E-Agriculture

International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture

International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture

Through the GFFA 2019 Final Communiqué, the 74 Agriculture Ministers and high level representatives from international organizations called FAO, in consultation with other international organizations to develop a concept for the establishment of an international Digital Council for Food and Agriculture (refer as Digital Council).

For the fully-fledged concept note, please read here.

In order to share, discuss and validate the concept note, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has organized the following side event at  Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA 2020).

Title: Towards the Establishment of the International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture
Date: Thursday, 16 January 2020
Time: 16:00 -17:30 
Venue: CityCube, Level 3, Room M4-M5, Messedamm 26, Entrance Messedamm, 14055 Berlin

The International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture will:

  • advise governments and other relevant actors;
  • drive the exchange of ideas and experiences and
  • help everyone harness the opportunities presented by digitalization.

Background

Today, there are more than 7 billion people on the planet, a figure that is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Overall food production needs to double in a relatively short period of time to meet food demand of the world's population. It is therefore an imperative for the different agricultural stakeholders to revolutionize the traditional agriculture.

On 19 January 2019, the 74 Agriculture Ministers and high level representatives from international organizations called the FAO, in consultation with stakeholders including the AfDB, IFAD, ITU, OECD, CTA, WB, WFP, OIE and WTO, to develop a concept for considering the establishment of an international Digital Council for Food and Agriculture. 

The present concept note is a result of an open and inclusive consultation with approximately 355 stakeholders from more than 100 organizations having actively contributed to its development.

Highlights towards the establishment of the Digital Council

Consultation meeting at the Digital Agriculture Transformation Seminar

On the 13th of June 2019, FAO held the 1st Consultation Meeting for the International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture, during the Digital Agriculture Transformation Seminar.

The consultation was a design thinking session of better understanding the Digital Council scope, its role and functionalities and how the council will interact with different stakeholders and map out the next steps to undertake. 

Design Thinking Session at Africa Green Revolution Forum 

On the 3rd of September 2019, FAO sponsored a parallel session at the Africa Green Revolution Forum, whose objective was to initiate discussions on opportunities that an International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture will bring to the sector, once established, and touches upon the scope of the council and its mission.

The design-thinking workshop is an important first step towards the establishment of the Digital Council and concrete steps are needed to identify the necessary preconditions for establishing the Council. It is in this regard that AGRF represents a great opportunity for global and African leaders to hold even deeper discussions on the scope and the role of the Council, which is expected to be instrumental worldwide, including in Africa.  

Design Thinking Session at the ITU Telecom World 2019

On the 11th of September 2019, FAO sponsored another design thinking session for the International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture at the ITU Telecom World 2019 which offered a unique opportunity to discuss the establishment of the Digital Council. 

Side event at the Committee of Food Security

On the 18th of October 2019, FAO hosted and led a multi-stakeholder consultation on the establishment of the International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture in a side event of the Committee of Food Security. 

The meeting offered high-level delegates of CFS (which included permanent representatives form FAO member countries) and invited guest to express their feedback towards the establishment of the council. The event was attended by 100 delegates, and was broadcasted online with 138 online multi-stakeholders participants.

Online Consultation on FSN Forum and on e-Agriculture

From the 17th of October to 8th of November 2019, FAO hosted an online consultation on the FSN Forum (Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition) and in parallel on e-Agriculture Community of Practice. The purpose of the consultation was to present the draft concept note for the establishment of an International Digital Council for Food and Agriculture to all stakeholders for their feeback.

The consultation was structured in 4 parts of the concept note. During those 3 weeks, 108 comments were received from 41 countries and more than 3,470 online visits to the consultation from 154 countries was registered. In addition, a webinar was held to allow forum participants to asks questions directly and more than 100 people participated.

The feedback received in these efforts were incorporated to the revised versions of the concept note to be presented at GFFA 2020. 

Working Group Focal Institutions (in alphabetic order)

The following institutions are participating in the working group

  • African Development Bank (AfDB)
  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
  • International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
  • International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
  • Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)
  • The World Bank (WB)
  • World Food Programme (WFP)
  • World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
  • World Trade Organization (WTO)