Information Management is important because it facilitates intellectual and logical control over information assets. Information management aims to improve the effectiveness of organization by managing information as a resource - supporting the decision making process by providing access to relevant information in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Article I of FAO’s Constitution mandates the Organization to “collect, analyze, interpret, and disseminate information relating to food, nutrition and agriculture”. As a result, FAO has accumulated more than 50 years of information capital, one of the largest agricultural knowledge resources in existence.

FAO’s Strategic Framework focuses on poverty eradication, food security and sustainable development through improving opportunities for the rural poor to strengthen, diversify and sustain their livelihoods, increase their incomes and improve their food security. The Organization is also committed to “improving decision-making through the provision of information and assessments and fostering of Knowledge Management for food and agriculture” (Strategy Element E).

This strategy relates back directly to Article I of the Constitution. The importance of this knowledge resource was supported and reinforced during the World Food Summit that was held in Rome in 1996. The Plan of Action of the World Food Summit highlighted information as one of the priority areas in achieving food security.

FAO established the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT) as its strategic framework for agricultural information management and dissemination in response to the high priority accorded by FAO to the:

• Development of an integrated information system, making appropriate use of the latest developments in information management and technology;
• Enhancement of access to timely and relevant technical information by FAO members and the general public; and
• Encouragement of FAO Members to utilize information as a key resource for development.

WAICENT as a corporate framework integrates and harmonizes standards, tools and procedures for the efficient and effective management and dissemination of high-quality information products, including relevant and reliable statistics, texts, multi-media resources, maps, etc. WAICENT enables FAO members and others to access agricultural information that is essential for reducing poverty and achieving food security and sustainable rural development.

At the 120th session of the FAO Council in June 2001, the Committee on Agriculture supported the continued development of WAICENT as an integrated information strategy, including the use of fast-changing technologies for the benefit of member countries.

FAO upholds three key roles in support of WAICENT:

• Acts as a clearing-house for information by establishing norms and methodologies for quality, developing standard categorization schemes and implementing metadata for efficient and effective storage, dissemination, search and retrieval of information;
• Provides outreach to members by discerning the information needs of FAO stakeholders and the international community associated with agricultural development,  food security and capacity building through the transfer of WAICENT “best practices” in information management systems and tools development to national and international information providers; and
• Acts as an inter-governmental forum for members through the Consultation on Agricultural Information Management to discuss issues and decide policies on information management, thereby reinforcing FAO normative and operational programs and the participatory efforts of members in working towards World Food Summit goals.

WAICENT Outreach Programme provides the platform for FAO’s participation in developing systems for knowledge exchange in Member Countries and the international community. Its aim is to enhance the ability of individuals and communities in member countries to improve the efficiency, quality, and relevance of information and knowledge exchange among the various stakeholder groups involved in agricultural development and food security, with focus on the most vulnerable and deprived groups. This program includes technical assistance to national and regional information centers and cooperation with countries in Near East Region through WAICENT-related activities based at the FAO Regional Office in Cairo, Egypt.

WAICENT Outreach activities are divided into two parts, namely, a proactive program that focuses on particular strategic priorities and geographic units, and a reactive component designed to respond to specific requests from member countries and international partners. A website was created to facilitate access to information and official documents and activities on WAICENT Outreach Programme

http://www.fao.org/waicent/portal/outreach/.

The Field Activities of WAICENT Outreach Programme in the Near East Region (RNE) are focusing on building capacities of Member States through the following:

• Technical Advisory Service and Expert Consultation to assist Member States in information needs assessments and to establish and develop their National Agricultural Information Strategies and Systems (NAIS) and their Regional Agricultural Information System (RAIS).
• Technical Cooperation Programmes to be provided to Member States to solve crucial problems related to Information Management for Sustainable Development and to provide technical consultation to countries on strategic issues related to information management and dissemination.
• Assist member countries to establish projects related to information management and communication for rural and agricultural development and food security.
• Active participation in national and regional human capacity building and development in information management to increase the number of IM/IT professionals, to improve information-relevant understanding and skills in general, to coordinate training between institutions and organizations, to improve partnerships and to develop new mechanisms for collaboration.

WAICENT Outreach Programme also supports COAIM which is a biannual intergovernmental meeting that brings together policymakers, funding agencies and major players in all the relevant fields of agricultural information, as well as observers from the United Nations and the non-governmental organization (NGO) community. Discussions are held on ways to improve the capacities of decision-makers, professionals and the public-at-large in Member Countries to access and use information essential for achieving sustainable agricultural development and food security at the national level. The COAIM agenda includes key topics such as producing operational mechanisms for the implementation of FAO’s mandate related to food and agricultural information management; improving the coordination of capacity building efforts; addressing issues related to creating guidelines and standards; and other efforts to increase the flow of information and communication.

During the First COAIM, held in June 2000, it was agreed to place a high priority on improving Member States’ and other stakeholders’ access to agricultural information through WAICENT, taking full advantage of the opportunities provided by the new generation of information and communication technologies.

The Second COAIM was recently held in September 2002 in Rome, Italy. It took place in an international policy context in which multilateral agreements on information and communication technologies complemented FAO’s efforts to address Member States’ needs and strategies on agricultural information management and as a means to promote food security and sustainable development. The Second COAIM agenda included a range of topics such as improving access to agricultural information, strengthening partnerships and alliances, capacity building in agriculture and food information management, and harmonization and standards. There were also specialized side events on topics important to food security and rural development, including “Information Services for Rural Communities: national frameworks and grassroots systems”, “Inventory of Available Agricultural Technologies”, “Gender and Agricultural Information Management”, “AGRIS” and “Information and Communication in support of Rural Poverty Elimination and Food Security”.

A website was created to facilitate access to information and official documents of the meeting at http://www.fao.org/coaim. The Third COAIM will be held in 2004.

FAO and its partners have been working to define the critical challenges that have to be addressed to improve access to and use of information, for purposes of improving food security and livelihoods of the poorest strata of rural populations in developing countries.  Given that it is now widely recognized that diversification is a key approach to sustainable agricultural development, in addition to intensification, the demand for information from institutions and communities is set to increase.  FAO is expanding its expertise and resources related to the digital divide through many collaborative initiatives developed in response to requests from Member States.

FAO recognizes that the digital divide is not just a problem of technological issues such as infrastructure and connectivity, but also a problem of effective content development, information exchange, human resources and institutional capacity, all compounded by a shortage of financial resources. As a result, FAO has identified four priority areas where WAICENT-related activities can focus to increase the impact of information on improving food security and sustainable development, namely, Human Resources, Information Content, Information Systems, and Community Development.

Human Resources

There are many barriers to information such as having to learn how to use the various media effectively and how to find or disseminate relevant content effectively. FAO promotes human resource improvement through changes in strategy and policy by influencing decision-makers, and by promoting policy reform to accelerate growth of the information economy and the free flow of knowledge.

WAICENT Outreach is actively involved in capacity building to increase the number of IM/IT professionals, to improve information-relevant understanding and skills in general, to coordinate training between institutions and organizations, to improve partnerships and to develop new mechanisms for collaboration.

Information Content

Improving content is critical. As stated by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (Dec. 1999), “The future success factor for nations, organizations and individuals is not high-level technology but rather innovative and well-managed content.”

The impact of knowledge will be improved by:

• Expanding the diversity of information flows and
• Developing standards and guidelines that enhance the availability of information.
• Tapping a greater variety of sources and a greater variety of languages can expand the diversity of information available in digital format.
• Encouraging Indigenous capacity to mobilize content and
• Expanding dissemination using open systems and a wider range of publication formats.

WAICENT is also working to improve the quality and accessibility of FAO’s own content. Key technical limitations to the availability of information can be addressed by:

• Content management standards (e.g. XML- eXtensible Markup Language),
• Classification schemes (e.g. AGRIS subjects- the International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology) and agreed vocabularies (e.g. Agrovoc).
• FAO has produced a draft specification for an Agricultural Metadata Element Set (AgMES) providing a proposed set of metadata elements for describing resources in the domain of agriculture based on the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.
• Based on its 25 years of experience with the multilingual agricultural vocabulary AGROVOC, FAO is providing the building blocks for a new multilingual normative tool referred to as the Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS). The AOS project will have a direct impact on the objective of improved language coverage.

FAO provides an international, neutral forum for these important mechanisms to develop.

Information Systems

FAO promotes the development of information systems based on non-proprietary standards, and systems that are decentralized for data ownership and quality control. FAO itself is developing specialist applications in agriculture to serves the unmet needs of this field (e.g. WebAGRIS, WAICENT Information Management Resource Kit).

FAO agricultural information systems can be divided into three categories, each impacting food security and sustainable rural development through different mechanisms:

• Policy-level information systems such as FIVIMS (Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems) for food security
• Institutional information systems for research and development such as AGRIS and VERCON (Virtual Extension Research Communication Network), and
• Community-level information systems for food security including FarmNets (a conceptual model for a communication network between rural communities and the organizations that work with them) and SPFS (Special Programme for Food Security) information systems.

Community Development

To be effective in improving food security, it is essential that the capacity of communities to manage and utilize knowledge be improved. Access for rural and disadvantaged communities must also be improved. Integral to this approach is the use of appropriate mixes of technology (both new and traditional), the declining cost of ICT and new technologies, and the involvement of the private sector. ICT-based interventions that specifically target poor people in rural communities are found in FAO’s poverty reduction work with developing countries, including the Special Programme for Food Security, in Farmer Field Schools, in extension services and educational projects, and in community development projects.