Call for Participation: Special Blog Series on Agriculture, ICTs and Youth

"Youth should be given a chance to take an active part in the decision-making of local, national and global levels."

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

CONTEXT

Did you know that the International Year of Youth is underway?

The United Nations International Year of Youth runs from August 2010 until August 2011, and it celebrates and advocates Dialogue and Mutual Understanding.

To celebrate a year of global efforts towards working with youth on issues critical to the next generation, e-Agriculture and YPARD (Young Professionals’ Platform on Agricultural Research for Development) will launch a series of special blogs from 6 June to 12 August 2011 in English, French and Spanish, to highlight the experiences of Young Professionals in agriculture and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for rural development. Everyone is invited to promote the ideals of peace, freedom, progress and solidarity towards the promotion of youth development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This is the occasion to get your voice heard! Why not write a Blog to represent your views and opinion and take part in real dialogue with a willingness to understand each others' views?

OBJECTIVE

The e-Agriculture Community and YPARD invite you to share your thoughts in a Blog, to address the issues surrounding the field of agriculture, young professionals and Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D). Selected blogs will be published and shared with the combined networks of e-Agriculture and YPARD, close to 9,000 individuals from more than 150 countries and territories.

WHO CAN CONTRIBUTE
Our series of bloggers involve experts and non-experts in ICTs! The objective is that everyone gains from the knowledge and perspectives of others according to their field of expertise: agriculture, ICTs and/or youth issues.

This will be an opportunity for Young Professionals to be heard and share their views! Feedback from 'experienced professionals’ is also most welcomed; you don’t have to be young to be a youth champion.

RELATED TOPICS TO YOUTH, AGRICULTURE AND ICTs
These are some suggested topics from which you could share your thoughts, but you may also propose any other theme that you would like to discuss in reference to agricultural production, agricultural research, advisory services, natural resource management, sustainable development, etc.

• The role of ICTs in increasing the attractiveness of agriculture for young people
• Reflection on the changing nature of agriculture and how young people can use ICTs to modernize it
• Young entrepreneurs using ICTs for agriculture
• How ICTs can help to bridge the rural-urban divide for young agriculturalists?
• How can ICTs bridge the gender gap among young agriculturalists?
• Life and work aspirations for young persons and how ICT and agriculture fits in
• Relevance of higher education in agriculture and ICTs for today’s young professionals

SUBMISSION
You may submit your article in English, Spanish and/or French. The length of your blog post should range between 500 and 2000 words. If you have graphs, images, pictures or videos to accompany your blog, we would welcome those as well!

This series of blogs will be launched on 6 June, and it will run until 12 August, 2011. So, get started and send us your articles with a short bio telling us about you at: info@e-Agriculture.org or info@ypard.net

Source: e-agriculture, 23rd May 2011