National Agricultural Policy Center (NAPC) Rural Development Division (RDD)

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National Agricultural Policy Center (NAPC)Rural
Development Division (RDD)
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Presentation Structure

• RDD concept, roles, objectives and composition
• RDD workplan and main activities
• The workplan adjustment reasons and
  modifications
• Carried out and currently processed activities
• Issue of concern.

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What is RDD

• NAPC Division
• RDD Mission
• Focus on people livelihood
• rural-other
  sectors relations.
• RDD Approach
• Sustainable
  Livelihoods (DFID)
• analyzing assets
  (pentagon capital)
• analyzing
  people strategies.

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RDD Members and Topics

• Samira Al-Zoughbi rural poverty and inequality
  in rural areas
• Wedad Shhadeh migration and rural-urban
  relationships
• Raid Hamzeh non-farm activities in rural areas
• Firas Yassin natural resources and the
  environment
• Firas Haydar Infrastructure and other
  investments
• Samira Subh womens role in agriculture and
  related gender issues
• Abeer Manla Hasan sustainable livelihood
  approach to rural development.

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2005 RDD Workplan

• Supervision of Prof. Donato Romano
• Objectives
• Organizing the RDD and start its activities
• Developing staff skills, enhancing their
  competence and knowledge, facilitating the
  formation of a homogeneous research team
• Carry out the institutional and research
  activities pertaining to RDD as per the NAPC 2005
  workplan.

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Skills Development Activities

• Personal readings
• Synthesizing selected readings
• Reconstituting the research process behind a
  paper
• Evaluating Internet resources for research
  purposes
• Drafting of policy notes, briefs and review
  papers
• Personal work program
• Organization and conduct of research work.

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Outputs of Personal Readings

• one each member for a total of
• 7 Review Papers, due by February 2005
• 7 internal Seminars, due in March 2005
• 7 Rural Development Briefs, due by March 2005
• 7 Policy Briefs, due by April 2005
• Plus
• 1 or more Policy Notes, due by May 2005.

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Research and Institutional Activities

• Periodic reports (no specialized periodic
  reports)
• SOFAS The State of Food and Agriculture in
  Syria, 2006
• SAS-MTR Mid-term Review of the Syrian
  Agriculture Strategy, 2005.
• Thematic studies
• Non-Agricultural Activities in Rural Areas and
  their Impact on Agriculture, May 2005
• Poverty and Migration Trends in Rural Areas
  Determinants, Indicators and Policies, September
  2005
• Farming Systems Study individual Working Papers.
  

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Workplan Adjustments

• Recognizing time needs and other contraints, the
  following adjustments have been agreed
• Non-Agricultural Activities in Rural Areas and
  their Impact on Agriculture, Sep 2005
• Poverty and Migration Trends in Rural Areas
  Determinants, Indicators and Policies, 2006
• 1 rural development briefs, 1 policy briefs and 1
  policy note comparative review from FS study

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Activities Carried Out

• Finalization of the FSS individual reports
• Evaluation of internet resources for research
  purposes
• Outline and drafting of review papers
• Four internal seminars of the review papers March
  2005, the rest three will be presented during
  next September.

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The Current Processing Activities

• SAS-MTR the mid-term review of the Syrian
  Agriculture Strategy
• Completion and finalizing the review papers
• Preparing for the national workshop, Jun 2005
  preliminary discussion of the SAS-MTR
• Publishing the Farming System individual reports.

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Issue of Concern

• Weak internet connections
• Lack of related study and data for Syrian context
  for most RDDs topics
• Insufficient data for SAS and the needs for more
  efficient connection with MAAR.

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Thank you for your attention