As part of The Research Data Alliance (RDA) Interest Group on Agricultural Data (IGAD) meeting focusing on IGAD/RDA : Sharing Experiences and Creating Digital Dialogues, Kanoatkhon Umurzokova and Akmal Akramkhanov, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)  presented a webinar during the ‘Americas/Asia’ group of presentations on May 27. 

The webinar focused on ‘Visible mechanisms to manage “invisible hand”: Dialogues to unite expectations, interests and need for open data platform in Central Asia.’ Central Asia is a home for 1% of the world population (74 mln), who need open access climatic data across the region for decision making. Five countries Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, are united into a geographical region sharing history, economy and culture. However, they face different challenges in adapting to climatic changes. A severe cold or drought in one region requires immediate response in upstream and downstream countries. Hence, local stakeholders are in need for comprehensive and up-to-date climatic information and datasets. The development of state of art information platform, i.e. Central Asian Climate Information Platform is a regional project funded by the World Bank and led by the Central Asia Regional Environmental Center (CAREC) and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).

The platform reflects needs and expectations of local stakeholders on digital knowledge exchange. This presentation is about mechanisms used to engage stakeholders in the development process of the platform as a tool to match and calibrate interests of various stakeholders and groups. These include:

1. Framing technical aspects of the platform, i.e. data access, language, accessibility;

2. Building institutional ownership of the platform, like consortium approach vs. centralised data management;

3. Feeding needs in data per target groups in a different knowledge frequency fostering capacity development.

Development of the platform was informed through country consultations with different stakeholders, farmers, surveys and regional panel discussions. Lessons learned will be shared in the presentation.

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) Interest Group on Agricultural Data (IGAD) meeting was set to be held in Rome (Italy) in April 2020 but instead, took place as a virtual meeting from May 25 to 28.  The virtual meeting provided an online platform to continue to build upon collaborations, knowledge sharing and developing innovations with activities including panel sessions, group discussions and presentations.