Welcome to the blog of the SDC Agriculture and Food Security Network F2F meeting “Reaching the Millions!”. The meeting will take place from 2 to 7 March in Hanoi, Vietnam. This blog serves as a platform for information and exchange during and after the F2F meeting.
Reaching the Millions!
SDC Face-to-Face Workshop on Rural Advisory Services, 2-7 March 2015, Hanoi, Vietnam
Reaching the Millions! 
Welcome to Hanoi! While we continue lobbying for rural advisory services that are effective and efficient, we are putting ourselves under pressure to come up with innovative approaches to connect the rural population to the economy: training, access to market, income opportunities in rural areas are crucial aspects. While there are many ways to get the work done, it is time to take a stake of what is working well and what should be considered to change. Rural advisory services are not just the missing link of agricultural innovation and research to farmers. Rural advisory services have the potential to make a real difference in rural areas, making these places a worthwhile place to live in – particularly for young girls and men! I am happy to see practitioners gathering in Hanoi this week and set an important milestone on progress of Rural Advisory Services in Asia. Spread the knowledge gathered this week and be agents of change!
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A major challenge of the discussion about RAS is conceptual clarity and defining of system boundaries. There is a wide variety of understanding between countries and within countries. However, in order to reach millions tendencies of key factors for success become visible. They include:
– Strong Governance(sound agricultural policy, capacity for execution, authority to enforce, generation of evidence)
– Private sector RAS delivery: it is a fact that in large countries private sector reaches millions of farmers with input provision and market access
– Especially, donors need the courage to simplify interventions avoiding to pack highly complex normative value systems into RAS interventions.
– Probably, the art is to find the optimum of a delivery system that covers both private and public interests. Key actors in this negotiation process are i) Governments, ii) Private Sector, iii) Local Society and iv) Donors (probably in this order).
What is missing from the discussion is the transformative role of RAS in this rapidly changing world which includes primarily today’s children and youth.
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