{"id":416,"date":"2011-04-01T14:38:13","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T14:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/php7.innershed.com:10000\/virtual-server\/link.cgi\/212.71.245.84\/http:\/\/www.connectafrica\/?p=416"},"modified":"2012-12-30T12:58:25","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T12:58:25","slug":"connect-africa-at-the-3rd-european-forum-on-rural-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/?p=416","title":{"rendered":"Connect Africa at the 3rd European Forum on Rural Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Connect Africa was at the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> European Forum on Rural Development in Palencia, Spain from 29 March to 1 April 2011.<\/p>\n<p>With the main objective to exchange and analyse policy, insight and field experiences, the forum asked the question: \u201cWhat kind of rural development should we promote to tackle food insecurity and hunger?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tackling the overwhelming challenge of implementation was a priority on the agenda. \u201cIt is now time for action, up-scaling and implementation. Enough talking and reports,\u201d said Connect Africa director Dion Jerling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFood security is no longer a production challenge &#8211; today it is a knowledge challenge.\u00a0 This puts Connect Africa firmly at the forefront of\u00a0the drive to address food security,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Another important issue which emerged at the forum is the challenge of attracting youth into agriculture &#8211; critical\u00a0to rural development. \u201cThis means making agriculture profitable and providing youngsters with all the social communication tools they enjoy in urban areas,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>These priorities highlight the need for providing internet connectivity and availability in rural areas, as both a means to spread and enhance knowledge among rural communities and young people and as an important social tool.<\/p>\n<p>Rural telecommunications infrastructure is lacking in Africa, something the Connect Africa team will be working to address and provide, while building on a project to use existing warehouse receipt programmes as an effective way for farmers to access credit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Connect Africa was at the 3rd European Forum on Rural Development in Palencia, Spain from 29 March to 1 April 2011. With the main objective to exchange and analyse policy, insight and field experiences, the forum asked the question: \u201cWhat &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/?p=416\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=416"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1944,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416\/revisions\/1944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.connectafrica.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}