ILRI Comms project insight 2014: Supporting ILRI in East and Southeast

AsiaJules Mateo

CKM Team Meeting

Addis Ababa, 2-4 February 2015

About this project or activity

1. Why is it importantSince we are a relatively new ILRI regional unit (since February 2013), we want to increase our visibility, raise awareness and make our regional projects, research and activities accessible to our team, colleagues and the general public.

2. What is itILRI in East and Southeast Asia, comprising China and countries in Southeast Asia. We have offices in Hanoi, Vietnam (regional office), Beijing, China and Los Baños, Philippines.

3. What we want to achieveTo promote better lives through livestock through our work with our partners in the region through scientific research, capacity building and collaboration.

Our activities

1. What we did (blogs/news)ILRI Asia blog (since September 2014); regional website update (added some projects, changed the intro)

2. What we did (publications/online resources)Draft of regional brochure and Vietnam country flyer; added some presentations on CGSpace and Slideshare; more regional photos on ILRI Flickr album

3. What we did (CRPs, collaborative work)Humidtropics comm workshop for the Central Mekong flagship (Jan 2015) and blog piece on the NW Vietnam situational analysis (Sept 2014); One Health workshop for FSZ (Oct 2014)

4. What we planRegional website update (make it more visual and interactive); final copies of regional brochure and Vietnam country flyer and their corresponding CGSpace URIs; more ILRI Asia news; update our PigRISK wiki and EcoZD project site; a regional e-newsletter (similar to Humidtropics’ quarterly update); new/updated ILRI-CAAS brochure

What we learned

1. LearningIt takes time to prepare a regional strategy brochure, or any document for that matter, where there is so much coordination and collaboration involved. And where the protocol is not clear (e.g. who reviews/approves it?). A lot of time should be allotted for such task, especially for revisions.

2. LearningWe would like to have a more visual, interactive regional website.

3. LearningBecause CKM processes are centralized, the review/approval process can take time. My E&SE Asia teammates are wondering if a higher level of autonomy would be possible (e.g. Slideshare and CGSpace, layout, etc.) without compromising quality standards.

The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.

better lives through livestock

ilri.org