Online communities of practice empowering members to realize climate-smart agriculture in developing countries

Abstract

Communities of practice are networks where individuals share the same interest and the will to learn together on the same domain through regular communication. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has facilitated and provided online learning opportunities to 12 climate-related communities since 2012. Their objective is to speed up knowledge-sharing, innovation and the uptake of sustainable, climate-smart agricultural practices. Based on members’ feedback and online monitoring results, the structured learning events and messages in the communities’ online fora (email-based discussion fora, webinar platform and a group on social media) between 12,500 members have helped the members and their colleagues and organizations to solve problems related to climate and food security. To allow development organizations to reply to the needs of practitioners and the challenges that climate change poses to food security and rural development in a timely manner, stakeholder involvement and the “crowd-sourcing” of information is vital. The use of various online fora and platforms, as well as different methods for facilitating communities’ exchanges, has revealed several points that educator designing and conducting e-learning could benefit from, allowing for more efficient learning opportunities as a contribution to sustainable transformation of societies. In this chapter, an analysis of the bottlenecks and possibilities of how online communities could benefit a larger group of stakeholders is performed, and the capacity development methods improved for stronger impact are outlined. This chapter also introduces the challenges seen in implementing the concept of online communities of practice, as well as related capacity development methods, outlining technical and non-technical components. Finally, the elements that should be considered, for successfully using online fora for more efficient social learning, are listed.