involving networks of NAE institutions and AKST institutions in developing countries in order to address the issues of generating, providing access to and promoting the uptake of AKST to address the IAASTD question. In the medium term the results from such pilots could be scaled up and outwards to regional level such as those visualized in the FAAP and the BASIC program aimed at Building African Scientific and Institutional Capacity (FARA/ANAFE, 2005).
The contribution of NAE to the CGIAR
Guided by NAE countries and the Green Revolution concept as the general horizon for research in the 1960s, the CGIAR agenda initially focused on food supply, mostly through the breeding of high yielding cultivars that were highly responsive to agrochemical inputs and could express their full potential only when provided with sufficient fertilizer and water. Because 70% of the poor are living in rural areas, reducing poverty in developing countries will require that more food be produced by the poor and thus should consider the present context of their socioeconomic and ecological environments (It will also be necessary to reduce poverty among the growing numbers of urban poor). As poor farmers have limited access to inputs, sustainable improvements of their farming systems and family incomes will be achieved (a "doubly Green Revolution") through (1) better use of locally available resources like biological diversity, ecosystem services and diversification of income-generating products, (2) increased access to credit, agricultural inputs as well as empowerment through training and capacity building in ways that do not jeopardize the livelihood of the poor, (3) decreased food costs, especially of staples, (4) overall economic development in nonagricultural sectors that stimulates the agricultural sector, or (5) some combination of these. Without question, there have been important contributions such as new maize, cassava and rice varieties. However, the CGIAR/NARS relationships have, for some time, been "festering" (Eicher, 2001) and there exists a great challenge for the CGIAR to build genuine partnerships with developing-country NARS (World Bank, 2004).
Despite the fact that NAE countries have the major part of the AKST resources of the world, their research and educational agendas scarcely consider major technological spillovers and the ecological, social and economic footprints produced by agrifood systems with regard to development and sustainability goals. This suggests a strong awareness effort is required to encourage politicians to accept that poverty will not disappear without a strong financial commitment of NAE AKST to agricultural development. This must be based on a wide societal and global view about the role of agrifood systems and the scope of AKST and on a strong, concerted research and educational effort to find and implement solutions that are well adapted to the conditions of the poor and take into account the many impacts of technological change.
The CGIAR centers have a unique position and enormous challenges. Taking the relatively low proportion of world R&D resources CGIAR centers directly use, even if it were substantially increased, the most effective option to use these resources is as a mediator affecting and utilizing NAE AKST, thereby simultaneously supporting the human and organizational capacity building in developing country |
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NARS, including universities. CGIAR centers, which are research organizations, could evolve to assume an additional role as facilitators or honest brokers to support development networks that will bring together the key decision makers at different levels of public and private AKST organizations. The different stakeholders from national and regional systems include research, education, development, socioeconomic actors, including farmers' organizations, local and national authorities, NGOs and civil society as well as the best and most useful parts of the upstream science conducted in and outside the NAE countries. Summing up, partners from the NAE countries can help the CGIAR better contribute to the IAASTD agenda by:
• Raising public awareness (particularly among youth, politicians, donors) and strong financial support of both development and sustainability goals and the role of research, education and innovation to address the issues (such as the Davos Economic Forum that is organized every year. "Research for Development [RforD]", under CGIAR coordination, can have an annual forum putting RforD high in the news on a regular basis);
• Including a global perspective on agriculture and food systems as part of common basic education of all agricultural, food and environmental university programs utilizing expertise from developed and developing countries mediated by the CGIAR system: (1) encouraging youth in industrialized countries to work in agricultural research and for developing countries; from regular lecture programs in high schools and universities to increasing attractive scholarship and fellowship programs to encourage young scientists to do their thesis or post-doctorate work in developing countries; (2) encouraging CG scientists to co-advise more students in NAE institutions and even participate in their teaching programs, while encouraging university personnel to participate more fully in the design and implementation of CGIAR activities;
• Allocating special financial resources to the intensification of agricultural education and knowledge systems in developing countries;
• Working together to build a concerted, global effort for training and capacity building in poor countries; these programs can aim to strengthen the capacity of NARS (including universities) to undertake collaborative scientific research and educational activities to realize development and sustainability goals; this could include more targeted training with policy makers, intensified training partnerships of CGIAR centers with local universities and recognizing the importance of informal learning which takes place in the course of joint activities, seminars and other events (Stern et al., 2006);
• Developing more efficient ways to group experts, intermediaries and end-users in different regions, so more aid money goes directly to improvement rather than administration; and
• Continuing work on targeted research programs that have a strong impact on development and sustainability goals (for e.g., challenge programs (Box 6-13) and which call for new patterns of interaction; this leads to the development of wider networks and consortia with |