CHALLENGE 

The world’s largest developing country, China, has achieved the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of eradicating extreme poverty (SDG 1) ten years ahead of schedule, making a great contribution to both SDG 1 and SDG 2 (zero hunger).With the rising demand for China’s vetted knowledge on food security, nutrition improvement, poverty reduction and rural trans- formation, knowledge sharing of China’s experiences and technologies has greatly expanded. 

However, the global COVID-19 pandemic severely limited China’s field-level engagement and knowledge exchange activities with other developing countries. Remote access to the successful experiences of Chinese institutions and smallholder farmers in the process of rural development was needed. 

TOWARDS A SOLUTION 

To address this challenge, the World Food Programme Centre of Excellence for Rural Transformation in China (WFP CoE China) built the WFP-China South- South Cooperation Cloud School. This virtual school meets the needs of people in the digital age for knowledge sharing and mutual learning. The Cloud School is concretizing WFP’s efforts to create a systematic e-learn- ing process through South-South cooperation. The school is being shaped into an online learning centre for in-depth, comprehensive and continuous courses on knowledge of WFP CoE China’s thematic areas and beyond. An open and inclusive space, the Cloud School offers training courses to participants at policy, institutional and grassroots level, reaching policymakers, technical practitioners and smallholder farmers alike. As all teaching and learning activities take place offline, the Cloud School allows for organized yet individually paced, self-learning curricula. 

While, this digital South-South cooperation exercise came about due to the impact of COVID-19, it was found that the offline nature of the school created an enabling environment for users to post queries, share solutions and connect with each other to discuss food security, nutrition improvement, poverty reduction and rural transformation issues. Various strategic and technical partners of WFP CoE China are engaged for long-term cooperation on the Cloud School. Government departments share policy references and universities and research institutes provide technology and knowledge. Strategic partners include the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Emergency Management and the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration. Technical Partners include the National Disaster Reduction Center of China, the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, the Henan University of Technology, the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and the Nanjing Agricultural University. 

Courses of the Cloud School primarily correspond to WFP CoE China’s four thematic areas and three value chain development areas, which are: 

— value chain development for smallholders;

— post-harvest loss management and food systems; 

— disaster risk reduction and climate change resilience;

— innovative poverty alleviation initiative;

— rice value chain development;

— Juncao(a new category of grasses)value chain development; and

— cassava value chain development. 

In alignment with WFP CoE China’s three-tier scope of work, the courses are tailored to the below three categories that meet different demands. 

— Policy in China: Introducing policy references to government officials, policymakers and senior agricultural experts in terms of food security, poverty reduction, green development and rural transformation in China. 

— Training of Trainers(TOT):Targeting know-how transfers by providing affordable and applicable technology courses to technical extension practitioners and trainers of farm workers, so as to reach a wider number of smallholders.

— Learning by doing: Showcasing practical skills and hands-on techniques to field practitioners and smallholder farmers. 

The Cloud School serves as a supply and demand-based digitalized tool that makes solutions and good practices accessible, affordable, available and transparent. Based on WFP CoE China’s practice in South-South and Triangular cooperation in previous years, knowledge sources are channelled properly from the demand side and better categorized in the knowledge hub.

In 2022, 85 courses will be uploaded to the Cloud School to benefit developing countries with knowledge sharing on food security, nutrition improvement, poverty reduction and rural transformation. In the long run, the Cloud School will seek continuous expansion of the curriculum, making it available in multiple languages, and will grow enrollment in its bid to become a flagship initiative. For its sustainability, the website is operated with steady funding from the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs and technical support from an Internet Information Center.