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| Information Management :: Regional Role |
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Having access to relevant, quality agriculture information is critical to farmers' livelihoods, improving their productivity and ability to diversify and compete in modern markets, as well as improving the health of their families. It is also essential for governments making policy decisions in an environment of globalization, as well as for intermediary organizations that assist farmers, foresters, fisher folk and others in rural areas. However, developing rural areas often do not benefit from modern technologies. Effective information management – the capture, saving and disseminating of information – to all levels of society, from farmers to researchers to policy-makers, is increasingly critical in the modern digital era.
The FAO regional office focuses its information management programme on:
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Capacity building among member countries and organizations to promote best practices in information management |
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Supporting the adoption of global standards and norms to index and efficiently locate valuable agricultural information |
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Providing technical support to manage and disseminate information
on agriculture and food security through
the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT) |
Capacity building
Capacity building is a process in which individuals, groups, institutions, organizations and societies enhance their abilities to identify and meet development challenges in a sustainable manner. FAO proactively supports global capacity building activities and works closely with stakeholders in member countries and the international community in the area of information management in support of agricultural development and food security.
Through partnerships, FAO assists in developing capabilities and networks for accessing and sharing of information. Key areas include improving the efficiency, quality and relevance of knowledge exchange and communications using electronic media.
FAO's information management field activities provide advice and technical assistance to governments, institutions and rural communities to strengthen their capacities in agricultural information management and the effective use of information and communication technologies.
The Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) is a partnership-based e-learning initiative containing a comprehensive suite of distance learning resources that cover concepts, approaches and tools for agricultural information management. The first module on electronic documentation and bibliographic data management was introduced in workshops in Asia-Pacific countries in 2004. Since then, FAO and its partners have supported seven training workshops involving more than 200 participants. These have led to nationally supported workshops to further disseminate skills to a wider audience.
The International Information System for the Agricultural Sciences and Technology (AGRIS) is involved in capacity building among its members by promoting standards and norms for the organization and indexing of knowledge.
One of the most important ways to achieve capacity building is through the provision of worldwide access to quality, peer-reviewed information resources. FAO achieves this through its library services and through partnerships, such as with AGLINET and AGORA.
Standards and norms
The volume of agricultural information and knowledge is growing continually. FAO and other organizations produce a vast amount of data and information and need to process it into "useable" knowledge.
One primary goal of the information management programme is to produce and maintain tools for information and knowledge management that facilitate both the gathering and production of information and its availability and accessibility. This requires effective methods, guidelines and procedures to identify, acquire, manage and exploit information and knowledge in the correct manner. The Agricultural Information Management Standards (AIMS) project is dedicated to this. Its goal is to share and promote the uptake of common methodologies, standards and applications. The expected benefits are a reduction in the costs for the creation of new systems and an increase in the quality of services provided to the users. The AIMS website brings together partners and collaborators, as well as offers a comprehensive collection of information on the development of methodologies, standards and applications for management of agricultural information systems.
The use of metadata for indexing electronic as well as non-electronic information resources for resource discovery in a networked environment is increasing globally. Metadata facilitate comprehensive search results from different databases and information repositories. FAO works with key partners in the Asia-Pacific region for the development of modern standards, including metadata, controlled vocabularies and multilingual information systems. Several partner organizations and member countries take an active role in developing the Agricultural Metadata Standards Initiative (AgMES) and the Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS), two internationally recognized initiatives aimed at improving standards.
Vocabulary systems to assist in indexing and classifying information, such as the AGROVOC multilingual thesaurus and FAOTERM, have been developed and are updated continually to reflect the evolving nature of the agriculture and development sectors.
The regional office provides support to member countries for effective data exchange with FAO and, more generally, in their standardization efforts. Information retrieval systems, such as the FAO Corporate Document Repository and the FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System, have the capacity to export data in XML, using standardized document type definitions for data exchange and re-use of information.
WAICENT
Recognizing the value of information in fighting global hunger and achieving food security, FAO established the World Agricultural Information Centre (WAICENT). Through the WAICENT framework, FAO effectively disseminates the Organization's wealth of information on agriculture and food security, in accordance with its belief that information is power only if easily and freely accessible.
This includes promoting policy issues related to management and accessibility of agricultural information and enhancing information location and dissemination through online library facilities and cutting-edge information systems and search tools. FAO also provides access to its publications, both in print and in electronic format, through this Web site, the Corporate Document Repository and on CD-ROM.
Information systems such as AGRIS, the FAO Country Profiles and Mapping Information System and the WAICENT portal have been developed to group information by keywords, subject or geographical regions to enhance access. |
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