Informal ERP letter N° 4  31/05/2004

The electronic newsletter for the members of the FAO/UNESCO
flagship "Education for Rural People (ERP)"

What's new?

International Capacity Building Events

1. The Regional Workshop on Education for Rural People (25 - 26 May 2004, Bangkok, Thailand)
2. Forum "Perspectives of Education for rural people in Venezuela" (27 - 28 May 2004, Barquisimeto, Venezuela)
3. Journées d'Etudes Ingénierie des dispositifs de formation à l'international : Travail en partenariat pour la construction d'une expertise collective " (3 - 4 June 2004 - Montpellier, France)

1. The report on the Aid agencies workshop (12-13 December 2002, Rome, Italy) organized by FAO’s Extension, Education and Communication Service, with the support of the Italian Development Co-operation and the technical collaboration of UNESCO/IIEP : “Education for rural people, aid agencies workshop” is now out! The book will be sent free of charge to those ERP members who will send a request and have filled-in the "Questionnaire for members" attached below. The book can be consulted on line at : http://www.fao.org/sd/2003/KN0604_en.htm
2. The French and Spanish version of the web-site are now on line and can be visited at: http://www.fao.org/sd/erp/index_fr.htm ; http://www.fao.org/sd/erp/index_es.htm
3. Education for Rural people is the focus of the April-June 2004 issue of EDUCATION TODAY, a journal published in 7 languages (the 6 UN languages plus Portuguese). The print run is around 35,000 copies. Visit the following address: http://portal.unesco.org/education/admin/ev.php?URL_ID=30348&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1085150415 (then, ensure you also click on the “Focus” button).
4. A new virtual publication:“Les enjeux de la formation agricole: Exemple de l'Afrique de l'Ouest francophone” http://www.fao.org/sd/dim_kn2/kn2_040401_en.htm
5. The 2003 Progress Report on “The United Nations Literacy Decade (2003 -2012), The first year” is out and mentions extensively ERP

Membership

We are now 94 members!

Specifically: 17 International Organizations and Governments and 77 among NGOs, Foundations and others. New members since last update (December 2003) are 18.

Number of partners	46	57	74	94
Period	20/03/2003	10/06/2003	23/12/2003	27/05/2003

As you can see there is a continuous progress in the number of partners.

Education for rural people (ERP) flagship members are listed in the ERP web page:

Outreach

The FAO-UNESCO/IIEP book "Education for rural development: towards new policy responses" (2003) was featured or presented by:

Centre Catholique International de Coopération avec l’UNESCO

UN System Network on Rural Development and Food Security - Rome (1)

UN System Network on Rural Development and Food Security - Rome (2)

Eastern Book Service Inc - Tokyo

OFSE - Germany

Bernan Essential Government Pubblication - USA

De Lindeboom - Netherlands

Education Policy Support Initiative - Mbabane, Swaziland

GST Gateway Food Security - USA

Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) - Uruguay

Institute of Development Studies, Brighton - UK

LIBRIS - The union catalogue of Swedish libraries - Sweden

Livelihoods Connect - UK

VOCED National Centre for Vocational Education - Australia

Biblioteca "My Land" - Ucraina

Zum Datenbanksuche - Germany

Such book can be consulted or ordered at:

FAO - SD Dimension

FAO - Library

UNESCO - Publishing

REMIND! The book will be sent free of charge to those ERP members who will send a request and fill the "Questionnaire for members" attached below * * *

The Web site statistics indicates that from 1 to 19 April 2004 the overall number of hits/visits was 696:

Half of the visitors was linked by North America (338);

A third of the visitors was linked by region unspecified (270);

43 visitors were from Western Europe, 4 from Africa and 11 from Asia;

The most popular Web pages on our site were: Index_en, ERPletter_en, ERPflagship_en, ERPFAOposition_en;

The most popular files downloaded from our site were: Best practices for Education and Training of Rural Youth, Lessons from Asia, Edited by FAO and APEAN (Asia Pacific Association of Educators in Agriculture and Environment) 2003 ; Participatory environment education and training for sustainable agriculture: Best practices in institutional partnership, peer learning and networking, FAO 2001; Rural Development Strategy for Croatia.

Events

ERP was presented and discussed during:

1. The International Forum on Partnerships for Sustainable Development, (FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy, 4-6 March 2004) Read the Opening Statement by David A. Harcharik, Deputy Director-General in http://www.fao.org/sd/erp/ERPeventslast_en.htm
2. CCID Annual Conference "Community Colleges For International Development - Including the Excluded" (Orlando, USA 14- 17 February 2004). http://www.fao.org/sd/erp/ERPevents6_en.htm
3. Seminar on Education for Rural People with the Italian NGOs. Seminar organized by FAO with the technical collaboration of the NGO ACRA. (Rome, Italy, 29 January 2004)
4. Steering Committee of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (Geneva, Switzerland. 19 - 22 April)

Projects

The project "Education for rural people and food security: a participatory approach to poverty reduction" in support of the global flagship partnership initiative, prepared by the NGO ACRA in collaboration with FAO was approved by the European Commission.

http://www.fao.org/sd/erp/ERPactivitieslast_en.htm

Networking

Partnerships are essentially networks of conversations. FAO is building up an electronic networking and support centre where all information and material on the ERP partnership (publications, events, projects, etc) will be stored. It is essential to keep good records of the partnership’s progress to ensure a successful networking. The quality of the conversations between partners will largely determine the effectiveness of the partnership. Sharing experiences is essential. The partnership is established with the primary goal of learning and sharing, arising from partnership experiences. Partners benefit from being part of a ‘learning network’ where experiences, good and bad, are shared. All relevant information will be published on the ERP web. We shall get mutual benefit by improving mutual access to information, knowledge and different networks. We thus invite you to improve the exchange of experiences: the first step is to fill in the ”Questionnaire for members" (see attachment 1).

The next step is to send us articles for publication in the web site on your best practices. Since we do not have editorial facilities, please ensure that the article is edited in standard English and is ready for publication. We invite you to read our editorial suggestions in attachment 2.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Attachment 1

questionnaire for members :

Knowing more about your activities and what you can share with others ERP Flagship members will facilitate networking. Therefore you are kindly invited to complete the attached questionnaire. We will share the information we receive from you with other members in our following ERP newsletters and in our web site. Please return the completed questionnaire to lavinia.gasperini@fao.org.

Attachment 2

Editorial suggestions:

1. Please prepare an abstract of a maximum of 300 words summarizing your experience/activity and the lessons others can learn from it, followed by an article of maximum 1500 words;
2. Please write the article in a clear and understandable manner without being too scientific or technical;
3. Please find a short and capturing headline;
4. The article should start with a very short introduction of about 5 lines;
5. Subheadings will make the article easier to read;
6. Please send the article by e-mail to lavinia.gasperini@fao.org