The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), through its project, the Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI), on the 31st of August, 2017 organised a one day intensive Dissemination Workshop for its stakeholders.
Background
IFPRI, collaborates with national, regional and international partners to collect time series data on the funding, human resource capacity and outputs in agricultural research in low and middle-income countries. Based on this information, ASTI produces datasets, analysis, capacity-building tools and outreach products to facilitate policies for effective and efficient agricultural research. ASTI is widely recognized as the authoritative source of information on the status and direction of agricultural research systems in developing countries. Some of the key objectives of ASTI are to provide high quality, up-to-date data and information on agricultural R&D to enable policy makers make informed decisions at national and regional levels in addition to building national and regional capacity for both data collection and analysis.
Objective:
The workshop was organised to present the achievements and outcomes of the ASTI surveys in Ghana over the past few years to the relevant stakeholders in the agriculture sector. More importantly, it was to increase awareness of the need to use ASTI data for analysis and influencing decision making by policymakers.
Specific Objectives:
- Offer the selected agricultural R&D agencies the platform to give their own assessment of the surveys.
- Communicate to policy makers and the general Ghanaian public achievements of the ASTI survey in Ghana.
- Increase the use of ASTI data for analysis and influencing decision making by policy makers
- Outline critical challenges facing agricultural research in Ghana.
- Mass media engagement to popularize ASTI outputs in Ghana.
- Exploring the way forward for ASTI in Ghana.
- Networking
Outcomes
The evaluation at the end of the workshop indicated that participants have had a better appreciation of the contribution of ASTI to the policy formulation relating to agricultural research in Ghana.
Participants
Participants were made of Policy Makers, Researchers, Academia, International organizations, Ministers of state, representatives of NGOs Company representatives and the media.
Activities
The workshop was organised in the form of Speeches, presentations, group and plenary discussions and Media interaction.