1. Training Of Trainers at The Kenya School Of Monetary Studies Nairobi (28 th - 30 th March 2011)

2. Defining needs and requirements: building consensus Online and face to face consultations between RAILS focal persons, and stakeholders RAILS Taskforce meeting in December 2008 in Accra SROs and NARS expectations expressed: be linked to existing systems ; TRAINING needed to ensure proper operation of the system Be simple and easy to use End users should be able to create and manage OWN websites Create a unique pool of information on African agriculture, while users will be interlinked through a social network

3. Testing the prototype System was developed based on defined specifications Presented to FARA, SROs and some NARS in April 2009 in Bonn Exposed to wider group of stakeholders in May 2009 System fine tuned based on comments

4. Launching the platform eRAILS was launched in July 2009 in Accra http://www.erails.net. http://www.erails.net 40 participants from 32 countries participated Launching ceremony chaired by FARA ED, Dr Monty Jones Initial hands on session was organized

5. Some eRAILS Features Decentralized Content management system (CMS) Clear categorization of contents: thematic websites Easiness of creation of websites (5 min.) Focus on content and not on technology Easy integration of external web-resources Powerful meta-search engine: simultaneous search of all portals, websites and related external web-resources Tool-box for interaction Etc.

6. eRAILS Platform The African Portal on Agriculture An online platform for communication, content mobilization, knowledge sharing at various levels: National Sub regional Regional International http://www.erails.net