24 July 2023, Cairo, Egypt – “There is no doubt that the role of more effective and responsive extension and rural advisory services for transforming food systems and rural areas is of utmost importance,” said AbdulHakim Elwaer, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa.
This came during a regional meeting on the establishment of the Arab Forum for Rural Advisory Services (AFRAS): Vision and roadmap, , held by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in Cairo, Egypt, on 24 and 25 July 2023.
“Making available to the region a wide array of knowledge, experiences and practices, putting experts and practitioners in contact, and favouring cross learning are certainly key factors for accelerating the modernization process that we would like to see in extension and rural advisory services across our region,” added Elwaer during the meeting.
AFRAS is dedicated to promoting networking, cross learning, experience sharing and knowledge management on extension and rural advisory services (RAS) in the Arab region. The forum is envisaged to operate under the umbrella of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), hence joining the array of existing regional networks of RAS across the globe.
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