FAO/COAIM-2/Inf.5

1. Following the recommendations of the Members Countries at COAIM 2000 the Secretariat convened a meeting of international agencies¹ in order to explore the mechanisms for improved coordination in capacity building in information management. The meeting was convened in Rome on Sunday 22 September, 2002 to discuss approaches and the mechanisms for improving collaboration between agencies. This paper summarizes the group`s conclusions.

2. The group noted that COAIM-2000 had recommended that FAO promote coordination between development assistance agencies active in capacity building in agricultural information management in Member Countries.

3. The group recognized that:

• many agencies and organizations including FAO that are active in capacity building have already formed productive and useful partnerships;
• such partnerships are often limited in scope, and their outputs are not always disseminated effectively;
• many web-based linking or portal facilities covering information management and communication and capacity building already exist, albeit with selective treatment of the subject;
• partnerships in capacity building would have increased coherence if an international forum was provided to foster a shared vision and a common approach.

4. The group noted that any efforts towards increased collaboration should be set within the guiding framework of the Millenium Development Goals on poverty, hunger, the environment, and global partnerships, while also focusing on achieving the goal of greater efficiency and effectiveness of information exchange and communication.

5. The group recognized the objective for FAO and its collaborators should be to improve complementarity and collaboration in capacity building efforts in information management, and in that context the Group recommended that:

• An informal Inter-Agency Advisory Group (IAG) be formed comprising a small number of individuals nominated by international organizations active in capacity building in information management, in agriculture, in food security, and in the wider development context.
• FAO should act in a secretariat role to the IAG, and be responsible for keeping members up-to-date.
• The IAG should avoid the development of a de novo portal facility, but concentrate instead on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of access to information related to capacity building actions and resources that is already available in existing facilities.
• The IAG would develop without delay a discrete set of collaborative actions in relation to two major areas, as follows:

1. Development and dissemination of non-proprietary guidelines, methodologies, tools, and training materials in support of improved information management and communication, which encompass the needs of stakeholders ranging from policy-makers through to poor households.
2. Development of model intervention(s) backed by the partners to validate the resources and tools as above. These intervention(s) will be established within already existing development initiatives, such as the West-Africa Hub.

• Meetings of the IAG would be convened as considered necessary by the Group in consultation with FAO, and the first meeting was forseen in January in Senegal, at the meeting of the Open Knowledge Network.

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¹ United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Development Gateway (The World Bank Group), Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), One World International, World Economic Forum, Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA).