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News
The first meeting of the Young Professionals for ARD (YPARD)
About 70 Participants mainly youth, met on December 4, 2005 in the first ARD Youth Forum during GFAR 2005 Statutory meetings held at Marrakech, Morocco on 04-05 December. They discussed problems faced by young professionals, and how these issues could be addressed by a global, multi-stakeholder forum as proposed following the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development (EFARD) 2005 conference. The meeting was supported by the CGIAR System Office and the GFAR Secretariat. During discussions it was clear that young professionals in ARD faced the same problems around the globe.
Participants in the meeting of the YPARD, Marrakech, Dec. 4th 2005
The main concerns raised were:
- Poor access to resources and funding for youth
- Lack of career opportunities
- Poor institutional support
- Insufficient communication between youth and senior professionals and between different stakeholders
Some of the concrete recommendations to tackle the above problems were:
- Raise awareness and advocate for more youth involvement in ARD systems
- Advocate to donors for more funds particularly for young researchers
- Increase visibility and representation of young professionals views, needs and beliefs
- Develop communication mechanisms that would enable youth to exchange and share information and knowledge
The meeting agreed that there is a need for a platform for young professionals, Young Professionals Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD), composed by members who advocate and voice young professionals' needs and beliefs. YPARD should be present at international level meetings, organise information, and forge a strong learning-network. YPARD could then expand and incorporate other activities.
A strategy planning meeting of YPARD has been scheduled for the spring of 2006 in Wageningen, The Netherlands and the official launch of the YPARD during the GFAR Triennial congress between 9-11 November 2006 in New Delhi, India.
To read the declaration, full proceedings of the meeting and the concept note of YPARD:
egfar.org/tools/pdf/YPARD_meeting.pdf
N.A.
Further information:
Dr. Balasubramanian Ramani
YPARD Coordinator
Institute for Botany
University of Hannover
Herrenhaueser Strasse 2
30419 Hannover, Germany
Tel: +49-511-7624045
Fax: +49-511-76219262
Email:
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