(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Three Ministries of Agriculture in Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are in line to receive assistance to develop information and communication strategies as a first step towards mainstreaming communications in the work of the Ministries of Agriculture in the Region.
While the Member States are yet to be finalised, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) funded project will be piloted in Member States where the organization currently has Technical Cooperation Projects. The Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication (CARIMAC) is the regional implementation agency for the Communication for Sustainable Development Initiative (CSDI), which is a global FAO initiative that is currently ongoing in other world regions.
Coordinator for the Caribbean component Dr Maria Protz of CARIMAC, said the project would be valuable in assisting the Region’s Ministries of Agriculture on the road towards bridging the information divide between Agriculture policy makers, the media and the public.
She revealed that the elements of the project to be implemented in the Caribbean were: mainstreaming communications strategies in Ministries of Agriculture; development training in communication for Extension Services Officers; training in communication for farmers; and publishing.
“The publishing component is very important. There is so much work that we do in the Caribbean but nobody knows about it because we don’t document it. This component of the project seeks to provide some assistance to people in agriculture to publish their work so that it can be widely distributed,” said Dr. Protz.
“People in agriculture want to develop partnerships with journalists and while this is important, it is no less important for Ministries of Agriculture to have communications specialists placed within the ministries to carry out some core functions. These functions include developing and implementing communications strategies, developing and delivering information products, translating policy for the purpose of effectively communicating same to stakeholders and networking with journalists. These are not functions to be carried out by the journalist,” Dr. Protz added.
She believes the FAO project provides an excellent opportunity for CARICOM Member States to fill an important gap in regional agriculture.
