Programme title

Institution/organization

Improving the operation of canal irrigation systems

Contact person
Thierry Facon - Regional Water Management Officer

Contact person's address
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP)
39 Phra Atit Road
Bangkok 10200
Thailand

Contact person's Telephone/Fax
Tel +662-697 4156 Fax +662-697 4445

Contact person's E-mail
[email protected]

Type of programme
Long distance learning

Frequency of programme
Available at all times

Programme's main focus
Fostering of institutional capacity building.
Enhancement of the capabilities of water professionals.

Programme prospectus
This training programme is an update of the audiovisual presentation published by the Economic Development Institute (now known as the World Bank Institute) and the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank in 1988. The programme has been widely used internationally to present new alternatives for the design of new schemes or the modernization of existing schemes and has had a significant impact on the irrigation modernization programmes of countries such as Mexico or Turkey. In order to respond to a continuing demand for programme materials, FAO has updated the programme and converted it to a new format that takes advantage of the development in information technology to make it easy to procure and use individually or in lectures and to disseminate to the widest possible audience. The World Bank kindly agreed to make the original programme available for FAO to further develop, update and disseminate.

This programme is aimed at a broad audience of planners, designers, managers, professors, lecturers and students. It is hoped that it will serve as a basis for the fruitful exchange of ideas and experience across borders and more generally contribute to the rapid dissemination of new knowledge, which is needed for the modernization of the irrigation sector.

The programme may be consulted and downloaded free of charge from the website. The programme will also be distributed on CD-ROM and published as a hard copy publication to satisfy the requirements of and for the convenience of, various categories of users.

Target group
Trainers, system managers and operators, designers, lecturers at engineering faculties, engineers in consulting firms and decision-makers at irrigation agencies.

Programme www
http://www.watercontrol.org/
training/improve/contents.htm

Dates/duration
Available all the time

Language
English

Partners
World Bank

FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

Acronym
FAO-RAPG

Country
Thailand

Address
Maliwan Masion
Phra Atit Road
Bangkok 10200
Thailand

Tel +662-697 4000

Fax +662-697 4445

E-mail
[email protected]

Institute/organization www
http://www.fao.or.th/

Brief description of institution/organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is the largest specialized agency in the United Nations system and the lead agency for agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development in the world. It has 183 member nations, plus a member organization, the European Union. FAO was founded in 1945 with a mandate to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living, to improve agricultural productivity and to better the conditions of rural populations.

The FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP) was opened in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 1947. A first formal step leading to the establishment of FAO Regional Offices was taken by the FAO Council in 1947, asking the Director-General to prepare plans for the creation of branch offices in four geographical regions, namely Latin America, Europe, the Near East and Asia.

Today 40 countries are members of RAP. The region accounts for over 57 percent of the world population and 73 percent of the world's farming households. Therefore, this region is the most important region in the world from the viewpoint of food security, nutrition, agriculture and rural development.

With the implementation of the decentralization policy, a Sub-Regional Office for the Pacific Islands was established in 1996 in Apia, Samoa. Some 175 staff of the Regional and Sub-Regional Offices work together to alleviate poverty and hunger in the region by promoting food security and access of all people at all times to the food they need for an active and healthy life.