Lazos: Conéctate Rural

#ConectateRural Ties is a digital initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), created to promote spaces for dialogue around issues surrounding the four aspirations of FAO - better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life - with a focus on the connection between actors and institutions, on the exchange of good practices, on the transfer of experiences, on the promotion of the generation of knowledge and on the visibility of rural work.

Ties includes: A) An App: available for download on IOS and available on Android, it is a social network that functions as a knowledge platform that hosts technical communities. Today it has more than +600 users and 7 Latin American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru). In 2023, Lazos was recognized by the FAO as an inspiring experience in the region for the transformation of agri-food systems. B) A platform: encodes and stores application content as well as usage data to generate reports. C) Training actions for digital inclusion: focus on digital literacy, taking into account that the lack of digital education has negative consequences on the well-being, resilience and economic opportunities of rural populations.

For FAO, information is a priority means to achieve rural development and food and nutritional security in the region. Digital tools are essential to face the task of managing and disseminating information, in order to mitigate and create resilience in an environment of climatic, social and environmental challenges. In addition, digital tools can reduce the physical distance between countries, communities and people, promoting the exchange of information and the joining of efforts to build more sustainable and resilient value chains.

In this context, the +Algodón Project has the commitment and challenge of building and expanding networks through LAZOS, promoting the sustainability of this digital initiative, developed from a joint effort with the Federal University of Santa Maria-RS, Brazil , with contributions from partner countries of our Trilateral South-South Cooperation (FAO/IBA/ABC). Lazos is an open-use digital technology that is available for FAO internal and external projects and initiatives.

Lazos was developed within the framework of +Cotton, a project created to promote the sustainable development of the cotton chain in the region, the Government of Brazil, through the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ABC/MRE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and seven partner countries - Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Haiti, Paraguay and Peru.