hojas de cálculo, presentaciones, que pueden ser accesadas en cualquier lugar mientras otros usuarios la accesan simultáneamente. Un documento puede ser editado al tiempo hasta por 10 personas, en un formato compatible para todos los sistemas operativos.

También exploramos la creación de sitios web, a través de Google Sites. Lo mejor es que no requiere conocimiento previo de lenguaje HTML y cuenta con plantillas de fácil uso, en las que se pueden centralizar las demás aplicaciones de Google, todo en solo sitio.

Una interesante sesión en la que todas debemos participar. Herramientas fáciles de usar y disponibles para todas.

Vea la presentación aquí

Comenzó Feria del Conocimiento

Con delegados de 70 organizaciones de 18 países comenzó este martes, 25 de mayo, la Feria del Conocimiento, en la sede del CIAT.

El saludo de bienvenida estuvo a cargo del Director del Área de Investigación para América Latina y el Caribe, Elcio Guimarães, quien invitó a los asistentes a aprovechar al máximo este encuentro y fortalecer las redes de colaboración para hacer más eficiente la transferencia de conocimientos a quienes lo necesitan.
"Sin una colaboración eficaz para realizar investigaciones conjuntas, sin un adecuado uso de las tecnologías para facilitar esa transferencia del conocimiento, no logramos llegar a los agricultores, que es nuestro objetivo principal", dijo Guimarães.

Por su parte, el Director General, Ruben Echeverría, hizo un saludo virtual a la audiencia, desde la sede de la FAO, en Roma, donde varios funcionarios participaron de una videoconferencia en la sesión inaugural. "En el CIAT estamos haciendo un gran esfuerzo para abrir más el conocimiento y compartirlo mejor", dijo Echeverría, e hizo un llamado para trabajar de un modo mejor en redes "sin enredarnos".

Ante un auditorio lleno, el Director General manifestó que el uso de las nuevas tecnologías es importante, pero advirtió que no hay que dejarse llevar por la velocidad de ellas, sin antes definir contenidos para compartir todo el conocimiento que se genera tanto en el CIAT como en otras instituciones.
Enrica Porcari, Directora del Programa de Nuevas Tecnologías y Gestión del Conocimiento (ICT-KM) del CGIAR, propuso como reto a todos los participantes, que al finalizar la Feria "tengamos un plan de acción claro para integrarnos más, fortalecer redes, compartir experiencias y poner a viajar el conocimiento para que llegue a muchas partes".

A su turno, el Director Ejecutivo del Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la Ecorregión Andina (Condesan), le pidió a los participantes que sean "audaces" en sus propuestas, que se construya sobre la base de lo que ya se tiene y que se enfrenten los desafíos para compartir el conocimiento con quienes más lo necesitan.

Todo listo para la Feria del Conocimiento

Desde el lunes 24 de mayo hasta el jueves 27 cerca de 200 participantes de más de 10 países de la región se reunirán en el CIAT para compartir experiencias y buenas prácticas en el tema de la gestión de conocimiento, específicamente en las áreas de agricultura y seguridad alimentaria, utilizando talleres temáticos, capacitaciones técnicas, exposiciones de afiches y proyección de videos.

Durante los talleres se abordarán los siguientes temas: bases de datos, portales web, comunidades y redes, monitoreo y evaluación, cadenas de valor, conocimiento local.

"Los participantes podrán aprender sobre el uso de medios sociales, tales como wikis, blogs, Twitter, redes sociales, herramientas de colaboración (Google Apps) y métodos de gestión de conocimiento (análisis de redes, dinámicas para reuniones)", dijo Simone Staiger, coordinadora del evento en el CIAT.

En su organización participan el Programa de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (ICT-KM) del Grupo Consultivo para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CGIAR), la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), el Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA) y la Comunidad de Gestión de Conocimiento para el Desarrollo (KM4Dev).

"Esta Feria es una gran oportunidad para conocer e interactuar con socios y colaboradores que trabajan en toda América Latina facilitando que el conocimiento viaje y se fortalezca en la región", dijo el Director General Ruben Echeverría.

La Feria contará con un pre-evento organizado por el Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural (RIMISP) sobre "Estrategias de acceso a mercados de los productores rurales pobres en América Latina". Después de la Feria habrá una reunión de la Comunidad de Gestión de Conocimiento para el Desarrollo (KM4Dev), con el objetivo de trabajar el tema de una red más activa de profesionales de gestión de conocimiento en la región de América Latina y el Caribe.

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