1. The document summarizes the Communication, Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) component of the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS). 2. It outlines the CIKM results so far, including organizing symposia, an agricultural extension week, establishing a website and social media accounts, and developing frameworks and guides. 3. It then describes the current CIKM tools - which include the AFAAS website, virtual platform, visibility plan, and social media accounts - and challenges faced by the CIKM component, such as low capacity to use web tools, poor internet connectivity, and multilingual issues.

1. African Forum for Agricultural
Advisory Services
Communication, Information and Knowledge Management
Component
Presented at the:
Review of the progress in implementation of the AFAAS Strategy and Medium Term
Operational Plan (MTOP) workshop
by:
Emmanuel ATENGA , CIKM Officer
Beshale Hotel, Addis Ababa
15 October 2014

2. SUMMARY
1. WHY CIKM COMPONENT?
2. CIKM RESULTS SO FAR
3. CIKM FREMAWORK
4. CIKM TOOLS
5. CHALLENGES
6. PLAN 2015

3. 1. WHY CIKM COMPONENT?
• CIKM Component shall design and implement an information
and knowledge management strategy that enables AAS
stakeholders to network with each other, to access information
from external sources including research and farmers, and to
generate new knowledge themselves.

4. 2. CIKM RESULTS SO FAR
1. Three Symposia organised ( 2004, 2007 & 2011);
2. One Africa Agricultural Extension Week in 2013 in Botswana;
Second planed for 2015 in Addis Ababa in partnership with
AUC and MoARD Ethiopia;
3. A website, Social medias and a Virtual platform;

5. 2. CIKM RESULTS SO FAR
4. A conceptual framework for lesson learning
developed;
5. A guide for Piloting Market Oriented AEAS;
6. Study on targeting Women Advisory Service Providers
& Capacity Development Programmes;
7. Study on how issues of Climate Change are being
addressed in AEAS

6. 3. CIKM FRAMEWORK
AFAAS
Website
CIKM
AFAAS-EU
Visibility
Plan
IFAD Project
CIKM
Strategy
Twitter Page
Flickr Page
AFAAS
Brochures
Publications
Slideshare
Page
Virtual
Platform
and
Facebook
Page

7. 4. CIKM TOOLS
a) AFAAS Website: www.afaas-Africa.org
It is a tool for communication, Information and visibility around the world. Its
management depends on the quality control content.
b) Virtual Platform: networking.afaas-africa.org
Tool for enabling AEAS actors to network for purposes, among other things, sharing
experiences, finding solutions to everyday problems that they face, accessing global
knowledge.
c) AFAAS-EU Visibility Plan (CVP):
This Communication and Visibility Plan is designed in conformity to general
EU guidelines currently in force and targets actions that are wholly or
partially funded by the European Union (EU). It is to be implemented by
AFAAS and its Country Fora (CF), which bring together diverse actors and
stakeholders from grassroots to the national, regional and international
levels.

8. 4. CIKM TOOLS
d) AFAAS Social Medias (Facebook Page, Twitter, Flickr Slideshare):
Their roles are to improve AFAAS visibility by communicating and
informing about AFAAS and CF activities on social medias.
e) AFAAS Brochures and Publications

9. 5. CHALLENGES
1. Lack of communication on CIKM needs from CF;
2. Low and varied capacity of key stakeholders to migrate to
web-based social media tools, eg: Virtual Platform,
Facebook, Twitter(where they are supposed to share
information and experiences);
3. Poor internet connectivity;
4. Poor culture of information and experience exchange;
5. Dealing with Multilanguage culture.

10. 6. PLAN 2015
1. CIKM capacity building in the level of CF;
2. Develop overall CIKM strategy for AFAAS;
3. Recruitment of CIKM Facilitators for established CF;
4. Translation of AFAAS key documents into French and
Portuguese (Constitution, Procurement and financial
Guidelines, Brochures…).

11. Thank you very much
For more information contact :
email: eatenga@afaas-africa.org/ info@afaas-africa.org
networking.afaas-africa.org
www.afaas-africa.org

12. CIKM Group Work
1. Evaluate and rank the current CIKM tools according to
their usefulness for communication in CF;
0 = Not Important; 1 = Low important; 2= Important; 3 = Very Important
2. Identify other tools would be useful for communication
within CF;
3. Rank the outputs from the IFAD Project CIKM strategy
that should be included in the overall AFAAS.