Archive for July, 2007

Monthly Archive

Fri 20 Jul 2007

Advancing agricultural research in Africa

Posted by ILRIComms under Africa, Agriculture, Research
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Under the theme of 'productivity and competitiveness of African agriculture in a global economy', the 4th Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) General Assembly identified key resolutions for stakeholders to action over the next three years.

‘The fourth FARA General Assembly, with its large, diverse and vigorous participation, provided a fertile source of information and knowledge on the opportunities and problems currently facing African Agriculture’ said the South African Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs, Ms Lulama Xingwana.

The General Assembly took place in Johannesburg, South Africa on 10–16 June 2007 and drew together over 670 delegates including ministers and deputy ministers of agriculture and development partners from all over Africa, together with international collaborating institutions.
 
The General Assembly, which coincided with the Africa Agriculture Science Week and South Africa Day, closed with a number of key resolutions for advancing agricultural research in Africa.

FARA General Assembly key resolutions included:

  • Developing adequate veterinary capacity and livestock disease surveillance, epidemiological and response systems and interlinking them with human disease counterparts to enable nations to cope with disease outbreaks, especially zoonotic diseases, and to comply with international health and safety standards
  • Promotion of intra-African trade in food staples and international trade in high-value products by creating commercial environments that will engage both the private and public sectors, to produce tools to help smallholders invest in change and manage risks
  • Development of endogenous innovation capacity, including the ability to identify and adapt potential foreign innovations to maximize the impact of agricultural research and development, by providing policy makers with evidence-based pragmatic options, preferably developed jointly by researchers and policy makers
  • Mainstreaming indigenous science into agricultural research and development and making the necessary personal and institutional adjustments that are required to enable communication and joint learning between practitioners of the different sciences
  • Recognizing sub-Saharan and North African civil society organizations, support and strengthen them to fulfill their missions
  • Advocating and facilitating the strengthening of research and management, as well as strengthening agricultural sciences 
  •  Recognizing research on peri-urban agriculture as a mainstream activity, but one that requires new approaches to research

 According to the FARA executive secretary Monty Jones, ‘this year’s general assembly was undoubtedly the most successful to date and stakeholders were thrilled with the resolutions that were presented.’

An article in this month’s New Agriculturist (UK) provides a selection of participants’ viewpoints on ways forward including strengthening support systems, the role of institutions and partnerships and ensuring market orientation and access.

Points of view: Transforming agriculture in Africa. New Agriculturist (UK). July 2007

Further information about the FARA General Assembly resolutions is available on the FARA Africa website at http://www.fara-africa.org

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Fri 13 Jul 2007

ILRI wins 10 awards for communication excellence

Posted by ILRIComms under ILRI, PA
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The international Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE) recently presented the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with 10 top awards for excellence in communication.
 
ACE aims to extend knowledge about agriculture, natural resources, and life and human science to people worldwide by developing the professional skills of its members. Members include writers, editors, photographers, web developers and researchers working in universities, government agencies and research organizations in the public and private sectors throughout the world. ACE operates an annual Critique and Awards programme geared toward providing members with professional critiques of their work and recognizing those who have excelled. (www.aceweb.org)

This year ILRI won 10 top awards: two gold, four silver and four bronze awards. The awards were presented to ILRI’s corporate communications officer, Grace Ndungu, by ACE’s president Bob Sams at a banquet organized for the conference participants in Albuquerque, New Mexico on 19 June 2007.

ILRI Grace ACE

Bruce Scott, ILRI’s director of partnerships and communication, says ‘the efforts that have been put into making sure that ILRI’s communicates to the world professionally – so that science can make the biggest difference on world poverty – are starting pay off significantly. It’s very rewarding that others judge us to excel at this.’

007 ACE Gold Awards


Covers of three ILRI big issue briefs: Saving Lives and Protecting Livelihoods,
Climate Change in Africa and Combating Bird flu


Cover of the sixth Annual Peter Doherty lecture

2007 ACE Silver Awards


Content, images and overall presentation of the ILRI Annual Report 2005 ‘Knowledge to Action’


Film script of the ILRI and Doyle Foundation ‘Trypanosomosis Control’ DVD


Images and overall presentation of ILRI’s information folder


Image of a  woman spinning cotton in her home in southern Mali,
contained in the ILRI Annual Report 2005

2007 ACE Bronze Awards


Cover of the ‘Mapping climate vulnerability and poverty in Africa’ book


Content, images and overall presentation of the
‘Highlights’ section in the ILRI Annual Report 2005


Image, message and overall presentation of ILRI’s 2006 Christmas Greeting Card


Filming of the ‘ILRI at Work 2006’ DVD

In previous years ILRI has won 6 ACE awards: one gold, two silver and three bronze, for its cutting-edge communications products. (http://www.ilri.org/ILRIPubAware/ShowDetail.asp?CategoryID=TS&ProductReferenceNo=TS%5F060905%5F002

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