1.
The opening
session began by the recitation of Holy Quran after
which Dr. Roozitalab; the Deputy Head of AREO and
Chairman of GFAR welcomed the participants (see annex 1-2) and wished them a
very successful meeting. He pointed out that the meeting should attempt to concentrate
on the problems that the region faces regarding Agricultural information
systems and that effective solutions should be sought to solve them. He talked
about the history of AARINENA-RAIS and the efforts which have been made from year
2000 in this regard. He pointed out that the region needs to have active focal
points in the sub-regions and even in sub-regional countries to facilitate
information exchange and to get accurate and timely data. He announced that the
New AARINENA Web site now available online, could help the region by
facilitating exchange of information between sub-regional countries. He also
stressed that development of Databases like NARS, visiting Experts and Projects
are highly required in the region and that a standard policy should be adopted
in this regard. Finally he wished participants a pleasant stay in
2.
Dr. Rafea, the Chairman of the AARINENA ICT Steering Committee
and the Head of CLAES, welcomed all the participants and send his special
thanks to AREO for organizing the meeting. He started by reviewing briefly the
first SC meeting in ICARDA and the priorities and decisions, which have been
made during the last meeting. He also expressed
his regret that three valuable members namely Dr. Giovannetti,
from GFAR, Dr. Maliha from ICARDA and Mrs. Tahani Hussain from
3.
The Agenda
was approved (see annex 1-2) after adding a 15 minutes presentation by Dr. Hattar from AOAD, and was included after the Sub-regional Representatives’
presentations and before the presentation of training needs assessment in WANA
Region for building the technical capability of the ICM
technical staff for the proposed National Agricultural
4.
Dr. Rafea nominated Mrs. Taraneh Ebrahimi, AARINENA-RAIS Secretary to serve as the moderator
during the meeting, and the nomination was approved by the committee members.
5.
The minutes of the first meeting of the committee
held in ICARDA,
6.
Dr. Rafea reviewed briefly the approved strategy during the first
meeting’s meeting which consisted of the following items:
A.
Framework of Action to develop
the WANA/RAIS on the National and Regional Levels
Dr. Rafea pointed out that there
are two frameworks. The first framework is at the National level and the second
one is at the Regional levels. The one at the National level is the development
of these four modules using an integrated relational data base:
Ø
Institutional Information Management
Ø
Projects Information Management
Ø
Experts Information Management
Ø
Research Outputs Information Management
Some efforts have been
implemented at the national level, but they are not using relational database and
no country has all four modules. The Regional framework consists of the
following items:
Ø
Enhancing the Web site of AARINENA
Ø
Launching of electronic forum of discussion
enabling and fostering dialogues within and amongst all the stakeholders
involved in agricultural research for development in the region,
Ø
Launching of a question and answer service at the
regional level,
Ø
Establishment of a gateway function at the
regional level facilitating accesses to information managed by NARS
B.
Implementation Plan
·
Collaborative Programs and Implementation
Priorities
The implementation plan as was agreed upon
is
Ø
Continuous enhancement of AARINENA web site www.
Ø
Defining an articulated set of small-scale
collaborative programs consistent with these national and regional frameworks.
C.
The six different collaborative programs that are suggested to be done
in the region are:
·
Design of National Agriculture Information System
Database;
·
Design and Implementation of Experts Information
System;
·
Design and Implementation of Institutes
Information System (IIS);
·
Design and Implementation of Projects Information
System (PIS);
·
Design and implementation of Research Outputs
Information System (RIS);
·
Electronic Forum for discussion and
Question-and-Answer service; and
·
Gateway function that has multi-host database
search engine
D.
The priorities were set as
follows:
·
RAIS phase 1 should include Projects 1 and 6;
·
Design of National Agriculture Information System
Database;
·
Electronic Forum for discussion and
Question-and-Answer service; and
·
Remaining set of projects 2-5 and 7 will be
implemented as second phase.
Finally Dr Rafea summarized the current status of RAIS implementation
in these points:
·
AARINENA Web site has been enhanced;
·
Data for the status of NAIS and human resources
have been collected and analyzed; and
·
A project Proposal has been prepared
7.
The new version of AARINENA website was presented
by Mrs. Taraneh Ebrahimi.
She discussed the following issues:
a)
Two new items, namely a ‘search’ and a ‘spotlight
section’ were added to AARINENA web site.
The search system allows for finding useful information regarding NARIs, universities, NGOs etc… in the regional countries.
Ø
In the new
version of AARINENA all the components of the old web site are divided to three
separate sections:
Ø
The first
section is related to the AARINENA association: it contains general information
about AARINENA, its vision and mission, the governance group (which includes
the Executive Committee, AARINENA Secretary and Secretariat and etc.),
Sub-regional Organizations.
Ø
The second
section is related to the AARINENA-RAIS: it contains general information about
the RAIS (Steering Committee, RAIS Secretariat), databases, regional networks,
E-discussion, events, publications, etc…
Ø
The third
section contains Tools like spotlights, search engine, site map and a link to
the EGFAR webring connecting AARINENA information
system to all the other RAIS through the site of GFAR that will act as a
gateway of regional gateways.
b)
An Arabic version of the web site could be very
useful, because it is the native language of about 90% of the countries of the region.
She asked the SC members to decide in this meeting about this important issue
and nominate one of the Arabic countries to follow this activity in close
collaboration with the RAIS Secretariat in
c)
The main problems regarding development of Web
site were as follows:
Ø
Getting
accurate and timely information;
Ø
Cooperation
and collaboration in data and information collection and distribution.
Ø
Training and skills development: we need
training programs for the regional representatives and RAIS managers.
Ø
Technical support
8.
The
representative of FAO/RNE offered to collaborate with AARINENA secretariat to arabize the user interfaces of AARINENA website. The AOAD representative
also proposed the support of AOAD to do the same.
9.
Dr. Abdelazia al-Louzi, the
representative of Mashreq sub-region discussed the
following:
a.
Designing a
web based system in html for researchers of NCARTT including their names,
e-mail addresses and other relevant information. The system contains currently
100 researchers.
b.
Contacting
with other sub-regional countries didn’t happen during last year as no active
focal points were found in these countries and all sent e-mails remained
without any response from their part. He emphasized the fact that there is a
lack of cooperation among countries in Mashreq
sub-region
The second representative
was, Mr.
a.
b.
In
c.
The speed
of connectivity to Internet grew up to 256 kpbs and
they have about 50-117 workstations in the agricultural institution
After the presentation of
Mr. Sebbata, the participants emphasized the
importance of having focal point/expert in each country in the region.
10.
Dr. Hattar from AOAD, made his presentation about the newly
developed AOAD web site, which provides a lot of information to the
agricultural stakeholders in the region. He briefed the committee about the ICT
status in the AOAD:
a.
AOAD has
now 3 servers and many workstations
b.
There is
the news system (NEMS), which allows users to input their data from anywhere
directly to the system.
c.
The
statistical database gives valuable information on the agricultural production
in Arab countries, population, export, import, and agricultural companies.
d.
The
Marketing Network has been established.
e.
The Olive
Network and date palm network are now available on the web site.
f.
The library of AOAD includes about 45000 books
and documents. The books titles are available now on the web site and it is
possible to search the library content from within the site, but abstracts or
full texts are not yet available.
12.
The following
presentation was done by Dr. Magdi Latif, Information Management Officer, FAO/RNE. He prepared
a questionnaire which was previously sent to sub regional representatives who
are members in RAIS/AARINENA steering committee. The questionnaire was designed to assess the
training needs in
a.
Lack of
qualified technical staff is one of the major
technical problems facing the Agriculture
b.
c.
Training the Trainers (TTT) and Distance Learning (DL)
programmes in ICM (Information and Communication Management and Networking
Training Programmes) are the most important types of technical training courses
required for building the technical capacity
d.
The
Internship Program was highly recommended by 100% of the responding countries
if it is to be introduced in Near East Region
e.
All
responding countries recognized the urgent need for technical training support
to build the capacity of their institutions
f.
Five training courses (WDM, WDDD, WISDP and WebAGRIS AD) for ICM Technical Staff are required to be
technically trained for National Agricultural Information System/Network in the
Agriculture Information Centers in their institutions.
g.
Two to four
persons in each responding country were suggested to be made available for
technical training on National Agricultural Information System/Network in the
h.
At least
one technical staff member as confirmed by 100% of the responding countries in
the Agriculture Information Centers of their institutions should be specialized
in Web Information Systems development.
i.
AGRIS Resource Centers are only available in 40%
of the responding countries and the representatives of member countries are
likely to take the lead to establish
j.
The representatives of
member countries are to be encouraged working on developing National
Agricultural Information Strategy for their countries as All responding countries
confirmed that there is no available future plan for the Development of
National Agricultural
13.
All the SC
members agreed to consider the IT training courses for capacity building and
development in the region as a main objective in the future programs. Dr. Roozitalab said that we should select the right policy in
this regard and of course we need the financial support from International
Organizations to implement such activities.
Dr. Rafea
pointed out that training must have concrete objectives and that training for awareness
may be useful for top management but it is a waste of time if we conduct it for
technical staffs that do not have power to take decisions.
14.
Dr. Rafea made the final presentation in the first day of the
meeting. It was about the results of the National Information Systems
Questionnaire (see annex 3), which he has prepared and sent to AARINENA ICT
steering committee members to be filled by national institution in countries of
their sub regions. The questionnaire included two sections.
a.
The first section included 9 general questions
related to the NARSs:
Ø
The body responsible for IT
Ø
Technical people
Ø
Active local area Networks
Ø
Connectivity to Internet
Ø
The bandwidth of this connection
Ø
Number of Workstations
Ø
Number of servers
Ø
Type of operating Systems
Ø
Type of Software packages
Dr. Rafea
mentioned that eight countries have filled out the questionnaires (
Preliminary analysis
revealed that most of the national research organizations in the eight
countries have a body responsible of information, and a local area network. The
connectivity rate to the Internet is not mentioned in some of the responses.
This indicates that some of the countries still have problems in connectivity.
The number of workstations ranges from 3 to over 300 in national research
organizations as a whole.
Most of the software
identified indicates that the computers are mainly used for office automation
or using ready-made information packages such as CDS-ISIS. Few countries have
Data Base Management System (DBMS) such as SQL and Oracle.
b.
The second section of the questionnaire included
two questions related to the Agricultural Information Systems in the NARSs. In the first question four items have been provided
to select. The question was about availability of the following information
system modules, already built or started developing in the countries. The items
to choose were as following:
·
Management of institutional information
·
Management of research activities and research
project information
·
Management of information on experts
·
Management of information on research outputs,
Based
on the analysis, which Dr. Rafea made, no country has
a complete NAIS as specified in the ICT steering committee minutes of the
meeting held in ICARDA last summer. Most of the countries that have one or two
modules have built these modules using tools provided by International
organizations. 50% of the countries are not satisfied with the system they have
right now and the other 50% although satisfied, do not have a complete system
or indicate that they want to modify it.
Only
two countries have expressed giving priority to the Institutions Information
System. Four countries indicated that they do not have the human capacity to
develop the NAIS. Some countries did not respond to this question because they
are satisfied with what they have but this does not indicate that they have
human capacity to build new modules.
The
results showed that in the meantime in the region, the situation of
connectivity to the Internet and Hardware is Ok and there is no serious problem
in this regard; the main problems experienced were in the area of software where
there is strong and real need to develop it in the region.
15.
Dr. Rafea presented the project proposal for implementing
Phase-1 of WANA/RAIS, which was distributed to all participants, as follows:
Ø
In the first ICT steering committee meeting of
AARINENA, the committee has approved a two-phase plan to implement RAIS. The
first phase includes three main components: the design of a National Agriculture
Information System (NAIS), the development of an Electronic Forum for
discussion and the development of a Question-and-Answer service. The second
phase will include the design and implementation of Experts Information System
(EIS), Institutes Information System (IIS), a Projects Information System
(PIS), a Research Outputs Information System (RIS), and a Gateway function that
has a multi-host database search engine
Ø
The submitted proposal addresses the first phase
of this plan. The First objective is to facilitate the implementation of NAIS
through designing a database, methodology and tools for the development of the four
identified modules of the National Agricultural Information System. The
methodology will address the language issue in order to present the key
resources in two principal languages National language (Arabic, English) and Persian/French. Existing national resources would be adapted
to improve consistency and accessibility.
The second objective is to develop Electronic Community System (ECS) at
the Regional Level, which will include mainly two components, an Electronic
Forum for discussion and a Question-and-Answer service.
Ø
Two workshops will be held after finalizing the
requirements specifications of the tool and the ECS to discuss these
requirements with representatives from the region. Two training courses will be
held at the end of the project to train ICT specialists and researchers on
using the NAIS development tools and the ECS respectively.
16.
AOAD
representative suggested changing the name of the Project to be “Regional
Agricultural Research Information Systems”. He also suggested separating the
Justification from Background (in the third page of the draft). The suggestions
were approved. He also proposed that some work related to the Regional
libraries could be added in the future.
17.
All
participants emphasized the importance of supporting national scripts in the
tool to be developed. Dr. Rafea said that this has been already mentioned in the
proposal and after making the first prototype every country representative in
the region should check the prototype not only to be sure that it supports the
national language but also for any other comments. The first workshop could be
held after implementing the first prototype to gather all these comments.
In response to inquiries
from participants, Dr. Rafea emphasized that every
NARS would have its own information systems servers. All the data will remain
at the national levels and then through a search engine at regional level
(through AARINENA website) one can get needed information.
18.
Dr. Hattar said that it would be better to design the system in
such a way so as to have a backup of National Information at the Regional
servers, because sometimes the link to a national server could be broken and
hence the information from this server will not be retrieved. This point should
and would be considered when the requirements & specifications of the NAIS
tool are developed.
19.
Participants
stressed the necessity of the governmental support and approval to submit this
proposal to donors, (Islamic Development Bank was mentioned as a strong
candidate) and hence for using this tool to develop their NARIS’s.
20.
FAO
representative suggested to change the wording of the first objective to be
“Developing appropriate tools and strengthening human resource capacity of
Agricultural Research Institutions” in order to be more concrete as donors need
to have solid outcomes while the current wording which is “Facilitate the
implementation of NAIS” might not be clear for them. He also mentioned that we should focus on
capacity building in this proposal and to provide further elaboration on TORs of consultants. The suggestions were approved and Dr Rafea promised to take these issues into account while
preparing the revised draft.
21.
The
participants requested an increase in the number of trainees and countries
participating in the workshops and training courses. This point was supported
in addition to adjusting the training budget to accommodate this request.
22.
Dr. Roozitalab proposed AARINENA Executive Committee to be
responsible for selecting the leading NARS institution and the coordinator
based on the recommendations of the ICT SC. The ICT Steering Committee will
then work as a project task force to supervise, monitor, and evaluate the
project activities and outputs. A representative of the donor and the RAIS
coordinator are to join project task force. The RAIS coordinator will report to
AARINENA executive committee.
23.
The
committee members agreed to replace the word national consultant by the word ‘consultant’
only to enable the project management to recruit any knowledgeable consultant
in the region or out of the region if necessary.
24.
Dr. Rafea promised to record all comments and recommendations
and send the revised version to all members within the following 10 days. The
deadline for final approval was set to be mid October 2004.
25.
The
expected activities in order to finalize the proposal and submit to a donor are
as follows:
·
Finalizing the Proposal RARIS for WANA phase-1,
by Dr. Rafea before the end of September, 2004
·
Approve the proposal by the committee members by
mid October, 2004
·
Get the approval of at least three countries from
the region through AARINENA executive committee, by the end of November, 2004
·
Submit the proposal to the IDB to get their
financial support.
26.
AARINENA
accepted the proposal of FAORNE to arabize the
interfaces of AARINENA website (no specific date was made to achieve this
activity). FAORNE was also kindly asked to make a study the items to be arabized in AARINENA web site.
27.
Cooperation
of focal points was highly recommended. In this regard the SC members asked Dr.
Roozitalab to raise this issue during the executive
committee meeting to ask the countries to nominate ICT focal points.
28.
Three training courses were proposed to be held
during January, April and December 2005. FAORNE and AOAD will immediately proceed with the first proposed
joint training Workshop on "Electronic Document Management and the Use of
NEMS/EMIS and WebAGRIS tools for Database Management
and Development" to be held in collaboration with CLAES (Central
Laboratory for Agricultural Expert Systems) for two weeks in January 2005 in
Cairo. This workshop
is proposed to be the first stage of a sub-regional capacity building programme
aimed at fulfilling the FAO Sub Regional Training Plan which will focus on the
The first training workshop is proposed to
cover only
Two more joint training workshops
between FAO, AOAD and CLAES are to be provided in April 2005 and December 2005
as the second and third stages of sub-regional capacity building programme
aimed at fulfilling the FAO Sub Regional Training Plan which will focus on the
Human Capacity Building approach to establish and/or reactivate the AGRIS
Resource Centres (ARC)/National Agricultural Information centres (NAIC) on Sub Regional Level
This
training proposal is a practical initiative
to focus on capacity building and developing common strategies for the
establishment and development of AGRIS Resource Centres/National Agricultural
Information centres (NAIC) based on a participatory approach on a Sub Regional
Basis in West Asia and North Africa Region for building the
technical capability of the ICM technical staff for the proposed National
Agricultural
FAO
was selected to act as a focal point for this informal consortium during the initiation phase. The goal of the consortium is to contribute to the eradication of
rural poverty and food security in
29.
Following
the briefing given to the steering committee members on the informal Consortium
for building human resource capacity in West Asia and North Africa Region, FAO
Representative has invited AARINENA to participate in this consortium as Dr. Fardous was previously briefed on this consortium in
December 2003 during his visit to ICARDA at the same time of the first SC
meeting of AARINENA RAIS-ICT and Dr. Rafea was not
aware of such a consortium in the region but he welcomed the collaboration and support
of such initiative.
Finally
the committee recommended to formally request from GFAR to support AARINENA to
actively participate in the IM/IT capacity building informal consortium and
asked Dr Roozitalab to raise this issue in the upcoming
executive committee meeting of AARINENA.
30.
The
following items have been highlighted by the participants:
§
There is a great need to start the procedure for
getting fund for the implementation of the project submitted to the committee,
after being revised according to the comments of the committee members and
their final approval. After the approval of the AARINENA executive committee,
official letters should be sent to member organizations to get letters of
support to submit the proposal to donors.
§
It is very important to have ICT focal points in
each member organization in AARINENA. Therefore, the committee highly
recommends raising this issue in the executive committee meeting of AARINENA.
§
Develop the Arabic version of the AARINENA web
site is important and the committee thanked the FAO for its proposal to arabize the user interfaces and to suggest what other contents
should be arabized.
§
Clear objectives for training must be
set. Although awareness courses are important for top management, concrete
objectives for training courses offered to technical personnel, must be
identified such that real and tangible improvements in the national systems
could be achieved.
§
The issue of AARINENA’s
participation in the informal Consortium for building human resource capacity
in
§
The main problem that hinders the information
system development is the lack of software developers. It is not expected to
solve this problem by training, as a good developer needs to be educated and to
work in an enabling environment. Therefore, the best solution is to outsource
the development process to capable institutions in the region to develop
high-level tools for building the NAIS. The training is to be oriented toward
using these tools. There are now some tools developed by FAO that can be used
such as NEMS for developing an information system for news and event, EIMS for electronic
information management and others. It is expected to have a suite of powerful
tools after implementing the project whose proposal is submitted in the
meeting.
31.
Dr. Rafea expressed his appreciation to Dr. Roozitalab,
AREO to organize this meeting in
32.
Dr. Roozitalab also thanked the SC members for their active
contributions and AREO colleagues for their participation in this meeting. He
informed the attendees about the DURAS Project which provides support for the
national and Regional projects. It gives opportunities to the Sub-Saharan and
North African countries to request for fund for their projects. He asked the SC
members to study this project and use its benefits to develop the ICT in the
region.
33.
Next
meeting of the Steering Committee: It was suggested that the next meeting of
the Steering Committee be in
Annex
1-1
AARINENA-RAIS
Second ICT Steering Committee Meeting
9-9
September 2004, AREO-Iran
Agenda
Ø
Mashreq
(Jordan Representative)
Ø
Ø
Ø
West and
5.
Progress Report on AARINENA Website
6.
Presentation
of the AOAD IM activities
Annex 1-2
List of Participants
|
|
Name |
Tel.,
Fax. and Email |
|
1 |
Mr. M. H. Roozitalab the Deputy Head of AREO
and Chairman of GFAR, |
Tel: 9821-2402987 |
|
2 |
Mr. Ahmad Rafea |
Tel.: 202 3317601, 3317602,6704727 Fax.:202 7617628 e-mail: rafea@claes.sci.eg |
|
3 |
Mr. Raed
F. Hattar |
Tel: 00249 472176 83 |
|
4 |
Mr. Magdi
Latif |
Tel.: 00202 3316148, 010 1772187 Fax.: 00202 7485981 e-mail: Magdi.Latif@fao.org |
|
5 |
Mrs. Taraneh Ebrahimi AARINENA-RAIS
Secretariat |
Tel: 9821-2402987 |
|
6 |
Mr. Abdel
Aziz AL-Louzi |
Tel.: 9962 6 4725071 Fax.: 962 6 4726099 e-mail: louzi@ncartt.gov.jo |
|
7 |
Mr. Website Designer, INRA, |
Tel: +212 037 775530 Fax : 212.37.77.40.03 |
Annex
2
Information
Management and Networking Training Needs Assessment Questionnaire
RAIS/AARINENA
Results and Overall Conclusion and Analysis of the
Questionnaire[1]
Background:
This
questionnaire was designed to assess the training needs in
This
Questionnaire was prepared by the FAO-RNE Regional Information Management
Officer and has been sent to sub regional representatives who are members in
RAIS/AARINENA steering committee.
Responses on the ICM Training Needs assessment were only received from
60% of the countries (
Results
of the Questionnaire
1.
60 % of the Responding
countries agreed that AGRIS is the main Software/tool used for managing
agricultural information in the Agriculture
2.
60 % of the Responding
countries agreed that AGRIS was the main Software/tool used for disseminating
agricultural information in the Agriculture
3.
All responding
countries agreed that there was no specific software/tool used for the
Development of National Agricultural
4.
All responding
countries agreed that there was no future plan for the Development of National
Agricultural
5.
All responding
countries indicated that the number of technical staff working in the
Agriculture
6.
40% of the responding
countries, (
7.
All responding
countries highly recommended training to
overcome the technical problems facing the Agriculture
8.
In all of the
responding countries, moderate technical problems were experienced in
computer-based Networks and Web information system in the Agriculture
9.
80% of the responding
countries indicated that at least one technical staff member in their
respective
10.
80% of the responding countries indicated that none of the ICM
(Information and Communication Management) training programmes
were given to personnel and stakeholders of the Agriculture
11.
Most of the responding countries indicated that no training courses for
ICM Technical Staff were planned nor implemented last year for the Agriculture
12.
Responding countries (100%) indicated that there is an urgent need for
technical training support to build the capacity of their respective
institutions in Dynamic Web Development Programming for National Agricultural
13.
Three to four major areas of training for technical staff were
identified in order to provide further contribution and improvement in the ICM
application development in the Agriculture
Web
Database Management (5 COUNTRIES)
Web
Web
Content Management (4 COUNTRIES)
Web
Database Design and Development (3 COUNTRIES)
13.
The training areas where the responding countries felt there could be
concrete collaboration between the Agriculture
Web
Database Management (2 COUNTRIES)
Web
Database Design and Development (4 COUNTRIES)
WebAGRIS Applications
Development (4 COUNTRIES)
Web
14.
In most of the responding countries (100%), Train The Trainers (TTT),
Distance Learning (DL) followed by Internship were the highest ranking areas of
technical training programmes chosen for ICM
technical staff members in the Agriculture
15.
In all of the responding countries, Training the Trainers (TTT) and
Distance Learning (DL) programmes were chosen as the
most important types of technical training courses required for building the
technical capacity of the Agriculture
16.
80% of the responding countries indicated that four training courses: (each
containing between 2 to 6 persons from each member country) in the field of
(WDM, WDDD, WISDP and WebAGRIS AD) for ICM Technical
Staff are required to be technically
trained in the Agriculture
17.
80% of the responding countries indicated that between 2 - 4 ICM
technical staff members in the Agriculture
18.
All responding countries (100%) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED application of the
Internship Program in Near East Region. (Q40)
19.
All responding countries are willing to provide ONLY COORDINATION
SUPPORT for the initiative of the Internship Program if it were to be
introduced in Near East Region by FAO. (Q41)
20.
All responding countries are not willing to share the cost of the above
mentioned training in order to build national cadres in ICM/ICT. (Q42)
21.
All Countries who responded to this Questionnaire confirmed that their
technical staffs in the Agriculture Information Centers of their respective
institutions are willing to undertake self learning tutorials developed by FAO
and its partners and provided through FAO ICM Distance Learning Programme. (Q44)
Overall
Conclusion and Analysis of the Questionnaire
1.
Lack of qualified technical staff
to manage and disseminate Agricultural Information, to establish and/or activate
the WebAGRIS Resource Centre, in order to reach a
state of active participation and collaboration with FAO AGRIS Network, and to
manage and develop the proposed National Agricultural
2.
3.
80% of the responding countries confirmed that Training the Trainers
(TTT) and Distance Learning (DL) programmes in ICM
(Information and Communication Management and Networking Training Programmes) are the most important types of technical
training courses required for building the technical capacity of the
Agriculture
4.
The Internship Program was highly recommended by
100% of the responding countries if it is to be introduced in Near East Region
and member countries are willing to provide coordination support without
minimum cost sharing in this regard.
5.
100% of the countries recognized the urgent need
for technical training support to build the capacity of their institutions
in Dynamic Web Development Programming for National Agricultural
6.
Five training courses
(WDM, WDDD, WISDP and WebAGRIS AD) for ICM Technical
Staff are required to be technically trained for National Agricultural
Web Database
Management – WDM (100% of the countries)
Web Database Design
and Development –WDDD (80% of the countries)
Web
WebAGRIS
Applications Development-WebAGRIS AD (80% of the
countries)
WebAGRIS
Database Management and Development (100% of the countries)
7.
Two to four persons in each responding country were suggested to be made
available for technical training to be technically trained for National
Agricultural
8.
At least one technical staff member as confirmed by 100% of the
responding countries in the Agriculture
9.
AGRIS Resource Centers are only available in 40% of the
responding countries (Sudan and Syria) and the representatives of
member countries are likely to take the lead to establish WebAGRIS Resource Centre in their Agricultural
Information Centers to benefit from the new WebAGRIS
Resource Centers strategy developed and still under development by FAO as
a good avenue for information management and dissemination.
10.
All the responding countries confirmed that there is no available future
plan for the Development of National Agricultural
Table 1.0
Information Management and Networking Training
Needs Assessment Questionnaire
For
Data received from the responding countries
|
Quest. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 |
None |
SAS and HTML |
AGRIS |
AGRIS |
AGRIS |
|
23 |
None |
SAS and HTML |
AGRIS |
Email |
AGRIS |
|
24 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
Not Clear |
|
25 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
None |
|
26 |
4 WDDD Qualified |
4 WDM-WISDP |
6 WDM-WISDP |
2 WDM |
2 WDM |
|
27 |
No WebAGRIS Resource Centre |
No WebAGRIS Resource Centre |
WebAGRIS
Resource Centre |
WebAGRIS
Resource Centre |
No WebAGRIS Resource Centre |
|
28 |
------ |
WebAGRIS
Training and lack of H/S |
WebAGRIS
Training |
WebAGRIS
Training |
WebAGRIS
Training |
|
29 |
All type of problems |
All type of problems |
All type of problems |
All type of problems |
All type of problems |
|
30 |
1 for TTT |
3 for TTT |
10(?) for TTT |
1 for TTT |
1 for TTT |
|
31 |
None |
None |
3 trained in WD |
None |
None |
|
32 |
None |
None |
2 on AGRIS |
None |
None |
|
33 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
34 |
WDM-WDDD-WISDP |
WCM-WDM-WISDP |
WCM-WDM |
All |
All |
|
35 |
WDM-WDDD-WISDP |
WCM-WDDM-WISDP |
WCM-WDM |
WDM-WDDD -WEBAGIS AD |
WCM-WDDD-WAGRIS AD |
|
36 |
TTT-Internship and DL |
DL - Internship |
NA |
TTT-Internship-DL |
TTT -I internship - DL |
|
37 |
TTT and DL |
TTT and DL |
TTT and DL |
TTT and DL |
TTT and DL |
|
38 |
As in No. 35 |
As in No. 35 |
As in No. 35 |
NA |
As in No. 35 |
|
39 |
4 in All |
6 in All Training |
4 in All |
NA |
2 in All Training |
|
40 |
Recommend Internship |
Recommend Internship |
Recommend Internship |
Recommend Internship |
Recommend Internship |
|
41 |
Coordination support |
Coordination support |
Coordination support |
Coordination support |
Coordination support |
|
42 |
No cost sharing |
No cost sharing |
No cost sharing |
No cost sharing |
No cost sharing |
|
43 |
Sept |
Feb, May, Sept, Dec. |
Nov - Feb |
Any time |
June-July |
|
44 |
Self learn. In DL |
Self learn. In DL |
Self learn. In DL |
Self learn. In DL |
Self learn. In DL |
|
45 |
None |
None |
None |
None |
None |
|
|
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
Q4 |
Q5 |
Q6 |
Q7 |
Q8 |
Q9 |
|
|
No |
|
Yes |
Yes |
? |
50 |
1 |
W2000 |
Office |
|
|
Yes |
5 |
Yes |
Yes |
!Mbs |
>300 |
5 |
W2000
XP |
SQL
&IIS |
|
|
Yes |
5 |
Yes |
Yes |
512Kbs |
31 |
7 |
W2000Linux |
Office,
|
|
|
Yes |
4 |
Yes |
Yes |
256Kbs |
70 |
4 |
W2000 Unix-Novell |
Oracle CDS-ISIS |
|
|
Yes |
6 |
Yes |
Yes |
128kbs |
117 |
11 |
W2000 XP Unix |
SQL, Office CDS-ISIS WinIsis, MinIsis |
|
|
Yes |
10 |
Yes |
Yes |
64kbs-ISDN |
80 |
6 |
W2000 XP |
|
|
|
Yes |
5 |
No |
No |
|
223 |
|
W2000 XP |
Office |
|
|
Yes |
3 |
Yes |
Yes |
? |
3 |
1 |
NT |
|
1.
Do you have
a body in your organization responsible of Information?
2.
If yes how
many technical persons are working in this body?
3.
Do you have
a local area Network in your organization?
4.
Is this
local Area Network connected to the Internet?
5.
What is the
bandwidth of your connection?
6.
How many workstations
do you have?
7.
How many
servers do you have?
8.
What
operating systems do you use?
9.
What
software packages do you use?
Eight countries have
filled the questionnaires on National Agricultural Information System (NAIS)
for NARS’s, prepared by the Chair of the ICT steering
committee and approved by its members. Preliminary analysis revealed that most
of the national research organizations in the eight countries have a body
responsible of information, and a local area network. The connectivity rate to
the Internet is not mentioned in some of the responses. This indicates that
some of the countries have still problems in the connectivity. The number of workstations ranges from 3 to
over 300 in national research organizations as a whole. Most of the software
identified indicates that the computers are mainly used for office automation
or using ready-made information packages such as CDS-ISIS. Few countries have
Data Base Management System (DBMS) such as SQL and Oracle.
Section B Agriculture
Information Systems
|
|
1 |
1.a |
1.b |
1.c |
1.d |
1.e |
1.f |
1.g |
2.a |
2.b |
2.c |
|
|
X |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I.IS |
No |
|
|
|
I.IS P.IS E.IS R.IS (part.) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
SQL |
W2000 |
Yes |
|
|
|
|
|
|
I.IS P.IS |
No |
Yes |
|
Acess SQL |
W98 |
No |
Modify |
|
Yes |
Merise Java, ASP |
|
|
? |
No |
Yes |
|
Oracle |
Unix |
Yes |
Rebuild |
No |
No |
|
|
|
P.IS R.IS |
Yes |
No |
IDRC Unesco FAO |
MinIsis CDS-Isis Agris Caris |
NT4 |
No |
Modify |
|
|
|
|
|
E.IS |
No |
No |
? |
? |