Meeting Objecitves

Meeting Objectives

Building on the experience of previous GFRAS meetings, the capacity assessments of GFRAS regional networks, and on the expertise, knowledge, and experiences of participants, the three objectives of the 2018 Annual Meeting are to:

• identify and define good practices, best-fit approaches and strategies to develop, strengthen, and maintain effective partnerships in RAS, with a particular focus on smart technologies, financing, and collaboration across stakeholders;
• identify and define ways to build the capacities needed at different levels and by different stakeholders (policy, research, education, extension, farmers) to develop, strengthen, and maintain effective partnerships in RAS; and to
• identify and define the roles and capacities needed by GFRAS and its regional RAS networks to play an important and meaningful role in developing, strengthening and maintaining effective partnerships.

Meeting Structure and Thematic Focus

Thematic Part: Addressing Challenges and Seizing Opportunities: Developing Effective Partnerships in RAS

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.

Public extension services remain very important in many regions and often provide an overall policy and regulatory framework within which RAS function. They directly organise extension activities and are often driven by the national agricultural development goals. 

Private sector RAS have the advantage of being fast, flexible, and often high quality. They benefit from the private sector’s financial resources and competitiveness. However, companies’ interests lead to a neglect of public goods and a marginalisation of producers’ interests.

Non-governmental organisations are usually driven by donor priorities and/or local interest, and in general possess a very valuable in-depth knowledge on the community and play a crucial role in building social capital.

Producer organisations are mainly shaped by their member concerns, and, in addition of organising the demand side, are also increasingly involved in the supply of RAS to their members. 

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 demend for specific services.

Roles and capacities of these different actors vary significantly across countries, value chains and other contexts and very often the individual actors are working isolation, focussing on their geographical and thematic scope and amongst specific types of clients. 

However, for rural advisory services to be effective in facing current challenges need to go beyond providing information and services related to an increase of production and income, but take up a more holistic approach by looking at value-chains, livelihoods, and overall community development. But a single service provider cannot be fully inclusive and holistic, and a range of services and providers that meet a variety of needs are better suited to respond to these needs and challenges.This in turn, requires an increased 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. 

On day 1, the 2018 GFRAS Annual Meeting will provide a unique opportunity to explore, learn, discuss and make recommendations on the thematic focus of the meeting. In plenary sessions, participants will develop a common understanding of the topic, learn from evidence and gain insights from some innovative examples.

Parallel sessions will then be held for participants to discuss experiences and identify recommendations concerning the three sub-topics of effective partnerships identified here: smart technology; financing; and effective coordination and collaboration. The following questions will guide the parallel sessions.

Parallel session 1: Smart technologies for effective partnerships in RAS

• How can smart technologies be used to support the development, strengthening and maintenance of effective partnerships in RAS?
• What are the opportunities and challenges identified in their application?
• How can those opportunities be seized and scaled, and how can challenges be overcome?
• What capacities are needed on different levels to do so, and how can those capacities be built? 

Parallel session 2: Innovative financing towards effective partnerships in RAS

• How can innovative finance models contribute to the development, strengthening and maintaining of effective partnerships in RAS?
• What are the opportunities and challenges identified in innovative financing models for RAS that involve private finance?
• How can those opportunities be seized and scaled, and how can challenges be overcome?
• What capacities are needed on different levels to do so, and how can those capacities be built? 

Parallel session 3: Convergence through collaboration and coordination in RAS

• What are key challenges and opportunities identified in in the collaboration and coordination between different actors in RAS?
• What are practical examples of the innovative coordination and collaboration models?
• How can those opportunities be seized and scaled, and how can challenges be overcome?
• What capacities are needed on different levels to do so, and how can those capacities be built? 

Special event: Korean Session

The Korean session will be held in parallel to the parallel sessions in collaboration with Korean Society for Agricultural Education and Human Resource Development, Korean Association of Agricultural Extension, Korea Extension Specialist Association and RDA. Approximately 200 participants from Korea will attend this session. It will be an opportunity for participants to be introduced to and explore the current state of Global Rural Advisory Services and New Extensionist Learning Kit (NELK). Moreover, the session will include thesis presentations in RAS and case studies presentations by Korean Extension Specialist Association. 

Field Trips

Field Trips

Participants will be exposed to Korea’s public agricultural extension services through field visits which showcase various case studies and agricultural extension system on 24 October, 2018. Field trip are focused on five main topics as follow, ‘Korea’s Extension System’, ‘Value Chain’, ‘Smart-Farming’, ‘Rural Youth’, and ‘Farmer’s Group’ which are all currently the main issues and being focused on by the agricultural and rural development in Korea. Not only the on-site technology and performance in each course will be introduced but Korea’s agricultural and cultural experience as well. 

Please note that the number of participants per field trip is limited to 40.

Field visit 1: Korea’s Extension System

The Rural Development Administration (RDA) at the national level, Agricultural Research and Extension Services at the provincial level and agricultural extension center at the city/ countylevel will be visited to learn about how the government leads the research-extension system for dissemination of advanced technology. 

Field visit 2: Value Chain

This course will provide a learning experience on the value chain approach. Places to be visited include an agricultural product processing center, a local food store, a small scaled start-up farm and an educational farm.

Field visit 3: Smart-Farming

This course includes a visit to smart-farming research and test-bed using ICT in RDA and outstanding smart-farm. Also, the fourth industrial revolution such as ICT application case in farming and development plan of smart-farming will be showcased.

Field visit 4: Rural Youth

The training program for fostering rural youth and encouraging them to engage in agriculture will be introduced through this field visit to Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries and visit to a successful rural youth’s farm producing traditional snacks and breeding livestock.

Field visit 5: Farmer’s Group

Visit to the farmer’s study group and Korea Extension Specialist’s group that are operating self-learning activity for farmer and extension agents. The various studies on income generating model of farmer’s group and organizational characteristics will be discussed. Also, the activity of Korean Rural Leaders Central Association, Rural Women Leader’s Federation and 4-H and organizational character, project, and role of National Agricultural Cooperative Federation will be introduced.|

Functional Part: Strengthening Capacities of RAS Networks

Functional Part: Strengthening Capacities of RAS Networks

Regional and sub-regional networks and Country Fora are the main partners of GFRAS in implementing its work and in strengthening and advocating for RAS within their regions. They ensure that the work and focus of GFRAS remains grounded, relevant and demand-driven. The GFRAS 2016–2025 Strategic Framework and corresponding five-year operational plan place a strong emphasis on strengthening the capacities of the regional and sub-regional networks and Country Fora to fulfil these roles.

RAS networks play a crucial role in ensuring the link, collaboration, and exchange between different actors in the broader agricultural innovation system, and hence their role for strengthening partnerships deserve a particular focus. 

Evaluations of past meetings have shown that peer exchange between networks is perceived as critical for networks to strengthen their own capacities. Hence, on day 3, the 2018 Annual Meeting will provide space for extensive peer exchange and learning between networks. This will be guided by experts on networks and network functioning, and will lead to the development by the networks of realistic roadmaps for action toward the 2019 Annual Meeting.

Aside from some inputs in the plenary session, networks will have the chance to share experiences in a peer-to-peer learning session, assess their progress since the 2017 Annual Meeting, and develop a realistic roadmap to the 2019 Annual Meeting.

Policy Dialogue

Building on the results of the exchanges on the first two days, in the afternoon of the third day participants will participate in a policy dialogue which will summarise key elements from the discussions, explore the roles that the enabling environment plays and identifies structural and policy changes needed in order to foster change and implement the recommendations identified in the first days of the meeting. The policy dialogue will take the form of a moderated roundtable discussion among selected key resource persons and a Q&A session with Annual Meeting participants.

Other learning and exchange opportunities

Other learning and exchange opportunities

During the conference, a lot of interactive and continuous formats will stimulate exchange, discussions and learning: 

• Market place: As usual, participants will have a chance to share their projects, programmes, products, ideas and thoughts at a market place which will be installed during the full 3 days
• Exhibitions & Displays at Venue: Participants will have a chance to stop by 3 exhibitions at the venue, RDA. Participants are able to explore them anytime during the meeting. Details on them are listed below:
  • Exhibition 1: Outcomes of Agricultural R&D and Extension 
    The outcomes of agricultural R&D and Extension will be on a display from 22 October to 25 October. Participants will have a great chance to see the outcomes of research and extension such as Smart-Farm models.
  • Exhibition 2: Good Practices of Korea Extension Specialist Association
    Participants will have the opportunity to see the best practices of the Korea Extension Specialist Association by dropping by this exhibition. It will take place at RDA from 22 October through 25 October, alongside the exhibition on Agricultural R&D and Extension mentioned above.
  • Exhibition 3: Agriculture Science Hall
    The Agriculture Science hall is a reflective place, presenting the past, present and future of agriculture as well as the importance of agriculture using the latest technologies. This hall has several display halls: Modern Agriculture Exhibition; Future Agricultural Exhibition; 4D Theater; The Hall of Fame in Agriculture; and so on. During lunch break, interpretation services will be available. 

Expected Outputs of the Meeting

Expected Outputs of the Meeting

The GFRAS Annual Meeting will look at different concepts and definitions of effective partnerships in RAS, and their importance and roles - and related challenges and opportunities - in strengthening RAS for the benefit rural actors worldwide. Going beyond defining concepts, identifying challenges and opportunities, however, the Annual Meeting aims to share and learn from good practices and identify innovative yet realistic and practical strategies to develop, strengthen and maintain effective partnerships in RAS. Participants will also discuss and identify capacities needed at different levels to implement these strategies. The outputs of the meeting will include tangible action plans and recommendations for the short, mid- and long term and at three different levels:

• Actions that each participant will be able to implement on return to their country;
• Action plans for regional and sub-regional networks to strengthen their capacities and roles; and
• Recommendations for structural changes required in national and regional policies and strategies.

The latter two outputs will feed into the preparation of a short Declaration, which will be a key output of the Annual Meeting for wide dissemination.