• Policy Planning: A New Global Context
• What is Capacity Building?
• Components of Capacity Building
• Capacity building and its role in the new proposed AGRIS Network
• The members of the AGRIS Network
• Conclusion

Policy Planning: A New Global Context

1. This paper aims to consider the future of the AGRIS Network in the context of other global programmes and the recent trend which has been influencing the mechanisms of policy decision making and implementation in the United Nations system, as well as other key development actors. Vital processes such as governance, participation, transparency, empowerment and most importantly capacity building are dominating the agendas of international programmes and within this context the role of information and knowledge has been recognized as being of crucial value to decision making in development. General global consensus has set capacity building as a main priority and necessary prerequisite for achieving the ultimate goal of sustainable agricultural development.

2. In this respect, we envisage that the new AGRIS Network will focus on developing information management capacities in countries. This will be accomplished with the view of strengthening the AGRIS network’s role as a provider of information and knowledge in sustainable agricultural development.

What is Capacity Building?

3 Capacity building is the combination of efforts needed to develop, enhance and utilize the skills of people, institutions and countries to manage and support sustainable development, and to incorporate the principles of sustainable development in strategic plans and programmes. It is closely associated with an approach which emphasizes negotiation, participation in development processes, planning and implementation and the building of institutional frameworks which favour such advancements.

Components of Capacity Building

4. Capacity building encompasses a number of other factors which complement and support its goals and objectives. These components are very closely linked and frequently overlap in terms of objectives, activities and outputs. The interaction of all of these components is the most effective method of achieving capacity building.

The participatory approach is based on a decentralized model where the doors of policy making arenas are opened to allow and encourage broad public participation, or governance with the participation of actors including governments, international organisations, universities, research institutes, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and civil society in genera (including framer or producer cooperatives and associations), bringing decision making closer to the end users. The AGRIS Network will undoubtedly benefit from increased participation which will not only lead to the widening of the knowledge source base but will also allow all levels to voice their needs and information requirements

Information exchange is crucial for capacity building and sustainable development where everyone is considered a user and provider of information, and where the need for information arises at all levels. Access to and the use of information is especially important in decision making. AGRIS’s main objective is to maximise the quantity and quality of information dissemination in agricultural research.

The creation and expansion of active partnerships throughout the world is continuously encouraged. These networking activities, which involve exchanges of ‘know-how" and continuous interaction between one or more actors, lead to the sharing of best practices and success stories and other experiences allowing for improved skills and interventions. The members of the AGRIS Network will actively participate in such networking activities and will consequently enjoy the benefits.

Training is a key activity in order to achieve successful capacity building. The development of abilities and the acquisition of new skills are gained through class room and on-the-job training, seminars and other didactic methods. The incorporation of training in the agendas of countries is essential for empowering them through the acquisition of new skills which will better enable them to achieve their goals.

The ability to mobilize resources and to carry out fundraising activities in order to achieve financial self-sufficiency, is a further necessary aspect to ensure effective capacity building. Furthermore gaining knowledge and experience on how best to invest acquired funds will maximize benefits and minimize waste. Enabling the countries to search for resources to fund and plan their own programmes and activities is a very important building block in order to ensure financial self-sufficiency and self-management in the future. It is therefore fundamental to the success of sustainable development.



New technologies, including information technologies (such as Internet), play a very important role in developing the effectiveness and efficiency of countries to address and resolve their own development needs. New Technologies can offer precious time and cost saving means of achieving the goals of development programmes. Individuals must be trained to use and exploit the technologies available and most importantly they must be provided with access to appropriate technologies. The use of new technologies by the AGRIS Network members will greatly improve their capacities to disseminate and search for agricultural information as well as providing means for communicating and working in partnership with the other network members.

Monitoring and evaluation activities are important quality control tools and are also very important for the exchange of experiences, lessons learnt, best practices and success stories between countries. They also provide benchmarks for setting standards/indicators and long term-goals which countries aim to achieve. The implementation of monitoring and evaluation activities by the AGRIS Network members to evaluate their own work as well as their partners’ activities, will allow them to build on their own skills and to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.

Capacity building and its role in the new proposed AGRIS Network

5. AGRIS is the International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology, created by FAO to facilitate information exchange and to identify world literature dealing with all aspects of agriculture. AGRIS was set up as a cooperative system in which participating countries input references to the literature produced within their boundaries and, in return, drew on the information provided by other participants.

6. As already mentioned above, information and technology are essential components of capacity building and sustainable development, and AGRIS foresaw this necessity when it was established back in the 1970s. However the environment in which AGRIS is operating has changed dramatically from its days as pioneer of information dissemination. In fact if one takes a closer look at the role of information, knowledge and technology in the development process today you will see that it is becoming increasingly systematic and its role in decision making arenas at all levels is continuously growing in importance. In view of these changes the envisaged AGRIS Network will attempt to bridge the gap which has emerged between the old AGRIS mechanisms and services and present day demands.

7. From the standpoint of developing countries the problem of how to deal with such change is rather a complicated issue. These countries will have to assimilate the new conception of information management and the associated modern technological tools in order to better promote sustainable development. Furthermore all over the world, in both developed and developing countries, traditional institutional models have felt the need to undergo structural reform in order to fulfil their objectives in a more effective and efficient way.

8. The Report of the Expert Consultation on the Redesign of AGRIS and CARIS held in Rome in January 1998, which dealt with the re-evaluation of the AGRIS/CARIS system, took these considerations into account and came up with a strategy which aims to resolve such obstacles. The Report stressed a shift in emphasis from data processing to information dissemination, with a new focus on developing information management capacities among countries and enabling them to develop national umbrella information management programmes. It was also stated that the network of AGRIS/CARIS national participating centres and skills that have been acquired should be retained, but where appropriate redirected in order to help fulfil the more general capacity building role. Taking these recommendations into account, the proposal for a reinvigorated AGRIS structure, as outlined in the paper "Proposal for the Revised Structure of the AGRIS Network" (GIL:AGRIS/CARIS/TC/4/2), relies a great deal on the notion of capacity building in countries as a key factor for its success.

9. In order to confront and resolve these issues, the role and activities of both developed and developing countries need to be carefully addressed and the capacities of the individuals, institutions and countries should be developed and improved in order to allow them to deal effectively and autonomously with the management of agricultural information. In accordance with this global panorama, the components of capacity building have been adopted as "core issues" by the proposed AGRIS structure, and each factor has been placed as a fundamental prerequisite for the success of the proposed AGRIS Network objectives:

10. The AGRIS Network will fully integrate the participatory approach as it will operate in an environment of governance and participation. The participating centres themselves will be involved at all levels of activities, and furthermore will work in close contact with governments, NGOs, CBOs, Universities, research institutes and civil society in order to collect agricultural information at all levels. This bottom-up approach allows for among other advantageous aspects, the voice of local and grass-roots organizations to be heard which will enable user needs to be identified and addressed.

11. AGRIS was originally established to facilitate and promote the dissemination and exchange of agricultural information. Therefore at the time of its creation in 1975 AGRIS set one of the prerequisites for capacity building, the exchange of information, as its overall objective. This also highlights the long-term vision of those which were involved in founding the system. Today this factor has become a global priority and it is only through the exchange of information that individuals, institutions and countries will be able to improve their skills and knowledge allowing for sustainable development. The AGRIS Network will strive to further improve the excellent work carried out through the AGRIS/CARIS systems in the field of information dissemination and exchange.

12. The setting up of the AGRIS Network itself reflects an important component of capacity building and will favour and encourage the creation and expansion of partnerships at all levels.

The members of the AGRIS Network

These consolidated partnerships will exercise great influence on the capacity building within countries. Networking activities, which will commence in the near future, will provide the perfect platform for exchanging experiences, best practices and success stories which play a central role in improving skills and abilities. The network itself will be made up of various subjects: the AGRIS centres themselves, members of the research community, chambers of agricultural cooperatives, representatives of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the congressional committee and statistical bureaux. The AGRIS database, as well as other statistical databases, will form the information core around which the network will operate. The members of the network will draw and input agricultural information into these databases as part of their networking activities.

13. The AGRIS Network will place training in all forms, including the training of trainers, as one of its main priorities. Training, in which ever form it is presented, is arguably the most essential tool required for teaching new skills and enabling effective capacity building. The participation of partners which specialize in planning and implementing training in the AGRIS Network will ensure that training ‘know-how’ and experience will be shared among all.

14. Giving the AGRIS members, through the AGRIS Network, access to information and training opportunities on the skills and abilities needed for fund-raising activities and efficiently managing financial resources, will provide them with tools to achieve self-sufficiency. Operating as a member of the AGRIS Network will not only favour the sharing of information on best practices and success stories but it will also widen the members acquaintance of funding bodies and their mechanisms. Financial independence not only allows countries and institutions to have greater control over their own activities but also increases self-esteem which is an important aspect of capacity-building.

15. The activities carried out under the AGRIS Network will greatly rely on the use of new technologies especially those used for collecting, managing and disseminating information. Some countries or regions, for various reasons, are unable to gain access to some of the new technologies which are currently available. In order to give as wide a population as possible the opportunity to utilize such technologies, the AGRIS Network will favour the development of partnerships between members and organizations or programmes which specialize in enabling isolated regions and populations to enjoy the benefits which technologies, such as Internet, offer.

16. The AGRIS Network will strongly advise that the members carry out or commission periodic monitoring and evaluation activities in order to ensure that standards are met and maintained. The subsequent dissemination of the conclusions reached during monitor and evaluation activities will allow the network’s members to learn from each other’s successes and mistakes. Furthermore, in order to ensure that the products on offer reflect the information which is effectively available world-wide, allowing all regions full access to all agricultural information, the information resources stored and disseminated through AGRIS should be periodically monitored and reviewed and updated when necessary.

Conclusion

17. The role and importance of "Capacity Building" in obtaining sustainable agricultural development has received widespread recognition, and its incorporation in AGRIS at this point in time is of fundamental importance in order to ensure its future success.

18. The proposed AGRIS Network aims to adopt and implement all of the components of capacity building with the aim of enhancing the countries’ information management capabilities and at the same time striving to render each one as autonomous and self-sufficient as possible. The key advantage of the proposed new network and participatory approach is that it will dramatically increase the number of potential beneficiaries, bringing up-to-date agricultural information and statistics right to the finger tips of decision and policy makers, as well as to all the other active partners involved in the overall objective of achieving sustainable agricultural development and food security for all.

 Proposal for the new structure of the AGRIS network
 Adapting the AGRIS mechanisms in view of decentralization and the proposed AGRIS network