IICA and FAO to increase knowledge management in agriculture

The agreement was signed in Rome by the Director Deputy General of IICA, Lloyd Day, and the Director of FAO Office for Communication, Partnerships and Advocacy, Marcela Villarreal. (Photography credits: FAO/Alessandra Benedetti)

San Jose, Costa Rica, July 8, 2013 (IICA). As part of IICA and FAO’s joint activities, this week the two agencies signed a letter of understanding aimed at the development of a distance learning course on information strategies, whose ultimate objective is to improve food security in the Americas.

The course will be entitled “Strategic approaches to information” and form part of the Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) available at www.imarkgroup.org. The initiative is designed to enhance the capacity of the two agencies’ member countries to generate, manage, analyze, and access information that can help improve food security and nutrition.

The agreement was signed in Rome by the Director Deputy General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Lloyd Day, and the Director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Office for Communication, Partnerships and Advocacy, Marcela Villarreal.

Under the agreement, IICA will draw on its expertise to develop new content and adapt 17 lessons of the course for Spanish speakers, while FAO will contribute financial resources to meet the production costs. In addition, the Institute and FAO will coordinate the development of new materials on knowledge management, scientific writing, and the delivery of information services via cell phones, which will be made available in 2014 and 2015.

IMARK is an initiative spearheaded by international organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), IICA, and FAO. Created a decade ago, its objective is to assist professionals in agricultural information and knowledge management by providing an array of training resources, standards, directives, and tools related to the sharing of knowledge.

Its materials are totally free and available on CD-ROM and on line to facilitate self-learning around the globe.

IICA has been actively involved in the initiative since 2003, helping to ensure that the courses mentioned, and others, including Management of Electronic Documents, Building Digital Libraries and Strategic Approaches to information, are used as widely as possible in Latin America and the Caribbean.

For more information, contact:
federico.sancho@iica.int