The NAAAN Secretariat attended and participated in the 2022 Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) Annual Meeting in Santiago, Chile in October. As the newest network member, this was the first year that the NAAAN formally participated in the annual meeting.
Secretariat members shared about recent work the NAAAN has been doing, including the “Feeding North America through Agricultural Extension” paper and recent country convenings.
This year’s meeting focused on nutrition-sensitive extension, with field trips to farms in the area to learn about rural advisory programs and practices.
In addition to panels and breakout groups about policy and advocacy, capacities, and women and youth, the theme of this year’s meeting was highlighted through several keynote addresses as well. Khin Mar Cho, Ph.D., Julio Berdegué, Cesar Sotomayor, and Octavio Sotomayor all presented Keynote addresses.
RELASER, the Latin American network for rural extension, hosted the event in partnership with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), GFRAS, the University of Chile, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), and Ministry of Agriculture of Chile. In addition to a wide representation of participants across the Americas, many people joined from Europe and Asia as well. GFRAS network members across the globe also had the opportunity to tune into sessions through a livestream.
This was a wonderful opportunity for the Secretariat to connect and reconnect with global colleagues and to share more about the work of the North American network. The NAAAN looks forward to continued collaboration in the months to come.
