Targeted Information Products and Services: Balancing Stakeholder Needs, Learning, and Strategy
2010
Khadar, Ibrahim
CTA's core mission is to improve the information and communication management (ICM) capabilities of agricultural and rural development organisations in 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. In this article, we draw on CTA's experience with providing a broad range of targeted agricultural information products and services for the past 25 years to identify four guiding principles for designing and providing agricultural information products and services that meet the specific information needs of the intended users or user groups. One principle stands out: "always put the stakeholders (i.e. intended user or user groups) before the product or service". The other three principles relate to different aspects of the interrelationship between the intended users and service providers, with the products or services themselves being of secondary importance. We suggest that information professionals and their respective organisations need to change their practices fundamentally, in particular, by being more strategic and rising to the challenge of becoming leaders in the development community. To be able to consistently adhere to these principles and take on these new roles, information professionals should first acquire the skills that will allow them to participate actively in planning, monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) on a regular basis.
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