CCARDESA is currently hosting a four-day regional training workshop on information, knowledge and data capture guidelines in Boksburg, South Africa.
Day one started with CCARDESA programme officer Futhi Magagula presenting an overview on Regional Data Capture Training Workshop.
He said that CCARDESA was created to coordinate agricultural R&D in the region with the goal being to sustainably reduce food insecurity and poverty in the SADC region.
The objective, said Magagula, is to increase smallholder productivity through adoption of improved agricultural technologies and improved husbandry and marketing practices.
“We also aim to empower and strengthen farmers and their organisations or groups, to facilitate development of sustainable education, training and learning systems and to remote co-operation, consultation and exchange of scientific and technical information on best practices in agriculture,” he said.
Magagula said that on the achievement side, they jointly conducted a baseline survey with XP4 organisations, conducted a Capacity Gap Assessment, Identified capacity gaps that are common across 5-6 countries, reviewed the HR Policy and Procedures and upgraded the Finance Management System and conducted mapping of CSA initiative.
Further training includes 19 (8F:11M) people that have been training on resource mobilisation through the FARA initiative, conducting 10 webinar trainings to develop skills and capacity for applying foresight for climate resilient agricultural development, training of 237 participants (Angola, Botswana, DRC, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and uploading of six foresight modules on the website for e-Learning.
The second speaker was ICKM Officer Bridget Kakuwa-Kasongamulilo who presented the CCARDESA ICKM Strategy Overview.
She said one of the key thematic areas of CCARDESA as outlined in the MTOP and long-term strategy is Knowledge, Information and Communication.
“It supports the overall objectives and themes outlined in both the Strategic Plan and the Medium-Term Operational Plan of CCARDESA. The goal of the theme is to ensure access to knowledge and information through various ICT technologies, traditional and electronic media for researchers, extension agents, farmers and other various stakeholders,” said Kakuwa-Kasongamulilo.
She said that the long-term strategy attaches great importance to ICKM by acknowledging CCARDESA’s strategic position to serve the region as “a broker of knowledge and information, the main products of agricultural research for development, and act as an intermediary between research, extension and value chain actors, to ensure that the region successfully turns research results into use”.
In addition, CCARDESA’s ICKM thematic area is enshrined in the CCARDESA mission which is “To set the regional research and development agenda, mobilise resources, support capacity development, foster collaboration and provide agricultural information and knowledge in the SADC”.
When it comes to the CCRDESA Data Capture Guidelines and strategic overview, Kakuwa-Kasongamulilo said that their findings for the study that targeted 7 CAADP-XP4 Countries led them to recommending that there’s a need to Institutionalize KM in each country, train focal point person in KM and Malabo Commitments and SDGs, to Increase budget related KM activities and also set up community of practice in country to facilitate sharing of Malabo related information and SDGs.
Full presentations can be accessed here: https://www.ccardesa.org/events/regional-information-knowledge-and-data-capture-guidelines-training-workshop
