"DIGITAL IN ACTION” at WSIS forum 2023 FAO takes stock in agrifood systems transformation for SDGs achievement

Digital technology applications can create significant economic, social, and environmental benefits and accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including having a direct impact on smallholders and farmers.  

The 2023 edition of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD from the 13th to the 17th of March under the theme, “Action Lines for building back better and accelerating the achievement of the SDGs” concretely illustrated this vision through an intensive week of successful information exchanges, knowledge creation and sharing of best practices, in close collaboration with all WSIS action line co-/facilitators and other UN Organizations that gathered in Geneva to better identify emerging trends and foster partnerships together. 

As the imperative to build back better by leveraging digital innovations in the agrifood systems calls for new actions and concrete results, on the 16th March FAO organized a special event on: “Digital in Action - Agrifood systems Transformation for SDGs achievement”, under WSIS Action Line Facilitation Line: C7 on e-agriculture, that the Organization has been actively supporting since the foundation of WSIS 20 years ago. Since then, FAO has been assessing the adoption of ICT applications in agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry, and food, to provide free access to comprehensive, up-to-date, and detailed knowledge and information, particularly in rural areas. 

“The FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 recognizes that innovation across agrifood systems is key to achieving the SDGs,” explained Vincent Martin, FAO Office of Innovation’s newly appointed Director in his opening remarks. 

“Moreover, FAO recently adopted its’ first ever Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy that supports Innovation and Digitalization as enablers in the transformation of agrifood systems,” he added, stressing that: “This highlights the crucial potential of developing new digital capabilities and partnerships towards accelerating the four betters of FAO and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda”. 

Through the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Ecuador, the Joint FAO/International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, and FAO field and regional offices from Bangladesh and the African Region, the event provided the opportunity to reflect on ways to improve the use of digital innovations at scale along the diverse agricultural value chains, increasing understanding of the multiple benefits, challenges and support needed to improve the digitalization of smallholder farmers and small entrepreneurs, as well as the development of digital business models that provide services to the bottom of the pyramid at scale. 

The round of presentations showcased digital transformation in action, through concrete examples of programmes and initiatives that translate this vision into concrete support and delivery at national, regional, and global levels, and actively engaged stakeholders for a constructive dialogue on the use of digital technologies in agriculture. 

Dejan Jakovljevic, FAO CIO and the Director of Digitalization and Informatics Division, opened the path for these broad discussions on opportunities for digital investments to address global challenges, especially for agrifood systems in low and middle-income countries through joint collaborations with his keynote presentation on “Digital in Action.” Through concrete examples of FAO digital capabilities, including FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative, its’ enabling tool, the Geospatial platform and FAO Digital Villages Initiative, he highlighted the key role of digital technologies in improving efficiency, production, and helping us to manage natural resources in a sustainable way, with respect to the environment and natural ecosystems.

(See full presentation here). 

“FAO is championing transformational changes and digital is fully incorporated into the Organization's strategic framework, also day to day work, and as one digital FAO,” said  Jakovljevic. 

 “With our new focus on “Digital for Impact”, FAO has an essential role to play in promoting the use and adoption of digital technologies to facilitate the transformation of agrifood systems, as well as in advising on and promoting a policy agenda and policy investments to address the digital divide and “massify” digital benefits, while making sure no one is left behind,” he explained. 

Gerd Dercon, Head of the Soil and Water Management & Crop Nutrition Laboratory at the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, opened the round of presentations, explaining how nuclear and digital techniques can be linked to enhance the use and conservation of soil and water resources. He took the example of cosmic ray neutron sensors which are used – combined with satellite imagery –  to data to monitor soil moisture to improve productivity, as this in turn can pave the way to increased availability and affordability of nuclear and digital techniques, integrating nuclear, conventional, and digital monitoring techniques. Dercon emphasized the importance of investments and partnerships in this field to provide an open data policy, trainings in the integration of these methods as well as better soil and water management, creating significant impact on agricultural productivity, resilience to climate change and remediation of environmental pollution. (Find full presentation here) 

FAO Bangladesh's national project manager Imanun Nabi Khan, focused on the importance for digitalization to come hand-in-hand with well-organized farming communities to catalyze growth and build resilient farming societies and food systems. His presentation illustrated how the FAO Digital Villages Initiative in Bangladesh, including all the innovative initiatives being led in the field in that sector, including the transformation of virtual call centers into digital village service centers, enables inclusion and empowers smallholders thanks to the key role of strong producers’ organizations and digital technology. (Find full presentation here). 

Ecuador’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock representative Rafael Yépez showcased how geospatial information for the agri-food and productive systems of Ecuador is generated by remote sensing tools and field work which allows decision-making for agricultural policy. He explained how Ecuador collects, publishes, and uses geospatial information for the agrifood and production systems. He presented the Geoportal of Ecuadorian Agriculture, an efficient tool that includes 64 web services, 168 data layers, and has more than one million views and 16 thousand requests. The Geoportal of Ecuadorian Agriculture provides data on soils, agroclimatic risks, commercial networks and is completely interoperable with FAO Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform, being a successful example of synergies developed across borders on digital capabilities for development, showing that more accurate, integrated multidimensional data is contributing towards advancing common strategic objectives towards improved sustainable agriculture. (Find full presentation here). 

Closing the round of presentations, Ken Lohento, FAO Africa Digital Agriculture specialist, presented FAO’s efforts in Africa to support rural digital transformation, notably through trainings on the use of digital tools, the development of digital applications and platforms, digital agriculture strategies as well as other activities which help to respond to emergency situations using digital tools. Through those, he highlighted how FAO has been strengthening science and evidence -based decision- making, support Innovation and technology at regional and country levels. Lohento also dove into the roll-out of the Digital Village Initiative in the region, which relies on 3 pillars: an amplified farmer productivity, market support services and the holistic transformation of villages to foster digital transformation to combat hunger, poverty, and inequality in rural areas. He notably highlighted the case of Liberia where DVI activities are implemented in the framework of a joint UN project. But “only about 30% of SH farmers are currently reached by digital agriculture in SS Africa; actual impact is weaker; we need to work hard and close these gaps.” stressed Lohento. (Find full presentation here).  

As shown by the interventions, multistakeholder collaboration for scaling up sustainable, inclusive, and locally adapted digital agriculture initiatives is still critically needed to achieve better impacts and meet the SDGs – a process which FAO is actively engaged in.  In this context, and now that the UN system is gearing up for next year’s Summit of the Future to conclude the Global Digital Compact, as well as embarking on a review of the 20-year implementation process and outcomes following from the original World Summit on the Information Society, and charting the future of the process beyond 2025, FAO Digital in Action - Agrifood systems Transformation for SDGs achievement event marked an excellent opportunity to reinforce the Organization's commitment to ensure digital technologies play their essential part — helping to drive progress on the sustainable development agenda.

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