The 10^th GFRAS Annual Meeting will take place at Royalton Negril, Jamaica between September 30^th and October 4, 2019. The meeting is co-organized by the Caribbean Agricultural Extension Providers’ Network (CAEPNet); and Jamaica’s Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture, and Fisheries (MICAF), and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA).  The theme of focus for discussion at the Annual Meeting is the “Role of Rural Agricultural Services in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management.”

We clearly welcome the collaborative participation, dialogue and inter-continental experience sharing that this Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services Conference will bring us in October of this year.

As we seek to ventilate the issues surrounding climate change and the best fit mechanisms to combat its effects, it is clear that agencies to include public, private sector organizations and International Organizations among other technical support services have a critical role to play in partnership to ensure: establishment of preparedness measures both practical and institutional, guiding materials and other timely response mechanisms.

GFRAS was initiated in 2010 in Switzerland to provide advocacy and leadership in a pluralistic and demand-driven environment.  GFRAS seeks to enhance the performance of advisory services so that they can better serve farm families and rural producers.

The international organization helps regional actors to present their perspectives on the global development arena, as well as providing a mechanism for global perspectives to reach regional levels. It has been proven that this two-way flow strengthens the role of advisory services in agricultural development.

The functions of GFRAS are therefore to:

1. Provide a voice for advisory services within global policy dialogues and promoting improved investments in Rural Advisory Services
2. Supporting the development and synthesis of evidence-based approaches and policies for improving the effectiveness of Rural Advisory Services
3. Strengthening the capacity of actors and for Rural Advisory Services through facilitating interaction and networking.

The GFRAS Structure reaches smallholder farmers via the regional rural advisory services networks, which are made up of national-level platforms. This national-level platform helps to prioritize national-level issues and formulate demands to be taken to the regional and global levels.

GFRAS has regional networks and inter-continental connectivity and memberships in Africa, Asia, Pacific, Central Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.  Its activities include: Global Annual Extension Conference, pilot studies, data sharing on the status of extension services worldwide, works with initiatives to provide training materials, the provision of field testing evaluation toolkit among others.

GFRAS Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting contributes to addressing the three strategic fields identified in the GFRAS Strategic Framework, namely:

1. Advocacy and support for an enabling policy environment and appropriate investment in Rural Advisory Services
2. The professionalism of Rural Advisory Services
3. Facilitation and enhancement of effective and continuous knowledge generation and exchange.

For the10th Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services Annual Meeting, we are expecting over 140 participants from over 45 countries. The plenary sessions will include:

• Building Resilience in Communities
• Preparation, Mitigation, and Recovering from Climate Change Impacts and Disasters
• Role of RAS and Extension in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management