Place and Date

The 15th Annual GFRAS Meeting will take place in Dakar, Senegal, from November 12 to 14, 2024. It will focus on "Agricultural Advisory Services in Higher Education and in Agricultural Policies and Programs."

Context and Justification

Agricultural advisory enables rural populations to better face existing and emerging challenges and improve their livelihoods. The Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) was launched in 2010 to ensure advocacy and leadership for pluralistic, demand-driven agricultural advisory services. This forum includes networks representing agricultural advisory structures at regional, sub-regional, and national levels. It thus involves actors from producer organizations, development agencies, research, education, and media.

The annual meeting allows GFRAS to discuss its strategic orientations and operations. It also serves as a period for exchanges among stakeholders on a major theme of agricultural advisory to enhance its performance.

The 15th annual GFRAS meeting in Dakar, Senegal, has chosen to address the theme: "Agricultural Advisory in Higher Education and in Agricultural Policies and Programs." The direct or indirect involvement of higher education in field-level agricultural advisory is a differentiating element of its performance. What are the training pathways in agricultural advisory at universities and technical courses? What is their performance, and with what resources? What is the state of research on strategies, approaches, activities, methods, tools, and supports of agricultural advisory?

Similarly, the modes of administrative anchorage of structures in charge of agricultural advisory play a decisive role in their performance. What are the modes of organization and operation of these structures at the national and decentralized levels? What are the positions and responsibilities of agricultural advisory in the implementation of agricultural policies and development programs? How are agricultural advisory policies formulated?

All these questions explore the academic (research and training) and administrative (anchoring and governance) institutionalization of agricultural advisory. They allow for addressing several themes primarily on:

• Teaching/learning of advisory services and research on agricultural advisory services,
• Forms of organization, operation, and partnership of agricultural advisory service structures,
• And the development of strategies and policies of agricultural advisory services.

These themes will be the subject of a call for discussions and sharing of experiences during the Dakar meeting, which focuses on exchange, discussion, and identification of global best practices in the institutionalization of rural advisory services.

Purpose and Expected Results

The purpose is to document innovative, effective, and adaptable approaches to the institutionalization of education and training in agricultural advisory services. The expected meeting outcomes are:

• Participants characterize strategies and practices for setting up academic programs (training and/or research) on agricultural advisory services;
• Participants describe tools for developing and co-constructing the organization and governance of agricultural advisory services;
• Participants identify mechanisms for the effective operation of Country Fora;
• Participants have tools for developing strategies for agricultural advisory services implementation and tools for their integration into agricultural policy documents (plans, programs, and projects).

Registration

The meeting and funding details will be announced on the GFRAS website (www-g-fras.org), in the GFRAS Update and on GFRAS social media channels. Regional networks should share the information among their members.

Online registration opens July 31, 2024.

Registration will close on September 31, 2024, both for participants seeking sponsorship and self-funded by GFRAS, and for requests for contributions.

Stay tuned! More information is coming soon!