Investing in Plant Genetic Resources Information for Development

1 of 27How to invest in Information for Development
An Introduction
Introduction
This question is the focus of our examination of
the information management environment.
How to invest in PGR information for
development?

An Introduction
As a manager, you deal on a daily basis with information-related issues:
Introduction
Audience(s) needs
Effective dissemination
Resources availability
Coordination of activities
Flexibility to adapt to the new
information environment

An Introduction
Introduction
The information environment is constantly changing.
Here are some examples:
Investments in information must take into account these changes.
…we need to explore new
ways to promote two-way
information flows using
digital technologies...
... the information
environment is more
crowded than before…
now we have to define our
role more carefully...

An Introduction
We can think about these changes under two main categories:
Significant changes to the information environment
Changes in
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Changes in
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

An Introduction
Changes in information management
A significant change in information management:
the increase in the quantity of information on agricultural development
The principal components of this increase are:
The growing number
of academically oriented journals
(printed and digital) and books
Information made available
through electronic means,
particularly the world wide web.
1 2

An Introduction
Changes in information technology
Changes in information technology open up new opportunities
as well as new issues, such as:
The ways you acquire, process and disseminate information
How other organizations use information technology
The technologies your audience(s) have access to
The durability of investments in information technology

An Introduction
Management and change
These changes affect significantly the key areas below:
PEOPLE
ORGANIZATION
TECHNOLOGY
CONTENT

An Introduction
Making effective choices
How can you develop your organization’s
information-related activities to meet
these changes?
The challenge will be to choose in which
of the many possibilities to invest.

An Introduction
A common scenario
Let’s see what kind of issues a manager in an agricultural
organization might face during his daily activities.
Mr. Sam is Director of the
Information Division at the
Ministry of Agriculture.
He has been asked to lead a
project to develop the information
activities of the Ministry’s local
offices.

An Introduction
A common scenario
These are the main categories of activities that he must consider:
Strategic planning
Information access
Information dissemination
Organization and
Management
Evaluation

An Introduction
A common scenario
....we should find a way to
plan, and coordinate all the
information-related
activities...and to guide staff
and other stakeholders in
managing them...
Concerning strategic planning, he says:

An Introduction
A common scenario
and about Information Access, his staff raises numerous issues:
It has become
difficult for anyone
to keep track of
all information of
relevance to a
particular
agricultural issue…
It is hard to assess the quality of much of this information..
There is more
scientific
literature, in
paper or
electronic format,
but prices have
risen too high!!

An Introduction
A common scenario
Another member of staff identifies a further area of concern:
...we also need to look at
the way we currently
disseminate the
information we produce...
... the technologies used
by some of our audiences
have changed, and the
media we use now for
dissemination might not
be appropriate anymore...

An Introduction
A common scenario
Then Mr Sam considers the way the
organization is currently working.
….we need to identify the key
activities and the necessary
resources….and we need to
think about options for
motivating and retaining
skilled staff ...
How is Mr. Sam going to assign
responsibilities and motivate staff?

An Introduction
A common scenario
...and we need to keep in mind
evaluation...
It will be important to find ways
to assess if the outcome of our
activities match our intended
objectives....
Finally, Mr. Sam considers one more issue:

An Introduction
INFORMATION STRATEGY
INFORMATION ACCESS
INFORMATION
DISSEMINATION
ORGANIZATION &
MANAGEMENT
EVALUATION OF AN
INFORMATION PROJECT
Conclusions
It is important to conduct an
analysis of these activities in
order to make effective
investments in information
for development.

An Introduction
The main changes to the broad information environment include:
-changes in information management;
-changes in information technology.
These changes will especially affect four key areas, both in the
internal and external environment:
People, Content, Technology, Organization.
As a manager, you have to make effective decisions in those key
areas, and also in the following activities:
Information Strategy, Access, Dissemination, Organization and
Management, Evaluation.
Summary

An Introduction
The benefits of doing an Information Strategy
A good Information Strategy should be of direct practical benefit:
TO YOU
TO YOUR
STAFF
TO YOUR
ORGANIZATION

An Introduction
The benefits of doing an Information Strategy
Other potential benefits of an effective Information Strategy are:
it can make evaluation easier
it is an excellent way of making stakeholders more involved.

An Introduction
Summary
• An Information Strategy is a deliberate
and planned approach
to achieving a vision for the future.
• It offers a framework with a direction
and priorities which can guide staff and
other stakeholders in managing their
various information-related activities.
• It provides a link between the overall strategy and
the handling of information on a daily basis.
• If your Information Strategy is good, it should be of
direct practical benefit to you, to your staff, and to
your organization.

An Introduction
RELEVANCE OF
INFORMATION
TIMELINESS OF
INFORMATION
OWNERSHIP OF
INFORMATION
LONG-TERM USABILITY
OF INFORMATION
+
CRITERIA FOR
INFORMATION SELECTION
During the development of an
Information Access plan, it is
important to keep in mind the
implications of each of these four
features.
This can help analyze whether
the benefits of accessing certain
types of information outweigh
the costs.
+
+
Conclusions
=

An Introduction
Summary
It is important for an organization to have an
Information Access Plan.
Development of such an Information Access Plan
include:
•assessment of information needs;
•agreement on the formats of information; and
•analysis of where and how best to access the
required information.
One of the underlying assumptions is that
information is a commodity with a market price.
Four features of information as a commodity are:
•Relevance
•Timeliness
•Ownership
•Long-term Usability.

An Introduction
Summary
o To build an information dissemination plan, there are two kinds of
analysis you should do: “external” and “internal”.
o Analysis of your audience(s):
their identities; their characteristics; their specific needs; the kind of
content; the type of medium; and priorities among them.
o Analysis of the market trends and environment affecting the demand
for your information products and services.

An Introduction
Summary
•Information management includes four main activities:
1) acquisition of content;2) production of new content;3) storage and
retrieval of content; and 4)dissemination of appropriate content to
users.
•To accomplish these tasks, an organization needs five main resources:
1) an enabling policy environment;2) efficient structures and
procedures;3) motivated and skilled people; 4) appropriate technology;
and 5) helpful alliances.
• A Efficient management depends on effective application of the five types
of resources in the four core information management activities.
• In order to decide where investments are necessary, we considered three
of the main resources in more detail: people, organization, alliances.

An Introduction
The Evaluation Management Committee
Now Dr. Kumar has a list of stakeholders in the project.
He will use this list as a basis for creating an Evaluation Management
Committee, responsible for:
Content Indicators Analysis Logistics

An Introduction
The Evaluation Management Committee
So far, Dr Kumar and his colleagues have:
defined the focus of the evaluation; and
developed a list of possible EMC members.
The next step will be to call the first
Evaluation Management Committee
meeting.

An Introduction
Summary
•The evaluation of an information project requires
good planning and management.
•To evaluate an information project, it is useful to
start by breaking it down into four stages:
inputs, activities, outputs, impacts.
•For an effective evaluation, it is important to
measure all these stages, instead of stopping at
the outputs level.
•All important stakeholders should be involved in
the planning and implementation of the evaluation.
Therefore, it is useful to develop a list of key
stakeholders that can be used as a basis for
creating an Evaluation Management Committee,
that will plan and manage the evaluation process.

Investing in Plant Genetic Resources Information for Development

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