The new BELLA Ideathon II, entitled "Innovation of Agrifood Systems in Central America and the Caribbean" starts this Thursday, February 29, to stimulate the collaborative generation of ideas and make the agrifood systems of Central America and the Caribbean more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable. The event will begin at 15h GMT (9h from Mexico, 10h from Colombia, 12h from Brazil, Argentina and Chile) and will be broadcast live on the RedCLARA's YouTube channel.
The launch will take place in a webinar led by authorities and representatives of the organizing institutions: the Director of Digital Agriculture of Information and Communication of IICA, Emmanuel Picado; the Head of International Relations of GÉANT, Tom Fryer; the Science and Innovation Specialist of FAO, Juan Ochoa; the Inclusive Connectivity Advisor of GIZ, Leonel Tapia; the Project Manager of ESA, Itziar Alonso; the Senior Advisor (Web3 & DLT) of IDB LAB of the Inter-American Development Bank, Albi Rodriguez, and the Executive Director of RedCLARA, Luis Eliécer Cadenas. The agenda will also include the participation of the Ambassador of the European Union to El Salvador and to SICA, Francois Roudié, who will speak about addressing the European Green Pact, a key issue in the development of the Ideathon.
The triggering question proposed for the event, which will take place from February 29 to March 11, is how to use advanced technologies of digital transformation (IoT, AI, advanced computing, 5G, Industry 4.0, Big Data, Web 3.0 and others) to transform agri-food systems and make them more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable in the region? In the search for this answer, the Ideathon, which will be held virtually, will have synchronous and asynchronous sessions that will allow the development of an agenda with training and mentoring spaces for participants and spaces for the construction of the final ideas, as well as simultaneous activities at the time of the opening and closing.
In addition to the presentation of the Challenges, the launch session will announce the complete agenda, the methodology, and the composition of the 12 working groups, composed of 125 experts from different sectors of the digital ecosystem, including universities, research centers, specialized international organizations, large research infrastructures, among others, from 28 different countries. From Latin America and the Caribbean, experts from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Grenada will participate; from North America, the United States; from Europe, Italy and the Netherlands; from Asia, India; and Africa, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Gambia, Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
According to Laura Castellana, RedCLARA's Academic Projects Coordinator, the expectations of the Organizing Committee´s Expectation were far exceeded. “We are about to start with great joy and gratitude for the wide call we had with participants from very important organizations. There will be intense days of developing these ideas, which will also be accompanied by an agenda of mentoring, talks, and conferences to build relationships and create improvement options for improving the agri-food systems of this region.”
The Ideathon is organized by RedCLARA, the BELLA II project, and the European Union, with the support of FAO, GIZ, IICA, LACNET, GÉANT, and ESA.
For more information, please visit https://www.bella-programme.eu/index.php/es/user-events/bella-ideathon-innovation-of-agrifood-systems-in-central-america
