AICKM National Workshop Ends

The National AICKM Workshop ended this Wednesday 14th July 2010 (see older posts). Participants had the opportunity (as representatives of their institutions) to work on a Stakeholder Information Needs Analysis and draft the foundation to a National AICKMS for the agricultural sector.

Both need to be further developed and the workshop organisers are pleased to announce that the participants took (among others) the resolution to:
(i) Review, elaborate and finalise the Stakeholder Information Needs Analysis matrix.
(ii) Review, elaborate and finalise a National AICKMS document.

The reports will eventually be submitted to the Ministry of Agro Industry and Food Secutity and to the SADC. The finalised documents are expected to be tabled within 3-5 months time. It is also interesting to note that for the editing of the documents, participants will be using online Web 2.0 Tools, in this case, a WIKI.

The AICKMS implementation will certainly enable institutions to revisit their current operations and better serve their stakeholders by proper packaging of services.

While SADC intends to table a regional strategy on AICKM for member states, it would also be interesting to see whether participants of the workshop take the lead and apply AICKM at the level of their own institutions.

AICKM Workshop Launched

The National AICKM workshop was launched on the 12th July 2010. OK, so the Minister was not there! But he was represented by PAS Nathoo, who read the Minister's speech and declared the event open.

Other VIPs addressing the audience at the opening were the VC of the UoM, the Chairman and DG of FARC and the SADC/ICART Project representatives- Clesensio Tizikara and Krishan Bheenick.

While we are used to the routine Ministerial speeches, those who attended the opening ceremony, noted the seriousness of Minister Faugoo's address. Here are a few phrases that retained attention:
... Agricultural Information Management has featured in the strategy documents of my Ministry over the past decade ... I will make it a point to expect progress reported to me on this issue at regular intervals ... I look forward to hearing about the outcomes of this workshop and to reading the draft Strategy document in the near future. My Ministry will fully support this process in whatever way we can ...

While making his address, the DG of FARC, J Ramkissoon, highlighted the objectives of the workshop. Referring back to the Web 2.0 Training of last week, he gave examples of the Australian Gorvernment 2.0 project and President Obama's winning campaign to demonstrate the how Web 2.0 Tools are being used for information and communication.

National Workshop on Agricultural Information Communication Knowledge Management Strategy

Our readers will recall that last week, the Faculty of Agriculture organised and hosted an eye-opener training on Web 2.0 Collaborative Tools. This week it will host yet another important workshop: A National Workshop on Agricultural Information Communication Knowledge Management (AICKM) Strategy development.

The ICART Project, of the SADC-FANR, in collaboration with the FARC is organising a National Workshop on (AICKM). Spread over 3 days (12th to 14th July 2010), the workshop will be held at the University of Mauritius.

The workshop aims at paving the way for the development of a National Strategy on AICKM. Under the ICART Project, national AICKM workshops have already been held in the Seychelles, Zambia and Swaziland. It is expected that the outcome of the national workshops will be integrated into a Regional AICKM Strategy.

We hope to follow with the details of what is AICKM (following the workshop). It has so many virtues. But be it from a management or operational perspective it will definitely shape the future of agriculture. It will certainly optimise, if not reinvent, the way our institutions operate and deliver information and knowledge products and services to our stakeholders in agriculture.

The organising committee acknowledges the need and potential of AICKM and they are proud that this initiative is being driven at the regional level (SADC) by a son of our Motherland (K Bheenick- formerly Lecturer at the FoA and Programme Manager at the FARC).

Many VIPs are expected at the opening ceremony on Monday 12th July. Among them, would be the Hon. Minister of Agro Industry and Food Security (S Faugoo) and the Coordinator of ICART Project (C Tizikara) from the SADC.