Hello,

At this point in time, I would encourage everyone to move forward and address this week questions (# 4, 5 and 6). This is a limited-time exercise, in terms of addressing specifically the set of 6 questions put forward. I am sure the discussion will go on, notably with the upcoming Observatory and the WSIS process. However for the purposes of reporting on the discussion of those six questions, only the answers posted by Friday night, your time, are most likely to shape the report. Therefore I would appreciate you spend some time to reply to Questions 4, 5 and 6 by then.

Obviously, you may still post here even during the remainder of this last week of the current debate, but hopefully after you have given some thought and posted on the last three questions mentioned above. 

Thank you for your cooperation.

Mawaki 

Hello,

At this point in time, I would encourage everyone to move forward and address this week questions (# 4, 5 and 6). This is a limited-time exercise, in terms of addressing specifically the set of 6 questions put forward. I am sure the discussion will go on, notably with the upcoming Observatory and the WSIS process. However for the purposes of reporting on the discussion of those six questions, only the answers posted by Friday night, your time, are most likely to shape the report. Therefore I would appreciate you spend some time to reply to Questions 4, 5 and 6 by then.

Obviously, you may still post here even during the remainder of this last week of the current debate, but hopefully after you have given some thought and posted on the last three questions mentioned above. 

Thank you for your cooperation.

Mawaki 

Greetings to all.

At this point in time, I would encourage everyone to move forward and address this week questions (# 4, 5 and 6). This is a limited-time exercise, in terms of addressing specifically the set of 6 questions. I am sure the discussion will go on, notably with the upcoming Observatory and the WSIS process. However for the purposes of reporting on the discussion of those six questions, only the answers posted by Friday night, your time, are most likely to shape the report. Therefore I would appreciate you spend some time to reply to Questions 4, 5 and 6 by then.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Mawaki 

Definitely, our friends from the Pacific and Indian Ocean islands (Sanjay here and Anju earlier) have very much a business oriented view of the agricultural sector. From that perspective, it seem e-agriculture strategy should strive to organize the sector as a competitive industry.

It is a great point to insist that any strategy build on actual current status and existing capacity ('zabedin54'), hence the crucial need for a proper and honest evaluation both at the beginning and at the end of the process. A strategy should be about taking the entity concerned from the actual current status A to an attainable status B at some point in the future through workable objectives.

Clearly then, indicators for measuring progress are crucial as evaluation tools (Towela). In all the strategies we are discussing are there always included such instruments for measuring progress? What kind of indicators, benchmarks or other instruments are included in those strategies and actually used in implementation? At any rate how is progress measured?

Otherwise stated: It may feel good to say there is a need for a strategy and ICTs need to be applied to agriculture, but do we always start from and build on the actual capacity (social, economical, financial, technical, cultural, etc.) on the ground and do we set reasonable/attainable objectives based on that capacity? And then how do we document accurately the performance achieved at implementation?

Dear all,

Now comes the time for our final question, the number 6.

What key policy recommendations can be made to support the implementation of effective e-agriculture strategies or policies?

From all what we have discussed so far and the rest of your experiences and expertise as well as lessons learned throughout, what are the key recommendations to take away? What are the key points you would advise policymakers and strategy designers and implementation facilitators to keep in mind, all of this for the purposes of ensuring good strategies or policies are effectively implementend (they translate effectively into reality)?

Please make sure you post your replies and answers by Friday night, your time. I intend to begin and finish the report during the weekend. I hope, and would appreciate, I can rely on your pertinent ideas to shape the report. Please make sure to post your answers, especially to this week questions (# 4, 5 & 6).

Thank you.

Mawaki

Dear all,

I hope you all had a very good weekend and are well rested. Personally, I couldn't ask for more as Friday was my birthday which we celebrated over the whole weekend, surrounded by family for the first time in years, especially by my two nieces Riyanna, 6, and Meryl, 8 months. First it was Riyanna who reminded of my birthday with her wishes that morning, as I tend to forget it in part due to the unusual ending of Februrary. Second, I had the best chocolate cake you'll ever have around here when you visit (customized order from the Mercury hotel), and probably the best in the whole world (smile). But my best icing on the cake was that, last, Meryl and I have agreed on a signature two-note sound that we will share going forward (the two things about her is that she so intensely stares at people or anything that calls her attention and she likes making sounds as loudly as possible, so much so that I suspect she's already training to become the first opera singer from Togo.)

So this week we start the second half of our discussion with the following question:

What are the key challenges faced in formulating and implementing these strategies/policies and what lessons learned from on-going or past processes?

Some of you have in passing touched upon challenges these processes are faced with. Now let us focus on those and be a little more systematic about it. Please about the key challenges, address both the formulation phase and the implementation phase, and outline lessons learned from those challenges. Consider equally startegies and policies you may have witnessed or experienced in the past and current ones. 

Thanks,

Mawaki

Dear all,

Now is the time to debate the one but last question put forward for discussion. It addresses Stakeholder roles:

What are the roles of ICT and agricultural stakeholders in e-agriculture strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation? How can we ensure the full participation of farmers and other non-governmental stakeholders ? What are the role(s) of the Ministry in charge of ICT and the one in charge of Agriculture? What role(s) for international stakeholders?

So please consider carefully ways to ensure the effective and full participation of the following stakeholders:
1) FARMERS
2) OTHER NON-GOVERNMENTAL structures

And outline the role of the following stakeholders:
3) GOVERNMENT ICT Department
4) GOVERNMENT AGRICULTURE  Department
5) INTERNATIONAL structures/agencies

For each one of the above stakeholders, please do so keeping in mind all three phases an e-strategy would go through:
1) FORMULATION
2) IMPLEMENTATION
3) EVALUATION

Best regards,

Mawaki