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Arab Forum For Rural Advisory Services (AFRAS) Country brief - Egypt
28/10/2025
The Arab Forum for Rural Advisory Services (AFRAS) strengthens rural advisory and extension systems across the Arab region by linking public, private, and civil-society providers to scale inclusive, climate-smart services. In Egypt, agriculture remains a cornerstone of Egypt’s economy and poverty reduction strategy, employing 19 percent of the population (World Bank, 2023).
Arab Forum For Rural Advisory Services (AFRAS) Country brief - Jordan
28/10/2025
The Arab Forum for Rural Advisory Services (AFRAS) is a regional platform strengthening rural advisory and extension systems across the Arab region by linking public, private, and civil-society providers to scale inclusive, climate-smart services. This brief highlights a water-scarce agrifood sector in Jordan that, though modest in GDP and employment, remains strategic for livelihoods.
Social innovation trends in the Near East and North Africa region: Examples and opportunities for action An assessment of their agribusiness capacities and institutional environment
30/07/2025
This report presents research on social innovation and relevant trends for small-scale farming in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region. Social innovation is an approach to community development that gained momentum in the second half of the 2010s as a response to the challenges imposed by the post- crisis economy and austerity policies.
Policy incubator on extending social insurance for agriculture workers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region Expert group meeting report 24-26 June 2024
24/07/2025
As part of their broader efforts to address informality and decent work deficits in the agriculture sector, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) engaged with practitioners and policymakers in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region to advance the understanding of the institutional, administrative and financial barriers that hinder the inclusion of agricultural workers in social insurance schemes.
Stocktaking and situation analysis of FAO's work with cooperatives and other forms of collective action in the Near East and North Africa region
24/07/2025
Agricultural cooperatives, Producer and Professional Organizations (PPOs), and Water Users Associations (WUAs) in the North Africa and Near East (NENA) region play a crucial role in supporting small-scale family farming, which is vital for the regional economy.
Executive summary - Mapping affordable and tranferrable climate-smart technologies for small-holder farmers
31/12/2024
In response to the pressing need for innovative solutions to address food security challenges, a tripartite cooperation agreement between the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), FAO’s Regional Office for the Near East North Africa and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)initiated a comprehensive “Mapping exercise of affordable and transferrable food security-related technologies.”
Arab Forum for Rural Advisory Services
11/11/2024
Arab Forum for Rural Advisory Services (AFRAS) is the first of its kind community of experts, champions, policy makers and practitioners from different sectors committed to advancing extension and Rural Advisory Services (RAS) across the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region.
Farmer Field Schools (FFS) for mutual learning and collective action
11/08/2024
The Farmer Field Schools (FFS) approach promotes learning through participatory methods, knowledge and experience exchange, and direct observation through hands-on exercises in the field, discussions and decision-making. It builds on local knowledge while testing and validating scientific concepts developed elsewhere.
Advancing rural advisory services in Arab countries to promote market orientation and inclusive transformation
31/12/2023
The regional study was elaborated by May Hani (FAO Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division), Valentina Sommacal (FAO Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division), Rasheed Sulaiman V (Centre for Research on Innovation and Science Policy – CRISP) and Cécile Berranger (FAO Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division).
Guide for monitoring and evaluation of the public agricultural extension and advisory service system
29/12/2023
This guide is aimed to propose a holistic, systemic, and easy-to-use methodology that is multiscalar, multisectoral, and multidimensional for the M&E of public EAS systems to help identify gaps and pathways to strengthen and reform the public EAS system.
AFRAS Foundational Meeting Outcome Note
23/07/2023
FAO Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa in collaboration with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has organized a regional meeting to discuss the vision, mission and roadmap towards the establishment of the Arab Forum for Rural Advisory Services (AFRAS). The meeting took place in Cairo, Egypt, on 24 and 25 July 2023.
Advancing rural advisory services to promote market orientation in Egypt
31/12/2022
Rural advisory services play a crucial role in improving smallholders’ livelihoods and reducing rural poverty by equipping farmers with the information, knowledge, and skills needed to increase their productivity and profitability, to manage risks, and to engage effectively with markets. This entails diverse services that empower farmers to make informed decisions, manage their farms as sustainable businesses, and act collectively to improve economic operations.
Advancing rural advisory services to promote market-orientation in Lebanon. Making rural services work for small-scale farmers
31/12/2022
Rural advisory services play a crucial role in improving smallholders’ livelihoods and reducing rural poverty by equipping farmers with the information, knowledge and skills needed to increase their productivity and profitability, to manage risks, and to engage effectively with markets.
Advancing rural advisory services to promote market orientation in Jordan
31/12/2020
Rural advisory services play a crucial role in improving smallholders’ livelihoods and reducing rural poverty by equipping farmers with the information, knowledge and skills needed to increase their productivity and profitability, to manage risks, and to engage effectively with markets.
The Gender and Rural Advisory Services Assessment Tool
31/12/2018
Special acknowledgements go to the technical reviewers of the document, namely Deborah Rubin, Margaret N. Mangheni and Andrea Bohn. The authors are particularly grateful for the support, inputs and comments provided by Andrea Bohn (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Associate Director of INGENAES, throughout the development and validation of the tool.
Farmer field schools for small-scale livestock producers - A guide for decision makers on improving livelihoods
31/12/2018
Livestock Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) are “schools without walls” where groups of small-scale livestock producers test, validate, and adapt good agricultural and marketing practices that help them increase their production sustainably and to improve their, and their families’,
Towards inclusive Pluralistic Service Systems
31/12/2017
This publication was prepared as a background document for the FAO Expert Consultation on “New Directions for Inclusive Pluralistic Service Systems” held in Rome, Italy from 11 to 13 May 2016.
Pluralistic Service Systems Market-oriented services for reducing rural poverty
31/12/2017
Some seventy five percent of the poor live in rural areas and the majority depend on agriculture for their livelihoods as smallholder farmers, pastoralist, fishers, or forest users (World Bank, 2016). Globally,
Tailoring rural advisory services for family farms
31/12/2016
This document benefited immensely from the comments and suggestions offered by many. We would like to acknowledge the review done by Kristin Davis (GFRAS) and Francesca Cofini (FAO). The authors would like also to thank Francesco Pierri (FAO) for his inputs and comments on an earlier version of this paper as well as Nimisha Mittal and Chandrakanth Madamanchi for their inputs and support (CRISP).