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Social Reporting at the 7th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW7)

ICT Update

FARA and CTA, in collaboration with YPARD and GFAR, are organising a social reporting activity in the framework of the FARA 7th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW7) from 13 – 16 June 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda. To promote the event, its sessions, key messages and outcomes, about two hundred young social reporters (onsite and remote reporters) have been selected to cover the event.

For CTA, through the ARDYIS project, social reporting is a means to support capacity building and networking for youth in agriculture, apart from contributing to promote knowledge sharing on agricultural development challenges and opportunities. Therefore, CTA is supporting 8 young social reporters from across Africa to join their Rwandan colleagues (from YPARD) for the social reporting activity.

The social reporting activity will, thus, include a day training session on the effective use of social reporting tools for selected onsite social reporters, followed by 4 days of using those skills for active social reporting, engaging conference participants and contributing to the overall outreach of the outcomes the science week. They will be supported by the online team, via social media, to amplify and increase the reach of the communication content that will generated onsite.

Pre-Conference e-Discussions

In addition, to prepare the social reporters for the task ahead, an e-discussion activity is organised around the themes of the science week to kick-start the engagement and to update social reporters and improve their understanding on some of the important issues that are linked to the themes of the conference, on which they will be reporting. The e-discussion will hold from 06 – 11 June 2016, and is themed: “youth and agriculture sciences in Africa”. This pre-conference e-discussion is being co-managed by CTA.

Specifically, the e-discussion is focusing on 3 themes of the conference (out of the total 5), while encouraging the discussants to respond to specific questions that are related to the themes. These themes are:

Theme 1: Institutional systems and policies for making science work for African agriculture

Theme 2: Sustainable financing of Science, Technology and Innovation for African agriculture

Theme 3: Human capital development and the Youth

The e-discussion is facilitated by eight volunteers (4 French; 4 English) from the social reporting group – which is another means of actively providing the space for young people to build their capacity – with the support of CTA, FARA, GFAR and YPARD. These facilitators will guide the discussions and summarise the key issues and points raised daily. At the end of the e-discussions, a mini-report based on youth’s perspectives on the themes of the science week will be put together.

For more information on the FARA Africa Agriculture Science Week see:http://faraafrica.org/aasw7/
Follow the hashtag #AASW7 on Twitter and Facebook to stay informed on the activities of the science week.
Follow FARA Blog and CTA Blog for conference reports from the social reporter
Follow CTA – ARDYIS on Twitter: @ardyis_cta for live tweets

Copyright © 2016, CTA. Technical Centre for Rural and Agricultural Cooperation

CTA is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). CTA operates under the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and is funded by the EU.