AARINENA-RAIS Progress Report,Mrs.T.Ebrahimi

11th General Conference of AARINENA

12-14 October 2008Damascus, Syria

AARINENA-RAIS Progress Report

Dr. Mohamed Sallam, ICT-RAIS Chairman

Taraneh Ebrahimi, AARINENA-RAIS Secretary

11th General Conference of AARINENA,12-14 October 2008,Damascus, Syria

AARINENA-RAIS Progress Report

Outline• History of AARINENA-RAIS

• Main achievements of AARINENA-RAIS

• ICT situation in member countriesICT situation in member countries

• ICT-RAIS Work plan (2007-2009)ICT-RAIS Work plan (2007-2009)

• AARINENA-RAIS Network Map

• AARINENA Website and its new features

• Future plans and required support

11th General Conference of AARINENA,12-14 October 2008,Damascus, Syria AARINENA-RAIS Progress Report

History of AARINENA-RAIS• In 2001,Regional Agricultural Information System

(RAIS)of AARINENA was established to improve sharing and exchange agricultural information in the WANA Region.

• In 2002, the AARINENA-RAIS Secretariat has been established in Iran.

• ICT-RAIS steering committee composed of specialists from the five sub regions and representatives of FAO,GFAR, ICARDA and AOAD initiated its activities in 2003.

11th General Conference of AARINENA,12-14 October 2008,Damascus, Syria AARINENA-RAIS Progress Report_____________________________________________________

Main achievements of AARINENA-RAIS• Introduction and development of AARINENA Website

with its own URL (www.aarinena.org).

• Identifying the NAIS status within member countries.

• Identifying Information Focal Units in member countries.

• Initial capacity building of established Information Focal Units.

http://www.aarinena.org/


AARINENA-RAIS Progress Report________________________________________________________________

Main achievements of AARINENA-RAIS(cont.)• Establishing inter-regional collaboration with APAARI,

FARA, etc.

• Establishing forum discussions and main steps of developing national information systems as an important step in developing regional and international information systems.

• Preparation and development of WANA/RAIS

Information systems and information portals (NARIMS and NERAKIN)



ICT situation in member countriesICT situation in member countriesStrengths• Rapid development of ICT infrastructure (Population

covered by telephones, PCs, Internet subscribers, websites &ICT specialists).

• Increased use of GIS in agriculture.

• Increased involvement of the private sector in ICT business (new ICT companies)



ICT situation in member countriesICT situation in member countries(cont.)(cont.)

Weaknesses• Lack of development and up-dating ICT systems.• Low awareness & inefficient use of ICT. • Lack of clear and precise policy and strategy

regarding the development of the ICT.• Lack of capacity building (Lack of investment and

planning of training opportunities).• Language barriers (No multilingual system).• Poor communications at the sub-regional level.



ICT-RAIS Work plan (2007-2009)ICT-RAIS Work plan (2007-2009)• Identifying focal units in member states.

• Capacity building activities.

• Consolidating the preparation of ICT national strategies and policies.

• Articulating outputs from the former steering committee.



ICT-RAIS Work plan (2007-2009)ICT-RAIS Work plan (2007-2009)

• Thematic linkage with RAIS.

• Measure impact of ICT on agricultural development.

• Advocacy issues.

• Use of GIS in improving data processing and data use.



AARINENA-RAIS Social Network Analysis(SNA)• Social network analysis is the mapping and measuring

of relationships and flows between people, groups, organisations, computers or other information/knowledge processing entities.

• Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a method for visualizing our people and connection power, leading us to identify how we can best interact to share knowledge.



AARINENA-RAIS Social Network Analysis(SNA)We use the analysis to :

• Visualize relationships within and outside of the organization.

• Facilitate identification of who knows who and who might know what - teams and individuals playing central roles - thought leaders, key knowledge brokers, experts, etc.

• Identify isolated teams or individuals and knowledge bottlenecks.



AARINENA-RAIS Social Network Analysis(SNA)We use the analysis to :

• Strategically work to improve knowledge flows.

• Accelerate the flow of knowledge and information across functional and organisational boundaries.

• Improve the effectiveness of formal and informal communication channels.

• Raise awareness of the importance of informal networks.



AARINENA Website and its new features

• All activities related to the AARINENA web site (http://www.aarinena.org), by the AARINENA-RAIS secretariat.

• The first AARINENA website realeased in 8th General Conference of AARINENA in Jordan,in 2002




• In 2003 and 2004 AARINENA-RAIS Secretariat has made some changes related to the website design and content in collaboration with GFAR.

• Enhancement of Arabic version of the website by the valuable efforts of the FAO/RNE




What we want:What we want:

• Moving forward a content management system.Moving forward a content management system.• Interacting and exchangingInteracting and exchanging• Sharing Knowledge and experiencesSharing Knowledge and experiences• Involving more peopleInvolving more people• Collaborating and exchanging with Focal UnitsCollaborating and exchanging with Focal Units• Collaborating and exchanging with Regional Collaborating and exchanging with Regional

NetworksNetworks




What we have done:What we have done:

• Developing the new website.Developing the new website.• Member areaMember area• Electronic archiveElectronic archive• AARINENA RSSAARINENA RSS• Regional Researchers databaseRegional Researchers database• Regional Institutional databaseRegional Institutional database• Discussion forumDiscussion forum• KS tools( Blogs, Wikis,…)KS tools( Blogs, Wikis,…)



Member Area

To manage informationTo manage information



Member Area



Regional Agricultural Researchers Database• The electronic form has been developed to get

Researchers’ data directly through AARINENA Website:

http://www.aarinena.org/database/Researchers/form.htm

• The form has been designed in two pages.• Easy to access and follow the steps.

http://www.aarinena.org/database/Researchers/form.htm



Regional Institutional databaseRegional Institutional database• It is provided to enter data related to the Regional

Agricultural Research Institutions, Universities, farmer’s organizations, NGOs, Private sectors, useful links,etc.

• Based on username and password which will be provided for Focal Units.

• Two level of actions are required to complete the proccess.



AARINENA Discussion Forum• The virtual place where conversations can take

place and information can be shared more easily among the region .

• It could be useful for the Regional Networks to collaborate more effectively.



Knowledge Sharing tools• Websites or softwares that can be used to support

personal and group knowledge sharing.

• Blog : an easy-to-publish web page .

• Blogs can give the world a window on your work.

• Blogs provide an easy way to communicate knowledge.



Knowledge Sharing tools(cont.)

• You don’t have to know any special computer programming to write or read a blog.

• Allow readers to comment on a blog post.

• Blogs can have one or many authors.



Knowledge Sharing tools(cont.)

• Wiki is an effective tool for collaborative writing. • Allows users to add, remove, and otherwise edit and

change content.

• no special software or third party webmaster is needed to post content.

• contains a discussion page where editors and readers can talk about the document.

AARINENA Wikispace:Thinking together



Future plans and required support• Give more attention to intensive capacity building to

strengthen NAIS, RAIS, and foster ICT development.

• Focus on Focal Units Collaboration.

• Encourage using of web tools between the FU and RN to exchange and share experiences and knowledge.

• Urge FU to Use the NERAKIN as on of the best information systems in the Region to share and exchange information and knowledge.



Future plans and required support(cont.)

• Developing inter-regional communication channels and linkage mechanisms

• Facilitate the development of ICT training manuals, source books, and training materials in Arabic language.

• Encourage the creation of strong cooperation with local, regional and international agencies and institutes dealing with ICT sector.



Future plans and required support(cont.)

• Encourage the establishment of common standards and methods for data collection, storage and dissemination mechanisms related to agricultural R&D.

• Increase cooperation in E-publications.• Moving forward content management.• collaborative programs with other regional fora like

APAARI,FARA,… and learning from their success stories.

Thank youhttp://www.aarinena.org

http://www.aarinena.org/

Business

AARINENA-RAIS Progress Report,Mrs.T.Ebrahimi