CORAF trains CSIR and 8 West African countries’ communication experts
A three-day workshop has been held for communication experts from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and eight West African countries by the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) in Dakar, Senegal on best communication practices in agricultural research and development.
The eight other countries besides Ghana are Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Niger.
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Facilitators took the communicators through topics including designing of effective communication strategy, writing and content production, ICTs for effective communication and a presentation of a revived agricultural technology dissemination platform, Market to Agricultural Innovations and Technologies (MITA).
The objective of the workshop was to stress the need for National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) communication experts to disseminate agricultural technology information effectively.
Addressing participants at the workshop, Dr. Abdullai Jalloh, the Director of Research and Innovation at CORAF, expressed delight at the turn-up of the communication experts, saying it will bring more gains in shoring up the effective dissemination of agricultural technology information.
He urged the participants to take what they learnt at the workshop seriously and apply them at their various institutions.
Highlights
- We live in a noisy world where people are inundated with information 24/7. If you want to make sure your audience hear what you have to say, and take the actions you’re hoping for, you must be strategic in your communication.
- MITA is to promote the discovery of improved technologies and to facilitate exchanges and purchase-sale transactions between promoters and users of improved technologies.
- Actionable communication is about inspiring others to take an action either on your or someone else’s behalf.
Making his presentation at the workshop, Mr. David Akana, the Communication and Marketing Manager of CORAF, led the participants through the designing of an effective communication strategy, writing and content production.
He said “a communication strategy is the backbone of any good marketing or communications programme”.
Mr. Akana added that, the strategy provides a focus with a clear goal and roadmap for how to best get messages to a target audience and ensures that, messages are memorable and move people to action.
For Ms. Benedicta Nkrumah-Boateng, the Head of Corporate Affairs at CSIR, who was one of the participants, the public perception that science is difficult has been a major bottleneck in disseminating agricultural technology information.
She added that CSIR is addressing this through ‘rebranding and visibility improvement’ in line with its new five year strategic plan (2021-2025)
CORAF is an international non-profit association of national agricultural research system in 23 West and Central Africa countries working to enhance prosperity, food and nutrition security in West and Central Africa.
Credit: Source: Corporate Affairs Division, CSIR