Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Announcement: Third AFAAS symposium

Theme: Going beyond production agriculture for smallholder farmers
12-14 April 2011, Alisa Hotel, Accra, Ghana 
The symposium’s purpose is to share information, knowledge and good practice, stimulate Country Fora, and operationalise AFAAS as a continental institution for linking AAS actors. It will build on previous symposia organized by AFAAS in 2004 and 2006 that brought together over 400 participants from different countries on the continent. After the symposium, AFAAS will hold its General Assembly on 14th April 2011 to strengthen its governance and institutional structures.

Theme and subthemes of the Symposium
1.      Market-oriented agricultural advisory services (MOAAS)
2.      Value chain approach to agricultural development and implications for AAS
3.      Mainstreaming gender issues in advisory services
4.      Climate change as an emerging issue  and its implications for AAS
5.      Use of information and communications technology (ICT) in advisory services

Specific objectives
  1. Share country experiences and innovations in AAS delivery
  2. Analyze emerging issues and innovative approaches in the identified thematic areas and their implications for AAS
  3. Streamline AFAAS institutional structures and governance to become more responsive to the continental demands and emerging issues.
Expected Outputs
  • Lessons and experienced shared and concrete evidence presented to  a wide array of AAS actors and policy makers.
  • Emerging issues and innovation approaches in identified thematic areas and their implications to AAS analysed.
  • Strategies on how to respond to continental demands and emerging issues in AAS identified and defined.
Participants
Participants are expected from within and outside Africa. The symposium will target primarily extension practitioners from public, private and civil society organizations, farmers and representatives of farmers’ organizations and commodity associations, policy makers, the research and development community, academia, the media and development partners.

For further information contact:
AFAAS Secretariat: 
Kampala, Uganda, Tel: +256-31 2 313400

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