Presentation by Kristin Kolshus and Julien Custot (FAO) at the Dgroups Peer Exchange - 16 April 2013

1. Kristin Kolshus and Julien Custot
16 April 2013
Dgroups at FAO

2. • Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN
• Achieving food security for all is at the heart of FAO's efforts
- to make sure people have regular access to enough high-
quality food to lead active, healthy lives
• FAO's mandate is to raise levels of nutrition, improve
agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations
and contribute to the growth of the world economy
• Knowledge networks and communities support this
mandate. Dgroups fills a need in supporting our technical
work
FAO and Dgroups

3. • Over 9,700 Dgroups members (up from 5,700 one
year ago)
• Increasing interest in Dgroups
• Used with internal and external audiences
• Open, closed and invisible groups
• Some with regional subgroups
• Used for: technical discussions, knowledge networks,
workshop preparations and follow-up, steering groups,
online consultations, closed discussions and much more.
Dgroups at FAO

4. • Potential new groups: Asked to fill in Network Design Aid
Checklist
• Many tools and options for networks/communities: Dgroups
can be right answer but not always: discussion needed.
• We work with groups to suggest structure and how to best
facilitate the network/community intervention.
• Do not underestimate time/resources needed. Focus on
interaction and facilitation, not technology.
Contacts: dgroups@fao.org and knowledge-sharing@fao.org
Making Dgroups Useful: The
Process

5. A network associated with the
“Food for the Cities” multi-
disciplinary initiative
Outcome of the “Food, Agriculture
and Cities” workshop (September
2009):
The participants “decided to put in place an
email discussion list to foster further
collaborative work” (page 16)
Starting food-for-
cities@dgroups.org

6. To bring together people working on different
aspects of urbanization challenges for food and
nutrition security, agriculture and management of
natural resources
Participants from the public sector (national and
local governments, municipalities, and international
organizations), private sector, academics, NGOs
and civil society
Challenging to have interventions from the private sector
The main objective(s)

7. Active cooptation of members
Sending an invitation is often not efficient
Most often:
Informal discussion (meetings, mails …)
Adding the name on the list
Informing the people, and mentioning they can
unsubscribe anytime
Too bad we cannot easily monitor the people who
have left the list
Getting new members:
By invitation or addition?

8. The goal to develop a "global
network”
List building on existing
networks
From 100 people in 2009 to
1900 members today:
all domains/positions in the
society
Lost track of the geographical
repartition - participants do not
indicate their country of origin
680 unlocated
Global network … but from
where?

9. Dgroups is a simple tool:
email received in the inbox
(no password)
A neutral platform: really
« not evil »!
Improved interface for
administrator (but users do
not see the back office)
However a bit slow
sometimes: can be annoying
and makes discussions
difficult
A mailing list at the age of the
social media!
1, 2… to 10 messages a day

10. Some messages sent from time to time on general
matters
Back office work, especially for proposing people to
contribute
Encourage short messages (1/2 page max, one ideas)
with specific added value
Challenges of bringing information visible as many
people don't think / don't want / are afraid of making
information public
Informal « core group » of people (within and
outside FAO)
Facilitating the discussion

11. Knowledge platform to provide common ground on
“food systems approaches”
"food-for-cities" doesn't replace but tries to connect
other networks/initiatives
Including the FCIT-list within FAO (about 200 members HQs +
decentralized offices)
The network belong to the ones who participate
Some « spies »?
« Open knowledge » platform

12. « Food-for-Cities@dgroups.org » is used as just a
discussion list
Most of the time, no summary of the discussion (human resources
issue) – No use of the « archives »
Dgroups doesn’t allow a tight connection with collaborative tools
(information technology issue)
Some members are asking for an evolution (Yammer, Facebook…)
Maybe too bad, but it also gives more freedom of
discussion? A mix between formal and informal
A discussion list. Just
discussing then?

13. One list fits all? No…but…
To moderate or not to moderate? That’s the question
Facilitating and managing the flow of information?
Full time job or just a new way of working? (Discussion list
on top of usual business or a main communication channel)
Language(s)
Issues to consider

14. An effective global network
Information sharing about:
Meetings
Preparation of visits, reportage…
Connection with other lists: e.g. FSN Forum discussions
Not so much for projects: funding related issues
« Food, agriculture and cities » discussion paper
Developing a « local food system approach »
Achievements
Idea of making a study to understand the dynamics of the list…

15. The « food-for-cities@dgroups.org » list has
become a community
How will FAO address the urbanization challenges
within the new strategic framework of FAO?
How will this community be considered?
From a list to a community

16. 9 months to…
Get the list really active
Get someone to post an email on the list
Have a full discussion on a new topic
A Dgroup is a long-term investment!
Building trust …
9 months

17. Should we go more collaborative?
Benefits and challenges to increased
collaboration
THANK YOU!
A question?

18. Kristin Kolshus
Julien Custot and Makiko Taguchi
16 April 2013
Dgroups at FAO