FAO’s Research and Extension Unit (OINR) presents a webinar on:

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN EXTENSION AND ADVISORY SERVICES: 

Enabling environment for promoting entrepreneurships

6 April 2021

At 14:00 in Rome and Budapest

To register, please click https://fao.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wmaL7BctQlyqbXDxxsIP1g 

The pluralistic Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) systems, which recognise the diversity of EAS providers, nowadays need to address many more demands of a wider variety of clients that go far beyond production and technology transfer. Hence, the EAS systems are challenged to transform themselves to encompass innovative entrepreneurship models and rapidly develop entrepreneurship capacities. To that end, EAS actors and institutions require specific conducive environment that would ensure fast progress and scaling up.

Recognising the increasing importance and complexity of entrepreneurships in EAS and their enabling environment, FAO’s Research and Extension Unit (OINR) of the Office for Innovation is organising the second webinar on the entrepreneurship within the EAS. The first webinar, held on 9 November 2020 presented diverse entrepreneurship types and initiatives in various EAS contexts such as social and local entrepreneurships, the role of youth and producer organisations. The webinar also has identified drivers and motivating factors for the entrepreneurships in EAS and discussed and prioritized key factors for scaling up the entrepreneurships in EAS. To watch the recording of the first webinar, visit here.

The second webinar will expound on the enabling environment for boosting entrepreneurship in EAS and will:

• Discuss public-private partnerships in EAS and the incentives needed for their operationalisation
• Highlight the elements of the enabling environment such as policies and legislative frameworks, financing and capacities needed for boosting the entrepreneurship in EAS actors and organizations, ensuring service quality, avoiding exclusion etc.
• Discuss the opportunities in reforming EAS by including entrepreneurships/business models and mechanisms to provide effective support to sustainable and resilient food systems.
  
  

The webinar will be done in the form of interactive panel discussions with the participation of renowned experts and local stakeholders.

Setting the scene: Summary and key messages from the first webinar on entrepreneurship in EAS, Selvaraju Ramasamy, Research and Extension Unit, Office for Innovation, FAO

Incentives for Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in EAS:

• PPPs in EAS: the experience of Teagasc; Paul Maher, Head of International Relations and Corporate Strategy, Teagasc, Ireland
• Scaling up PPPs in EAS: Lessons learnt from IFAD investments on scaling public-private pluralistic extension systems; Marie-Aude Even, Senior Technical specialist, PMI Division, IFAD

Enabling environment for entrepreneurship in EAS:

• Capacities for entrepreneurship in EAS: a cooperative perspective;  Altantuya Tseden-ish, National Association of Mongolian Agricultural Cooperatives (NAMAC), Mongolia
• Back-office: a key dimension of farm advisory systems; Pierre Labarthe, Senior researcher on institutional economics, French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INTRAe); Coordinator of EC Horizon2020 ApriLink project

Target audience:

EAS providers, including public and private sector EAS, national and regional EAS systems, donors and development practitioners, producer organizations.

The webinar will be in English, for duration of 90 minutes.

We hope you join us at the webinar and please feel free to circulate this invite within your network!