Annual Meeting 2005
The 41st Annual Meeting of
The Association for International Agriculture
and Rural Development
June 5-7, 2005
Speakers and Panelists
![]() Dr. Rivera specializes in agricultural knowledge and information systems. His field work in the developing countries has covered extension institutional reform, building linkages between research and extension, and developing institutional capacity. His current research and writings focus on contemporary strategies being employed internationally to reform and develop agricultural knowledge and information systems.
He has worked for the UNESCO, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and World Education Inc. He has consulted for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO/UN), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, as well as for the private sector. His consultancies include missions to Bolivia, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Jamaica, India, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Paraguay, the People's Republic of China, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zambia. He has served as either chief of party or team member in numerous project missions aimed at achieving policy and institutional goals to advance agricultural outreach extension services, including development of U.S. and international extension staff. |
In 1985 he initiated a program Center for International Extension Development (CIED), at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). The Center promoted extension research among MS and Ph.D graduate students and brought to campus over 65 prominent scholars and practitioners to UMCP to speak on Agricultural Extension Worldwide.
Dr. Rivera has produced two policy papers for the FAO/UN on "Agricultural and Rural Extension: Options for Institutional Reform in the Developing Countries" (2002) and "Agricultural Extension, Rural Development and the Food Security Challenge" (2003). Both are available electronically (http://www.fao.org). A 2003 compilation for the World Bank on "Extension Reform for Rural Development" is available online (http://www.worldbank.org) and was published in a limited-edition hardcopy in 2005. Also in 2005, the FAO is scheduled to publish his work on "Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems for Rural Development: a Comparative Review of Ten Country Case Studies on AKIS/RD." The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, Washington, DC) contracted with him in 2004 to produce a discussion paper on "Regional Policy Networks: IFPRI'S Experience with Decentralization". He recently completed a paper with Gary Alex, James Hanson, and Regina Birner on "The Evolution and Promise of Agricultural Knowledge Systems and Frameworks". IFPRI has invited him to be the external reviewer for their official capacity development paper. The UK Department for International Development (DfID) has contracted with him to produce their sourcebook information on rural livelihoods. |