Newsfordev - news for development professionals

CTA is pleased to announce the launch of the news aggregator platform, www.newsfordev.org. NewsforDev employs RSS and e-mail news technology to bring knowledge and information to agricultural development practitioners in ACP countries thereby improving access to information.

Drawing on a reference base of more than 630 newsfeeds and an articles database of over 400,000 articles, Newsfordev editors have selected the most pertinent newsfeed sources to create a number of thematic dossiers, updates of which you can receive as newsletters, either by email or on-line. You can track your favourite sources by setting up a personal news page, and even incorporate your own newsletters based on customised searches of the ever growing database of articles cached from all sources. You can also share news with other users using social bookmarking tools.

The 13 dossiers currently available are as follows:

* ACP-EU;
* Agriculture;
* Biodiversity;
* Biofuels;
* CTA;
* Climate change;
* Development;
* HIV/AIDS;
* ICT; ICT4D;
* S&T; S&T4D;
* Trade;
* World News (Africa, Asia Pacific, Caribbean, Europe, Middle-East)

The 15 Feature newsletters (from the database of articles) are as follows:

* Bird flu
* Connectivity
* Drought
* EU-Africa Headlines
* Gender issues
* Genetic resources
* Globalisation
* Information society
* Millenium Development Goals
* Microfinance
* Mobile Phones
* Nanotechnology
* Traceability
* Urban agriculture
* WiFi

In the next phase of the platform development CTA aims to add more French and Portuguese sources as well as expand the number of dossiers and add new functionalities. Any feedback on this news platform will be most welcome.

Intern needed to manage metadata for web-based photo library

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) was established in 1983 under the Lomé Convention between the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) Group of States and the European Union Member States. Since 2000, it has operated within the framework of the ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement.

CTA over the years has accumulated a number of photos – in print, slide and electronic formats, which it has digitised. Currently there are approximately 1500 images in the CTA image database. It is now necessary to clean up the classification/tagging of the photos according to the thematic descriptions developed by CTA.

The successful candidate would have:

- Good communication skills

- Good organizational skills

- Fluent written and spoken English or French and the ability to work in the other language

- Internet skills

- Proficient in word processing, Excel software

- Proficiency in Adobe photo processes would be an asset

- Extensive knowledge of agricultural and rural development issues.


Tasks

* The candidate would be expected to check and correct, where necessary, the metadata contained in the CTA image database. This would be based on his/her knowledge of agricultural issues and through verification with the hard copies of the photos/slides.
* For the photos which currently do not have any metadata, the candidate would be expected to enter the necessary data based on his/her knowledge of agricultural issues and through verification with the hard copies of the photos/slides.

Timeframe

* 3 months

If you think you are this person, please send a resume to:

K. Hackshaw
cta@cta.int

Development Briefing on Fair Trade

http://brusselsbriefings.net/

The next bimonthly Development Briefing organised by CTA, the European Commission/DG Development, the ACP Secretariat, Euforic, Concord and IPS-Europe - in collaboration with the Fair Trade Advocacy Office in Brussels - will be held on 16th April 2008 (8h30-12h30) on Fair Trade.

It will aim at (i) raising awareness on existing and emerging key challenges on Fair Trade; (ii) promoting exchange of information and expertise sharing among the development groups based in Brussels, by providing an updated source of information and a platform of discussion; (iii) feeding in the debate on Fair Trade by bringing various perspectives around the table which could support future EC support to Fair Trade in ACP countries.

This half day meeting will discuss some key issues involved in the fair trade initiatives: the benefits of Fair Trade for development and poverty reduction with special reference to the ACP countries; challenges for market access for ACP producers; the role of the supermarkets on standards and labelling (including the food miles issues); the awareness and information campaigns linked with the consumers education.

Venue: European Commission, Centre Borschette, Rue Froissart 36 (Room 1A), Brussels.

For more information contact purro@cta.int or boto@cta.int and visit the Blog http://brusselsbriefings.net/

CTA Annual Seminar 2008

The Implications of Global Climate Change for Sustainable Agricultural Production Systems in ACP Countries: Getting Information and Communication Strategies Right

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 26 - 31 October 2008
http://ctaseminar2008.cta.int

CTA is organizing an international seminar on the implications of climate change for sustainable agricultural production systems in ACP countries. The Seminar will be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 26-31 October, 2008. It will bring together about 200 participants from the ACP region, EU national institutions and regional and international organizations.

The overall objective of the seminar is to contribute to improving the livelihood and food security of rural communities in the various agro-ecological zones of ACP countries. More specifically, the seminar is aiming at:

• Raising awareness of policy makers and rural communities to the impacts of climate change on agricultural and rural development;
• Identifying information and communication needs for decision makers and rural communities to protect their livelihood systems from the effects of climate change;
• Identifying strategies that can appropriately meet these needs.
  

More than 70% of those living in ACP countries work in the agricultural sector. The environmental and social consequences of climate change put their livelihoods at risk. Natural resource management strategies that ensure the sustainable use of soils and water, halt biodiversity decline and deal with emerging issues such as the growing demand for renewable energy are needed urgently. Effective intervention depends on the availability of well-managed information and reliable communication.

The CTA Seminar will identify ways of improving access to climate change information in ACP countries.

[More]

Dialogue on Challenges of Changing Agricultural Markets

Dialogue on Challenges of Changing Agricultural Markets in the context of ACP-EU Trade: Identifying an Aid for Trade Agenda

14-15 April 2008, Brussels

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in collaboration with the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) is organising a dialogue meeting in Brussels on 14-15 April 2008 on “Challenges of Changing Agricultural Markets in the context of ACP-EU Trade: Identifying an Aid for Trade Agenda”.

The international community recognizes that trade liberalization per se does not automatically lead to economic growth and development. It is also broadly accepted that many ACP countries and especially least-developing ACP countries have not been able to fully benefit from enhanced market access opportunities because of non-competitive production capacity, lack of the necessary exporting infrastructure, inability to meet prevailing standards in high value export markets and being crowded-out of some markets by the domestic support and export subsidies of the developed countries. It is in this context that Aid for Trade (AfT) initiatives have emerged within both WTO and EPA negotiations as a mechanism for assisting ACP to address supply-side constraints and adjust their economies to trade liberalization.

In the agricultural sector, these include:

• upgrading ACP productive capacities and developing trade-related infrastructure in ways which enable ACP producers and processors to take advantage of the economic opportunities created under EPAs;
• assisting ACP producers and processors in adjusting to the new market conditions which are emerging under the impact of restructuring and liberalization processes;
• supporting ACP governments in the establishment of appropriate legislative and regulatory frameworks for the implementation of new rules governing trade in food and agricultural products with the EU.
  

In this context a key question becomes how to operationalise AfT support in the agricultural sector so that ACP countries can successfully undertake this process of structural economic change. Drawing lessons from the existing experience in the ACP and the EU in supporting restructuring in the agricultural and food product sector in the context of the market changes which are underway in the EU constitutes an important starting point for this process.

It is against this background that CTA, in partnership with ECDPM, has taken the initiative to organise a two day dialogue meeting in order to reflect on how to assist ACP agricultural stakeholders in this process of structural change.

The meeting will start (session 1) by identifying and discussing the key challenges for ACP of changing market conditions with a particular emphasis on the impacts on the regional markets. Then discussions (session 2) will be held on the past and current experiences/best practices in supporting economic transformation in the ACP agricultural sector (focus on banana, sugar, livestock, horticulture). A third session will present the lessons to be drawn from the EU internal experience in terms of restructuring programmes in the agricultural sector towards improved competitiveness. In the light of these experiences, participants will be asked to brainstorm on possible strategic orientations and concrete operational recommendations for future AfT support in the agricultural sector. The draft agenda is attached to this letter.

The workshop will bring together around 70 ACP and EU stakeholders currently involved in these issues: ACP representatives from regional organisations, Ambassadors, Farmers organizations, private sector, CSOs, etc.; representatives from the EC and from the EU member states, as well as other experts from IOGs. The meeting will be informal and Chatham house rules will be strictly applied in order to get an open and constructive discussion.

Link: https://aidfortrademeeting.pbwiki.com/

Contact: fautrel@cta.int

Looking for a young intern

Spore is CTA’s flagship magazine. It is published every two months in English, French and Portuguese (Esporo) and distributed in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (79) and EU member states. In order to extend its outreach through Spore, CTA is looking for a

YOUNG INTERN

Tasks:
Identify and contact potential beneficiaries (subscribers) for Spore
Liaise with present partners to check address/contact details
Enter data into CTA’s database and verify and update present data

Profile:
Commercial/marketing background
Bilingual English and French (Portuguese is an asset)
Excellent communication skills
Computer skills (Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet, databases)
Curious, perseverant, well-organised, flexible

Conditions:

See http://announcements.cta.int/2007/12/internship-programme-vacancies.html

Interested? Please e-mail your CV and motivation letter to Ms Murielle Vandreck, Coordinator/Publications Distribution, at vandreck@cta.int by 30 April 2008