Development Aspects Impressum Editors

Online training management system (international level)

Information and communications technology (ICT) is recognized as a strategic en- abler in the process of developing innovative solutions to address problems such as wastewater use in agriculture (Sewilam and Alaerts, 2012). Therefore UNW-DPC has developed the UN-Water Activity Information System Plus (UNW-AIS+) as an integrated online tool for storing, updating and sharing information (web-based content, documents and multimedia) on existing water-related projects, eTraining tools and other activities carried out by UN-Water members, partners and associ- ated programmes.

UNW-AIS+ was used as the official communication and knowledge-sharing platform for this project. A special module for safe wastewater use in agriculture has been developed to enable the involved individuals and organizations to:

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  Share knowledge and best practices by providing the user with background information on the topic, related materials to the training workshops, relevant publications, guidelines for safe wastewater use, national reports, promotion ma- terials and information about the next events
  
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  Receive online training (figure 4) on specific topics through online lectures and video illustration materials of specific processes
  

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  Communicate online through forums and other social communication channels
  

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  Access different projects’ databases which provide the user with information on the project title, location, partner organizations, focus area, contents of the project and project status
  

Figure 4: Example of the online trainings offered by UNW-AIS+

5. The way forward

In the course of Stage I of this project, a total of five regional training activities will be organized in Africa, Asia and Latin America to focus on, and cater to, the clustered regional capacity needs. Once the regional training activities are com- pleted, the individuals will be given time to make use of the gained knowledge and enhance the management of wastewater use in agriculture in their countries. An international call for success stories for safe wastewater use in agriculture will be published as part of the follow-up, and the best practice teams will be selected to participate in the final international wrap-up conference, which will be held in Iran in May 2013. The selected case studies will also be disseminated at the inter- national level.

The second stage of this project will be devoted to improving system perfor- mance by providing the conditions for a comprehensive and effective implementa- tion of projects and programmes related to safe wastewater use in agriculture. An assessment will be carried out to identify the organizational and system barriers that may prevent the trained individuals from making best use of their new capaci- ties. The training for the second stage will focus more on the policies, strategies, laws and regulations, relationships, interdependences and interactions among con- cerned stakeholders.
It is clear from this discussion that developing the capacities of individuals and organizations on safe wastewater use in agriculture enables the optimum use of wastewater as an economical, valuable source of water, avoids its negative envi- ronmental impacts and in turn contributes to the global green economy efforts.