^{Monday 28th November, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva}

A training workshop taking place in Suva, Fiji is exploring the use of social media and other ‘Web 2.0’ technologies to benefit agriculture and facilitate rural development. The workshop is one of a number of activities undertaken by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) Land Resources Division in partnership with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and information and knowledge management (IKM) for agriculture and development.

The aim of this partnership is to better serve the ever-changing information needs of Pacific stakeholders in the agriculture and rural development sectors.

Inoke Ratukalou, Acting LRD Director, commented on this partnership while addressing SPC staff attending the weeklong workshop beginning today at SPC’s Nabua campus.

‘Web 2.0 empowers people to create awareness on the impacts of climate change and other global issues through the use of technologies such as digital media, social networking tools and e-learning applications. Web applications give a voice to people, especially our youth,’ he said.

‘The use of Web 2.0 is changing the way we do things and how we perceive things when dealing with global issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, sea level rise and food security.’

The workshop, he added, has been designed as a forum to discuss opportunities offered by the social media and the challenges of using these media. ‘More broadly, it will look at the role that the Internet and social media can play in information sharing and collaboration.

‘We would like to thank CTA for the fruitful cooperation that we have enjoyed since signing the LRD / CTA partnership agreement. This partnership provides information products and services through publications and by promoting the use of communication channels such as wikis, blogs, portals and other ICT applications. CTA also supports capacity building in the field of management of information and communication in the Pacific region.

CTA has been given the challenging roleof improving the flow of information among the various stakeholders in agriculture and rural development in the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP countries). 

SPC’s‑ LRD continues to assist CTA to review the needs and opportunities for Pacific countries in the agriculture and rural development sectors to enable CTA to play an increasingly effective role in ACP countries.

 (For further information please contact LRD Help Desk on email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Vinesh Prasad on telephone 3370733.)