Invitation to ZOOMINAR IV : Accelerating Digital Extension Advisory Services (DEAS) in post COVID-19 context

BACKGROUND 

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are providing policy recommendations, guidelines and tools to improve Extension Advisory Services (EAS) systems, in order to build resilience of smallholders to crises and disasters. 

As the world is currently struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and the farmers in countries including NENA region are facing dual burden i.e., inadequate health services coupled with timely extension services for sustaining their livelihoods. 

The digital disruption in EAS may define the extension in the context of aggregation, traceability; quick and responsive advisories, finance and digital coordination of supply chain etc., The future of EAS will depend on how well the new extension functionalities are built into the extension organizations. 

The Zoominar will address the following questions:

1. What are the opportunities and challenges of digital extension strategies, especially under COVID-19 circumstances?
2. How could emerging Digital Apps be integrated into the broader extension frameworks?
3. What role could we (IFAD, FAO & partners) play to facilitate implementation and scaling of these innovations?

Introduction  - Dina Saleh, Sub-Regional Director Middle East and North Africa – International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)  

Speakers

• Shaik N Meera, Principal Scientist (Agriculture Extension) Federal Coordinator Frontline Demonstrations Program – Indian Council of Agricultural Research
• Tawanda Hove, Head of Digital Agriculture and  ICT for Development (ICT4D) – Welthungerhilfe
• Marco Brini, Digital Agriculture International Expert, CTO and Founder – EnvEve
• Nevena Alexandrova, Agricultural Extension Officer of Research and Extension Unit (AGDR), FAO
• Adel Zekaizak, National Project Officer, Digital Agricultural Extension and Communication Services – FAO RNE 

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO ATTEND

1. Only registered participants will attend.
2. Please note that the session will start on time, the meeting will be locked 15 minutes after that, and will not be accessible after that.
3. We invite all participants to kindly login 10 minutes before.
4. ​We suggest you to use Google Chrome or the Zoom App, in order to join the session
5. We suggest to try the Zoom before https://fao.zoom.us/test
6. We also recommend you to check your time zone here. 

For more information please feel free to contact: [email protected]