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Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators

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Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators
Open-access data and analysis on agricultural research investment and capacity in low- and middle-income countries

Open-access data and analysis on agricultural research investment and capacity in low- and middle-income countries

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    • Ongoing projects:
    • CGIAR centers data (2013)
    • Hosted projects:
    • Tracking improved varieties in South Asia (CGIAR–TRIVSA, 2015)
    • Diffusion and impact of improved varieties in Africa (CGIAR–DIIVA, 2014)
    • Completed projects:
    • Critical issues affecting West African agricultural R&D (ASTI–CORAF/WECARD, 2014)
    • Global assessment of agricultural R&D spending (ASTI, 2012)
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ASTI Successes:  country initiatives in ownership and institutionalization

October 18, 2017

A number of countries are taking initiative with ASTI data collection and outreach--institutionalizing the data collection process, disseminating the results, and embedding the data in national policy and decision-making platforms to maximize their use and accessibility.

Recent activities in India, Colombia, and Ghana highlight some of these successes.

Gathering at Ghana Workshop

In India, the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) has adjusted the standard ASTI survey to meet the demand and data needs specific to the country, and, in 2016, produced its own research report analyzing and disseminating the national survey results.

At a NAARM meeting a few weeks ago, agricultural research leaders discussed plans for further institutionalization: to establish regular ASTI-type data collection, embed the data in existing monitoring and evaluation tools and platforms, and sustain these efforts by collaborating with existing information and agricultural research projects.

In Colombia, a partnership between the national agency for agricultural research, Corpoica, and the national science and technology institute, the Observatorio Colombiano de Ciencia y Technologia (OCyT), offers a model for other countries. This partnership has allowed Corpoica to streamline its collection of ASTI-type data by including it in OCyT’s existing the data collection process.  In addition, Corpoica created an online system for agencies to update their data and held a series of workshops throughout the country to explain and train agencies on the data collection process.  The country now collects agricultural research indicators, along with additional indicators based on demand, on an annual basis. Corpoica’s collaboration with OCyT provided high quality data for ASTI’s time-series datasets and international visibility for both agencies.

Last month in Ghana, our partners at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (CSIR - STEPRI) convened a stakeholders’ dissemination workshop to present the achievements and outcomes of the ASTI surveys over the past few years to stakeholders in the Ghanaian agriculture sector, including the agencies who provided the data.

The workshop offered representatives of agricultural research and higher education agencies an opportunity to give their feedback on the data collection process and results, and allowed policy makers and the Ghanaian public to understand current trends and critical challenges to agricultural research in the country.  Most importantly, the workshop increased awareness of the need for evidence, such as ASTI data, for analysis and decision making related to agricultural research.

 

The event attracted a good deal of media coverage, from the TV3 and United Television evening news to stories in the Ghanaian Times, Ghana News Agency, and online media organizations.

Other countries are on their way to similar successes in country ownership and institutionalization of ASTI data collection and outreach – a goal that ASTI is aiming for in all the countries where we work.

Filed Under: Africa, Impact, Latin America & Caribbean, South Asia Tagged With: Colombia, Ghana, India, institutionalization, outreach

Creating the state of the art for agricultural research in Latin America

March 3, 2016

This blog post was originally published by Andrea Carvajal on the CIAT blog.

asti_group_workshop

Photo credit: CIAT

In early February, ASTI organized a technical review and outreach workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), held at the CIAT campus. The workshop brought together ASTI’s national focal points: key contacts who have been coordinating national survey rounds over the last year or so to update agricultural research data on investment, human capacity, and outputs for nearly every country in the region.

This survey round, carried out with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Canadian government, depended on the involvement of nearly 600 governmental organizations in the LAC region. And—although the results will be formally delivered in April 2016, including a series of country factsheets, a regional synthesis, and the launching of the ASTI web site in Spanish—data are already available that reflect the diversity and dynamism of the region. For example:

  • Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico are the region’s biggest investors in agricultural research.
  • The LAC region recorded significant growth in agricultural research spending and capacity in recent years. However, this regionwide growth masks considerable cross-country differences.
  • Many of LAC’s smaller countries lack a critical mass of PhD-qualified researchers. In Paraguay, Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua, less than 10 percent of agricultural researchers hold PhD degrees.
  • Many countries are challenged by an aging pool of scientists. In Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru, more than half of all researchers are older than 50. A large number of PhD-qualified researchers, in particular, will be retiring in the coming years.

What good are all these data to a country?

For Cristian Zuchini, a participant from the National Institute of Agricultural Technology of Argentina (known by its Spanish acronym, INTA), the ASTI data are crucial for decision making and sharing lessons.

It is necessary to add value to this information that ASTI generates and encourage our leaders to use it to make decisions and to assess and validate the policies that are being applied in our country.

It is also important to share this information with our neighbors in the region, and to find complementarities. Participating in ASTI is a way to look at the experiences of other countries and come back to our own country motivated to find ways to replicate them. Brazil and Ecuador have succeeded in including taking over indicators and monitoring their strategic institutional plans. This is an example of an action that facilitates, for example, institutional responsibility in answering information requirements and action follow-up. Another example is Colombia’s experience in achieving articulation among different organizations to collect information and achieve a sustainable system.

Steps to take

For Nienke Beintema, head of ASTI, the key word is dialogue: a process that leads to influencing the decision making of those who formulate national policies. Working as a team with partner organizations and focal points, ASTI can use this dialogue process to take the step from merely generating results to making concrete use of them for development.

That is why it is so important to carry ASTI’s messages to diverse audiences by means of distinct channels such as social networks; distribution of publications; participation in strategic events; and the continual forming of relationships with regional institutions such as the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), the Regional Forum of Agricultural Technology (FORAGRO), and the Network of PROCIs [cooperative programs of research and innovation]. These relationships will also help keep the data fresh, by encouraging agencies in the continual collection and analysis of the agricultural research information from each country.

Key national and social institutions can provide another entry point for policy influence by providing timely coaching and strategic recommendations to policy makers based on the results of current projects.

Lastly, and to guarantee the continuity of this detailed work, it is of vital importance to identify new financing mechanisms that would enable long-term data collection and analysis at the country level.

The role of CIAT

The longterm support and collaboration of CIAT is another essential piece in ASTI’s mission to use its data for development impact. Elcio P. Guimarães, CIAT Regional Director for LAC, described the center’s relationship with ASTI:

We have always worked with ASTI in their efforts. During the last years, this support has become even more tangible. In the future, we can continue playing a very significant role such as liaison with the countries of the LAC region, and we can draw their attention to the importance of the data collected and processed by ASTI. It is specifically a matter of forming relationships with ministries, national research centers, and similar entities which clearly have much to offer ASTI and which can benefit from the data that are generated and the added value of their analysis.”

It is very important to continue collecting data so that they will not lose their validity and to avoid losing credibility. In this respect, CIAT can find a way to motivate the countries so that within each one of them a continuous data collection mechanism may be generated.

With teamwork, relationship-building, and dialogue such as this, ASTI is growing closer to its goal of influencing actions to help the region, and its countries, develop and prosper.

Filed Under: Events, Latin America & Caribbean, Uncategorized Tagged With: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, LAC, Latin America

El “bosque” de ASTI crece en el taller realizado en Cali

February 17, 2016

Miembros de la familia ASTI se reunieron en Cali, Colombia, el 3 y 4 de febrero con el fin de analizar los resultados de tres años de trabajo conjunto: datos nuevos y actualizados sobre la capacidad e inversión en investigación agropecuaria en 27 países de la región de Latinoamérica y el Caribe.

_DSC0022-small

Los puntos focales de ASTI de 14 países latinoamericanos y un colaborador de la región angloparlante del Caribe (representando 10 islas estados) se reunieron para compartir sus experiencias con respecto a la recopilación de datos en sus países, estrategias para la socialización de mensajes claves a los encargados de emitir las políticas y a otros actores, así como innovaciones a futuro para mantener y expandir la recopilación y el análisis de datos por parte de ASTI en la región.

Los asistentes a la reunión se tomaron un descanso de sus discusiones para sembrar cinco árboles en la sede del CIAT - como esfuerzo para compensar la huella de carbono de carbono del viaje para el taller y como símbolo de los planes y las esperanzas de ASTI de expandir un “bosque” de recopilación y análisis de datos en la región.

Los indicadores de I+D para la región de Centro América y el Caribe se pueden encontrar en Internet en la herramienta de benchmarking de ASTI, la herramienta de descarga de datos o en las páginas de cada país. Las fichas técnicas de cada país, los datos finalizados de Sudamérica y México, así como un informe de síntesis regional serán publicados en Internet dentro de poco. ASTI realizará además el lanzamiento de su sitio web en español dentro de las próximas semanas.

Filed Under: Latin America & Caribbean Tagged With: Centro America, CIAT, Colombia, Español, Sur America

ASTI “forest” grows at Cali workshop

February 11, 2016

By Marcia MacNeil

Members of the ASTI family gathered last week in Cali, Colombia to review the results of three years of joint work:  new and updated data on agricultural research capacity and investment for 27 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

ASTI focal points from 14 Latin American countries and one collaborator from the Anglophone Caribbean (representing 10 island states) came together to discuss their experiences with data collection in their countries, strategies for communicating key messages to policymakers and other stakeholders, and forward-looking innovations for maintaining and expanding ASTI data collection and analysis in the region.

Planting ASTI's Forest

Photo credit: Wilmer Gutierrez/IFPRI

Meeting attendees took a break from their deliberations to plant five trees on the CIAT campus –both an effort to compensate for the carbon footprint of the workshop travel and a symbol of ASTI’s hopes and plans for an expanded “forest” of data collection and analysis in the region.

You can find R&D indicators for Central America and the Caribbean online in the ASTI benchmarking tool, data download tool, or on the country pages. Country factsheets, finalized data from South America and Mexico, as well as a regional synthesis report will be posted online shortly. ASTI will also release its Spanish language website in the coming weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Events, Latin America & Caribbean Tagged With: ASTI, Central America, CIAT, Colombia, LAC, Mexico, South America

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