A Dynamic Regional PGR Knowledge Platform for the Near East Region, Dr. Magdi Latif, FAO Cairo Regional Workshop “Exchange of Information on National PGRFA Strategies and Development of Regional Collaborative Activities” 22-23 September 2014 - Beirut, Lebanon. © FAO: http://www.fao.org

1. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
A Dynamic Regional PGR Knowledge Sharing Platform
for the Near East and North Africa Region
Magdi Latif
Regional Knowledge and Information Management Officer
FAO Partnership, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division
FAO/RNE

2. Consultation Meeting on the Establishment of SAVE FOOD Network in NENA – Tunis, 7 November 2013
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Outline
• Background.
• Objectives.
• Structure and Main Functions.
• Current Achievements/Outputs in 2014
• Major Targets/Challenges in 2014/2015

3. National Plant Genetic Knowledge Networks for Regional Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
National Agricultural Information and Knowledge Exchange Systems/Networks - NAIS

4. National Plant Genetic Knowledge Networks for Regional Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Regional Thematic Knowledge Networks

5. National Plant Genetic Knowledge Networks for Regional Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Agricultural Information and Knowledge Exchange Systems/Networks

6. National Plant Genetic Knowledge Networks for Regional Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
National Agricultural Information and Knowledge Exchange
Systems/Networks

7. National Plant Genetic Knowledge Networks for Regional Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Agricultural Information and Knowledge Exchange Systems/Networks

8. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
What is PGRN?
Plant Genetic Knowledge Network of Near
East and North Africa (NENAPGRN) is a
regional platform for strengthening
knowledge sharing and cooperation for
Agricultural Research and Development for
plant genetic target groups and stakeholders
at national and regional levels.

9. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
What is PGRN?
This network is a single access point where the different countries
of the region can share a united vision of the Plant Genetic
production and protection management policies, regulations,
research and innovations. It will operate over THREE main thrusts
to achieve the following:
• Strengthening the linkages among all the stakeholders at
regional level and interfacing with international institutions as
well as donor countries and financial institutions;
• Promote the capacities of national stakeholders for
applications of new technologies to be adopted for use at
national level and induce their capacities for innovations.
• Mechanisms to enhance collaboration among stakeholders at
National, Sub-Regional and Regional levels;

10. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Plant Genetic Knowledge Network
• Strengthening the capacity of the Plant Genetic institutes in the
Ministry of Agriculture and Other Stakeholders
• Development and management of relevant and effective Plant
Genetic knowledge management system in support of
agricultural development and food security policies
Achievements:
Networked all Plant Genetic institutions through a regional
gateway Using Web-Based Platform.
Multilingual (Arabic and English) knowledge
management system implemented in PGRN

11. ICARDA and FAO Consultation Meeting on CRP-DS and WSI Potential Joined Activities – 7 July 2014
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
PGR Knowledge Network
Virtual communities of professional staff and
collaborating centers with common interests and
objectives related to sustainable agriculture and
food security built around common goal and
priority areas.
These network aim to:
 Strengthen links between communities of practitioners;
 Allow individuals to gather and gain access to policy and technical
information;
 Facilitate sharing and exchange of complementary knowledge and
resources;
 Organize and create knowledge in ways that are flexible.

12. Consultation Meeting on the Establishment of National Agricultural Information System of Sudan, 12 June 2014
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Benefits of Plant Genetic Resources Knowledge System/Network
 Connect people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to
interact, either as frequently or at all.
 Provide a shared context for people to communicate and share
information, stories, and personal experiences in a way that builds
understanding and insight.
 Stimulate learning by serving as a vehicle for communication,
mentoring, coaching, and self-reflection.
 Capture and diffuse existing knowledge to help people improve
their practice by providing a forum to identify solutions to common
problems and a process to collect and evaluate best practices.
 Introduce collaborative processes to groups and organizations as
well as between organizations to encourage the free flow of ideas and
exchange of information.
 Help people organize around purposeful actions that deliver tangible
results.
 Generate new knowledge to help people transform their practice to
accommodate changes in needs and technologies.

13. ICARDA and FAO Consultation Meeting on CRP-DS and WSI Potential Joined Activities – 7 July 2014
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Benefits of PGR Knowledge Network
• Address stakeholders’ needs more effectively,
• Coherence and Synergies in information management,
• Use of agreed standards, methodologies and tools.
• Sharing and Exchange of information and knowledge,
• A collaborative system and effective communication,
• Enhanced technical cooperation and collaboration,
• Reduced cost of operation, Reduced time/cost/effort of
developing national information systems/networks,

14. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
PGRN expected Outcomes
 Prevent redundancy and duplication,
 Create access to research information, knowledge
and innovations,
 Ensure maximum knowledge sharing among
various agricultural research institutes, programs
and personnel on regional, national and institutional
levels,
 Provide enable environment for good coordination
and Cooperation.

15. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
PGRN Stakeholders
• Policy-makers in agriculture and rural development, especially in
the MOA and NARIs.
• Plant Genetic Department heads and professional technical
officers within the MOA and NARIs.
• Universities and colleges with Plant Genetic-related departments.
• Farmers’ and producers’ organizations.
• Credit and marketing associations and Chambers of Commerce.
• Private sector involved in Plant Genetic .
• Non-Governmental Organizations involved in Plant Genetic for
agricultural development and food security.
• Regional and International Organizations involved in agricultural
development and food security and General Public.

16. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Egypt
PGRN
Iran
PGRN
Oman
PGRN
Lebanon
PGRN
Jordan
PGRN
NENA
PGRN
The Structure

17. National Plant Genetic Knowledge Networks for Regional Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Main Functions
News and Events
Institutions Directory
Experts Directory
Projects Information
Publications
Innovations
Good Practices and Success Stories
Partners
Questions and Answering
Forum of Discussion
Social Networking Media
Links

18. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
PGRN Interfaces Structure
1- Front end Interface:
The front end components provide the information
browsing and retrieval functionalities, and are
available to any site user.
2- Back end Interface:
The backend components provide the data
management functionalities that enable system
administrators to input/update/delete data items
into the PGRN database. These components are
accessible by system administrators only.

19. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
PGRN BACKEND

20. National Plant Genetic Knowledge Networks for Regional Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

21. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
11th General Conference AARINENA, Damascus, 12-14 October 2008 [NERAKIN – RAIS]
 Bottom-up approach (institutions/national/regional).
 Centralized and Distributed System.
 Portability.
 User Friendly.
 Open System Architecture.
 Dynamic Workflow Back end Interfaces.
 Facilitating Interoperability & promoting coherence
in knowledge management and information
exchange among NARS.
Full Multilingual Network.
PGR Thematic Knowledge Network Capabilities

22. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• AGMES – Agricultural Metadata Element Set
• AGRIS Application Profile
• AGROVOC Arabic/English
• Real Simple Syndicate - RSS
• Open Archives Initiative Compliance
• Online Web services
• Software – MySQL Open Source
• CIARD Manifesto and a common set of
Principles
Information Standards and Tools
for Content Management
www.fao.org/aims
To develop and promote interoperability standards
to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content.
interoperability is connecting
people, data and diverse
systems.

23. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
11th General Conference AARINENA, Damascus, 12-14 October 2008 [NERAKIN – RAIS]
1- A pilot PGRN Regional System for content management
and information exchange. (May – October)
2- Identification of PGR technical institutions committed to
capacity building in IKM.
3- Selected national PGR technical staff sensitized on how
to use PGRN National Systems.
4- Pilot national PGR knowledge and information Sharing
systems/networks (i.e. Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, etc.)
Major Achievements/Outputs: 2014

24. Consultation Meeting on the Establishment of National Agricultural Information System of Sudan, 12 June 2014
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Official launch of the Regional and National PGRN
systems/networks.
Training of selected national technical staff to contribute to
PGRN at institutional and national Systems.
Securing active commitment from stakeholders to develop
national PGRN system/network.
Development of the national collaborative network based on
partnerships for enhanced knowledge-sharing and learning
at institutional level.
Major Targets/Challenges in 2014/2015

25. Consultation Meeting on the Establishment of National Agricultural Information System of Sudan, 12 June 2014
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Success Factors for National PGR System/Network
1. Commitment for contribution/collaboration at national level;
2. Focus on capacity building at national level;
3. Existence of a national information strategy;
4. Development of a Secretariat role for national activities;
5. Focus on community of practice amongst the PGR information
specialists;
6. Raising awareness of ICM issues at Manager./political levels;
7. Formation of strategic partnerships amongst the major
stakeholder organizations at national level.

26. Regional Workshop Session on “Development of Regional Collaborative Activities on PGRFA”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Thank You