Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network (NERAKIN)

Magdi LatifKnowledge Exchange and Capacity Building Division

FAO of the U.N

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

OutlinesOutlines

NERAKIN Objective

NERAKIN Expected Outputs

NERAKIN Regional Components

NERAKIN National Components and Portals

Demonstration for Online NERAKIN Regional

Network and National Portals

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

What is NERAKIN?

NERAKIN is a platform for knowledge sharing

and collaboration for Agricultural Research

and Development (ARD) for target groups and

stakeholders on a regional level in NENA.

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

1- To strengthen the capacity of the Ministries of Agriculture & Agricultural and Rural Research Institutions for effective information management and knowledge exchange in support of rural and agricultural development in the region

2- To enhance information and knowledge access and exchange within the region for ARD in Near East and North Africa, and at the global level. This network would provide mechanisms to strengthen, coordinate, and add value to national, regional and international initiatives in order to increase agricultural production and improve food security in Near East countries, and for the benefit of improving performance of farmers and agrarian businesses.

What are the Objectives of NERAKIN Network?

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

1- A pilot Rural and Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network (NERAKIN) through building a Regional Gateway function and a collaborative network of technical institutions and organizations committed to capacity building in this area.

2- A pilot NERAKIN knowledge and information

management system of national components including modules (information systems) on documents, institutions, experts and projects; facilitating access to other agricultural information services and databases relevant to the rural and agricultural sector; and enabling the exchange of information and knowledge among stakeholder groups.

What are the outputs expected to be produced from NERAKIN during its first phase of three Years of operations (2007-2010)?

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

3- All ARC agricultural institutions Networked through a regional portal as well as through national portals.

4- A team of national selected focal points and technical staff at the agricultural institutions trained on how to adopt and integrate information from their institutions into the NERAKIN and to maintain it as a high-quality information and communication resource using NERAKIN content management system and modern information management.

5- Development of operational plans for the network that

would strengthen knowledge-sharing and learning process and foster partnerships for broader knowledge-sharing and learning at national and regional levels.

6- Development of an operational framework that would define the roles and responsibilities of all the stakeholders at the national level.

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Collaboration with National Counterparts

A platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration for ARD - (K4D)

FAO

FAO

FAOF

AO

FA

O

NERAKIN

NERAKIN

(Regional

(Regional

Network)

Network)

SudanSudan

JordanJordan

OmanOman

EgyptEgypt

QatarQatar

YemenYemen

IranIran

Saudi Saudi

ArabiaArabiaLibya

Libya

National Networks

National Coordinating Unit with Focal Point

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

The NERAKIN architecture on the one hand will enable all participating institutions to upload their materials in a centralized system, and on the other hand will allow for the development of distributed systems in each country.

NERAKIN is designed for the whole region with focus on the countries that are lacking networking infrastructure facilities and technical/human resources capabilities.

NERAKIN is now available online for all member states in NENA.

The Structure of the NERAKIN applications built to support Region (Near East and North Africa ) Countries (Egypt, Iran, Jordon, Oman, Kuwait, Morocco, Lebanon,

Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, …etc ) Communities (Ministries, Research Centers, Specialized Research

Centers, Universities, Libraries, Farmers Organizations, and NGOs….etc)

NERAKIN SPECIFICATIONS

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

AGMES – Agricultural Metadata Element Set AGRIS Application Profile AGROVOC Software – MySQL Open Source Open Archives

Information Standards and Toolsfor Content Management

www.fao.org/aims

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

NERAKIN is designed for building regional infrastructure with state of the art platform open source technology and in compliant with New Initiative on Agricultural Science and Technology Information and Knowledge sharing and international standards including AGRIS AP/Dublin Core Unqualified Elements/Open Archives Initiative/Open Access publishing standard.

All modules in NERAKIN are absolutely portable, to be deployed easily in other machines and to be operated on Windows and Linux platforms.

Offline system will also be available with capability for exporting/importing facilities with the regional network as well as with International AGRIS Network. Each information centre or library in each individual country in the region will be an AGRIS Resource centre.

Technology is only one factor that will help in achieving other key factors for successful implementation on a regional basis, such as institutional development, implementation capacity, mobilization of human resources for a strong capacity building efforts.

NERAKIN SPECIFICATIONS

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Near East Rural & Agriculture Knowledge Exchange Network (NERAKIN) (Building on RAIS – Regional Agricultural Information System)

NERAKIN ComponentsNERAKIN Components

Building on NARIMS

system

+ Information with different

types of format

IncludesRegional

Collaborative Networks *

To be activated

later

Related Links Related Links Other Components Other Components

Latest News/ Events

Meetings and Events

NERAKIN Community/ Forum

Success Stories

Best Practices

National Coordinating Units/Focal Points

FAO Links

Related Websites

Useful Links

NE Agriculture Research Knowledge & Information Network

(AGRIS Regional Network )

NE Digital Library

(EAKRA-Net)

NE Regional Agriculture News (WANIS)

NE Regional Knowledge Gateways

(Regional Thematic Knowledge Networks such as Cotton network)

NE Regional VERCON Network

NE Regional Marketing Information System

NE Regional Statistical Information System (Regional FAOSTAT based on

national CountrySTAT) Other Regional Specialized NetworksOther Regional Specialized Networks

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Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

National Rural & Agriculture Knowledge and information PortalNational Rural & Agriculture Knowledge and information Portal

National ComponentsNational Components

National Agriculture Research Knowledge &Information Network

(AGRIS National Network )

National Digital Library

National Knowledge Gateways(National Thematic Knowledge Networks)

National Marketing Information System

National Statistical Information System (Based on CountrySTAT)

Building on NARIMS

system

+ Information with different

types of format

IncludesNational

Collaborative Networks

Related Links Related LinksOther National Components

Other National Components

Latest News/ Events

Meetings and Events

Community/ Forum

Success Stories

Best PracticesNational VERCON / RADCON

National Food Security Information

System

Other National Specialized NetworksOther National Specialized Networks

Related Websites

Useful Links

National Rural and Agriculture News

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IPIPInnovations

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Operational Framework at the National LevelOperational Framework at the National Level

Assign and build capacity of Coordinating Unit that includes National Admin/Focal point.

Develop the system steering committee that includes a national coordinator, technical director and members.

Assign stakeholders who will be responsible for managing their own information (1- Centre Admin 2- Data Entry Users).

Connect institutional entities that are not connected and enhance the infrastructure within the different connected institutions (hardware installation).

Install software system in institution servers (PPlug and lug and WWorkork).

Building capacities of institution staff on the use of system (training).

Data collection/validation/publishing and feeding to system.

Conduct awareness workshops and promote the system.

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Benefits of partnerships & networking

• A collaborative system and effective communication,

• Exchange of information and knowledge,

• Enhanced technical cooperation,

• Reduced costs of operation,

• Synergies in information management,

• Use of agreed standards, methodologies and tools.

Near East Rural & Agricultural Knowledge and Information Network - NERAKIN

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Challenges

• Decentralization: establishment of national networks – institutions and policies

• Capacity building: supporting decentralization

• Standards and tools: common approaches

• Partnership: at regional and international level