Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform Workshop: Cabo Verde and Sao Tome and Principe

On 16 March 2022, FAO’s Agroinformatics team, led by Zhongxin Chen, held a virtual training of the Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform with the FAO country offices in Cabo Verde and Sao Tome and Principe.

Dubravka Boijic, FAO Programme Officer, opened the workshop in French sharing the guiding principles of the HiH Geospatial Platform as the enabling tool of the Hand-in-Hand Initiative.

Participants included FAO personnel that will be involved in the use of the platform, from Management to data owners to data engineers, as well as national ministries responsible for food and agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture and socio-economic development.

FAO’s Geospatial Analysis Team Leader, Nelson Rosas Ribeiro Filho, led an interactive demonstration in Portuguese on how to use the HiH Geospatial Platform, how to create time-series analysis, graphics and comparisons, using key thematic data such as the FAO Water PrFAO Water Productivity Open-access portal (WaPOR) precipitation and Net Primary Production or access and use of FAO's Global Information System on Water and Agriculture’s (AQUASTAT) Climate Information Tool. 

Since the launch of the platform, over 65 virtual training workshops have been held with FAO offices worldwide, national ministries, and institutions leading food and agriculture sectors and agritech experts from national to global level.

The workshop closed with a discussion with local offices and government partners on their key areas of work, how they are using data, what they would like to be able to achieve using data, and how to publish their own. Next steps include surveying data usage, needs and plans, understanding user levels to propose customized training on data publishing and collaboration.