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e-consultation on digital agriculture investments and digital transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa

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e-consultation on digital agriculture investments and digital transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) invite you to the ‘"e-Consultation on digital agriculture investments and digital transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa"

The e-Consultation will take place on the e-Agriculture platform from the 27th of October 2020 to the 9th of November 2020.

Background to the e-consultation

In an era of digital inclusion, Africa stands to gain exponentially from the adoption of digital technologies towards the realization of SDGs. In the agriculture sector, digital technologies are opening great opportunities to develop solutions and digital market places to connect farmers to markets, improve extension service delivery and productivity in agricultural value chains. Also, the adoption of digital technologies can create alternative livelihood streams for the youth, women and  smallholder farmers with commercial opportunities that increase their income and the development of rural areas in general.

To achieve that, collaboration between the Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and agriculture sectors is critical to formulate a common vision and action plan for the use of ICT in agriculture and to create synergies between the two sectors through policies and initiatives. 

As evident, the Malabo Declaration, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), and the African Union’s current Agenda 2063 confirm consolidated efforts to reduce poverty and improve the well-being of Africans whilst leveraging ICTs and digital solutions. 

Against this background, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) are jointly set to undertake several investments in different aspects of digital agriculture and digitalization in their respective member countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen country capacities for innovation, enhance policies and practice, and provide supportive investments in the form of infrastructure and services relevant for this transition. 

The objectives of the e-Consultation 

To guide investment decision-making, a digital agriculture readiness assessment study was commissioned as a baseline study to better understand the state of digitalization and digital agriculture in their respective focal countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. As part of this study, FAO and ITU would like to open up the consultation to a wide range of stakeholders or experts with insight on Sub-Saharan African country contexts.

This stakeholder consultative process forms part of data collection and stakeholder engagement initiatives and aims to:

  1. solicit input on current initiatives within the domain of digital agriculture at regional/ sub-regional and country levels;
  2. create an opportunity to fill data gaps; and
  3. create a platform for stakeholder deliberations towards harmonizing facts and figures.

 e-Consultation Focus Countries

The scope of the African countries for this e-consultation will be FAO/ITU countries for Africa Region. For a full list of these countries, please consult the FAO Africa  countries or the ITU Africa countries.

Experts that will animate this discussion are:

  1. Arnaud Goga- Digital Agriculture Specialist, International Telecommunication Union
  2. Bonaventure Andy Nyamekye, (Ph.D)-Digital Capacity Development Specialist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
  3. Caroline Gaju - Programme Officer, International Telecommunication Union
  4. Joshua Oiro- Digital Services Consultant, International Telecommunication Union
  5. Nikola Trendov- Digital Agriculture and Innovation Specialist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN 
  6. Thembani Malapela -Knowledge and Information Management Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
  7. Wei Liang - Digital Capacity Development Specialist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN

e-Consultation Facilitators

  • Thembani Malapela - Knowledge and Information Management Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
  • Arnaud Goga - Digital Agriculture Specialist, International Telecommunication Union
  • Bonaventure Andy Nyamekye, (Ph.D) - Digital Capacity Development Specialist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN