Addressing Challenges and Seizing Opportunities: Developing Effective Partnerships in RAS
9th GFRAS Annual Meeting 23 - 25 October 2018, Headquarter of the Rural Development Administration, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
with side events on 22 October 2018
Public sector, private sector, non-governmental organisations, producer organisations are all involved in RAS and contribute through various arrangements to the provision and financing of RAS, though to varying degrees according to context. Aside from these actors directly involved in RAS, there has been an increasing overlap between activities of RAS, education and training, as well as research, and individual consultants have started playing a significant role in responding to the demand for specific services.
For rural advisory services to be effective in facing current challenges need to increase coordination and collaboration between the different actors in order to use each actor’s comparative advantage to provide inclusive and demand-based services to their clientele.
Participants from all regions of the world working in RAS or in related fields are encouraged to register for the meeting, including representatives of farmer organisations, private companies, research and education institutions, development agencies, media and others.
GFRAS Issues Papers
This new GFRAS publication series highlights rural advisory services in important contemporary international development topics.
The first issue examines how Rural Advisory Services (RAS) will need to be suitably adapted to the needs, challenges, and opportunities facing young rural women and men in today’s rapidly changing economic, social, and environmental contexts.
The second issuelooks at the role of RAS with regards to the mobility of rural population. Aspects of climate change, demographic developments, rural-urban connectivity and the spread of conflict affect and mobilise rural people and need to be taken into account by RAS
New NELK Plus Module on Nutrition-Sensitive Extension
Every country on the earth is affected by poor nutrition and the results of poor nutrition affect most families. What can agricultural extension professionals do to support better nutrition? And what might be unrealistic to expect of extension? By completing this training, you will have the opportunity to consider these questions and others and to find the right answers for the situations in which you work.
The newest addition to the New Extensionist Learning Kit NELK covers the basics of a nutritious diet and the results of poor nutrition, ways that agriculture and nutrition impact each other, things that extensionists can change in order to improve nutrition and how to effectively partner with others working on improving the nutrition of different communities.
Revised GFRAS Policy Compendium
The GFRAS Policy Compendium is a tool that contributes to filling the gap between the rural advisory services (RAS) policy environment and RAS efforts in the field. It helps direct decisions and facilitate successful policy processes and outcomes in extension and advisory services by making knowledge accessible, fostering synergies and promoting policy processes to improve RAS and rural development. It provides easily accessible and understandable resources for those developing, implementing, monitoring, evaluating or advocating for RAS policy. The Compendium provides background information, inputs, ideas and hands-on guidance for decision-making and facilitation of successful policy processes for RAS. The compendium was revised by the GFRAS Policy Working Group and put in a more systematic and searchable format.
Agricoolture - Making Agriculture Cool Again
During the 8th GFRAS Annual Meeting in Australia in 2017, the theme revolved around youth and how they engage in or are engaged by rural advisory services. A number of the young participants came together during the conference and discussed the idea of strengthening the way forward after the Annual Meeting by creating a Youth Working Group (YWG). The group has recently held a webinar, the first of a series to showcase innovation RAS approaches and acitivies by young people for young people.
