INVITATION TO THE DIGITAL AGRICULTURE SESSION AT WSIS FORUM 2020

Fostering an Enabling Ecosystem for Food and Agriculture through Digital Innovation at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS) 2020

Time 14:00 - 15:00 CEST, Friday, 21 August 2020

REGISTER HERE

On Friday 21 August, FAO, in collaboration with ITU and the Zhejiang University, will organize a Session on ‘Digital Agriculture - Fostering an Enabling Ecosystem for Food and Agriculture through Digital Innovation’- in the context of the World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS+15) 2020. The detailed program for session is available here.

In a world where by 2050 there will be 9.6 billion people to feed, and where food production would need to increase by 70% to cover these needs, innovation will play a critical role in the transformation of the food and agriculture sector to address these new challenges and achieve the SDGs in line with the WSIS Action Lines. An innovative use of digital technologies will strongly contribute to improving livelihoods of farmers, increase nutrition and food security, reduce poverty, and provide solutions to better adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change on agriculture, improving society’s productivity and ensuring that, by targeting the most vulnerable, ‘no one is left behind’.

To reach such goals, FAO and ITU aim at highlighting the necessity to develop an enabling ecosystem for sustainable food and agriculture that will efficiently support the government, the institutions, the private sector, the civil society and the academia to unleash the potentials of digital solutions. The Panel will present in this perspective the major innovation work that their organizations have been proactively developing in joint collaboration, with the aim of achieving accelerated upscaling of services, reducing digital gaps between urban and rural areas, enhancing public awareness and individuals’ skills, as well as co-creating through Public-Private Partnerships.

Major initiatives to be presented include:

• FAO’s International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture to enhance awareness on issues specific to the digitalization of the food and agriculture sectors and provide policy recommendations to governments to support decision-making;
• the Hand-in-Hand Initiative to accelerate agricultural transformation and sustainable rural development to eradicate poverty (SDG 1) and end hunger and all forms of malnutrition (SDG2),
• the Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform to support all stakeholders with rich, shareable data while respecting the proper protocols of data confidentiality;
• the Digital Agriculture and Innovation Hubs to enhance innovation ecosystem and culture; such as the partnership with Zhejiang University to establish a Centre of Excellence for Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship;
• the FAO-ITU is also supporting governments to develop National e-Agriculture Strategies in the process of digital transformation and implementing Smart Village to empower rural small holder and family farmers.

This session will show that digital innovation has the potential to transform the approach to all 17 SDGs, particularly SDG 1 (eradication of poverty), SDG 2 (end hunger), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), and SDG 13 (climate action). It will also focus on youth entrepreneurship, capacity development, and multi-stakeholder partnerships as key enablers to establish business models to produce new ideas and products, shape better policy recommendations, better use of data, better knowledge transferring, and better digital solutions aimed at achieving all the SDGs.

To register for this webinar, please click here or paste following link in your browser https://itu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wxGH-bKjRTuQG-w9zV3w4w.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. 

AGENDA

• 14:00-14:05, introduction by Meng Zeng (Moderator), Information Technology Officer, FAO
• 14:00-14:15, Dejan Jakovljevic, Deputy Director, IT Services, FAO
• 14:15-14:25, Longbao Wei, Director, Institute of Food and Agribusiness Management, Zhejiang       University
• 14:25-14:35, Hani Eskandar, Digital Services Senior Coordinator, ITU
• 14:35-15:00, Q&A

We look forward to your valuable participation and please do not hesitate to share this invitation within your professional networks.   

For further assistance/information, please contact [email protected]