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 Information System/Network which is given by FAO Representative.
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.aarinena.org
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
10. The second
representative was, Mr. Otman Sebbata, from
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.
11. 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 Information Centers
in all the responding countries.
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 Information System and software/tools that could be
used in this regard.
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 Information
System/Network and to activate and put into practice the
mandate of the informal consortium for Human Capacity Building in the field of
Information Management in Near East Region established in December 2003 by FAO, AOAD, ICARDA, and
AAAID.
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. Otman Sebbata 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 Information Centre of the countries
that responded. (Q22)
2.
60 % of the Responding
countries agreed that AGRIS was the main Software/tool used for disseminating
agricultural information in the Agriculture Information Centers in their
institutions. (Q23)
3.
All responding
countries agreed that there was no specific software/tool used for the
Development of National Agricultural Information System in the Agriculture
Information Centers in their institution. (Q24)
4.
All responding
countries agreed that there was no future plan for the Development of National
Agricultural Information System and the type of software/tools that could be
used in this regard. (Q25)
5.
All responding
countries indicated that the number of technical staff working in the
Agriculture Information Centre in their institutions were approximately between
2-6 persons. (Q26)
6.
40% of the responding
countries, (
7.
All responding
countries highly recommended training to
overcome the technical problems facing the Agriculture Information Centers in
their institutions to establish and/or activate the AGRIS Resource Centre, in
order to reach a state of active participation and collaboration with FAO AGRIS
Network. (Q28)
8.
In all of the responding
countries, moderate technical problems were experienced in computer-based
Networks and Web information system in the Agriculture Information Centre in
all respective institutions. (Q29)
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 Information Centre in their
respective institutions except for
11. Most of the responding countries indicated that no training courses for
ICM Technical Staff were planned nor implemented last year for the Agriculture
Information Centre in their institutions except for
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
Information System/Network. (Q33)
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 Information Centers in their
institutions. (Q34)
Web Database Management (5 COUNTRIES)
Web Information System Development Programming (4
COUNTRIES)
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 Information Centers in their
countries and FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) to meet their technical
staff needs in order to provide further contribution and improvement in the ICM
application development in the Agriculture Information Centers in their
institutions, were the following: (Q35)
Web Database Management (2 COUNTRIES)
Web Database Design and Development (4 COUNTRIES)
WebAGRIS Applications Development (4 COUNTRIES)
Web Information System Development Programming (2
COUNTRIES)
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 Information Centers of their respective institutions. (Q36)
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 Information Centers in the respective institutions and for
developing the technical capability of their ICM technical staff to manage and
even develop the proposed National Agricultural Information System/Network.
(Q37)
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 Information Centers in their institutions. (Q38)
17. 80% of the responding countries indicated that between 2 - 4 ICM
technical staff members in the Agriculture Information Centers of their respective
institutions have the capability to attend special training for trainers and
become a leader in providing national trainings in the same subjects to other
national stakeholders after completing the proposed training. (Q39)
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 Information System/Network, is one of the major technical
problems facing the Agriculture Information Centers in 100% of the responding
countries.
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 Information
Centre in their institutions and for developing the technical capability of
their ICM technical staff to manage and develop the proposed National
Agricultural Information System/Network.
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 Information System/Network
6.
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.
Web
Database Management – WDM (100% of the countries)
Web
Database Design and Development –WDDD (80% of the countries)
Web
Information System Development Programming – WISDP (80% of the countries)
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 Information
System/Network in the Agriculture Information Centre of their institutions.
8.
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.
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 Information System and
software/tools that could be used in this regard. The representatives of
member countries are to be encouraged working on developing National
Agricultural Information Strategy for their countries.
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 |
|
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 |
? |
? |
? |
No |
Rebuild |
No |
No |
|
|
|
R.IS |
Yes |
No |
ICARDA AOAD |
WebAgris |
|
Yes |
|
I.IS |
No |
|
|
|
X |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
|
Yes |
|
|
|
|
1.
Do you have any of the following information
system modules, already built in your institution or have you started
developing any of them? (Choose one or more)
(a) Management of
institutional information
(b) Management of
research activities and research project information
(c) Management of
information on experts
(d) Management of
information on research outputs,
If
yes answer the following questions:
a.
Are you satisfied with your current system(s)?
b.
Did you develop the system?
c.If the answer is No in (b), from where did you
get the system?
d.
What is the DBMS you are using, if any?
e.On what platform is the information system
running?
f. Is the
system available on the Internet?
i.
In case you answer is (No) in (a) do you think
that modification can be done easily or it is better to rebuild the system from
scratch?
2.
In case you do not have nor started building any
of the above mentioned modules, answer the following questions:
a.
Do you have any preference for the modules
development Priority: Expert IS, Institutes IS, etc.?
b.
Do you think that your NARS has the capacity to
build its own NAIS?
c.If your answer to b is yes, what methodology and
tools should be used?
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, they 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.
[1] Prepared
by Magdi
Latif, Regional Information Management Officer, Food and Agriculture
Organization, Regional Near East Office, September 2004