|
NAIS is a national platform for Information and knowledge sharing and exchange for Agricultural Research and Development (ARD) for target groups and stakeholders at a country level.
The Objectives of NAIS are:
- To strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and other stakeholders to establish an effective and efficient information system that will support agricultural development and ensure food security at a country level, based on the needs and demands of its stakeholders and integrating the various resources in the MOA and NARIs.
- To serve as an information and knowledge repository/exchange mechanism at the national level and a gateway to the national knowledge systems for Agricultural Research and Development (ARD) at a country level, aiming for strengthening, coordinating, and adding value to initiatives by national programs and regional organizations in order to increase agricultural production and improve food security for the benefit of improving performance of farmers and agrarian businesses.
The development of a relevant, effective and harmonized National Agricultural Information System (NAIS) is expected to lead NARIs, MOA and other ministries/ stakeholders to the following outcome:
- Improve the capacity to access and exchange information, and to convert it into useful knowledge, as it is very essential for the development objectives of poverty eradication, food security, sustainable development and increased productivity and competitiveness; and
- Preserve needed resources, make maximize use of the results of other projects and database applications, prevent redundancy and duplication of data and efforts, and ensure maximum co-ordination among various agricultural institutes, programmes and personnel for the benefit of agricultural development and food security.
The following groups of stakeholders in the NAIS were identified in a preliminary way, and it was recognized that these groups and their needs and demands needed to be further defined:
- Policy-makers in agriculture and rural development, especially in the MOA and NARIs.
- Department heads and professional technical officers within the MOA and NARIs.
- Other Ministries related to rural development.
- Universities and colleges with agriculturally-related faculties and departments.
- Farmers’ and producers’ organizations.
- Credit and marketing associations and Chambers of Commerce.
- Private sector involved in agricultural and rural development.
- Non-Governmental Organizations involved in agricultural development and food security.
- Regional and International Organizations involved in agricultural development and food security.
- General Public.
At the ICT Inter-regional meeting held at Cairo, May 2005, the National Agricultural Information Systems (NAIS) were recognized as the building blocks of the RAIS [Near East and North Africa Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network ( NERAKIN) is built on Regional Agricultural Information System ( RAIS) ]. providing information on institutions, experts, research projects and research outputs, as well as contributing to international systems. The main constraints affecting the building of an efficient RAIS were identified as being weak national capacities in information and communication management and technology (ICM/ICT) in many of the AARINENA member countries, and a lack of cooperation and coordination between the member countries. The need to strengthen NAIS was also identified as a prerequisite to strengthening the RAIS.
The " Regional Training Workshop on Strengthening National Information Communication Management /Technology (ICM/ICT) Focal Units in Near East and North Africa" conducted in Oman in 8-10 January 2008 was designed to strengthen the capabilities of representatives of NIFUs for analyzing the situations of their NAIS, and to use their national experiences to identify strengths, weaknesses, and threats/challenges affecting seven key areas influencing development of NAIS, namely: (i) strategy/policy, (ii) institutional aspects, (iii) stakeholders, (iv) content, (v) people, (vi) infrastructure, and (vii) financial aspects. Possible solutions for the key weaknesses and threats/challenges were defined by participants. Finally, the countries’ priorities for early implementation were identified drawing on the list of solutions/ recommendations in their own contexts. This regional workshop was also designed to follow-up on the progress made on the NERAKIN knowledge sharing and collaboration platform, in terms of providing training to the stakeholders in the region.
|
