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Options for Action | 257

Box 6-13. The Challenge Programs in the CGIAR

Recently the CGIAR (Consultative Group in International Ag­ricultural  Research) system launched challenge programs (CPs), with a double objective of encouraging the centers to work better together and mobilizing other research institutions around common development objectives. Four pilot CPs have been started. Although the networking role of this approach has already proved extremely successful, these programs are still too young to show any real impact on resource-poor farm­ers in developing countries. CPs have significantly increased the overall budget of the CGIAR and mobilized scientists and institutions that were not previously working on development issues. The CPs were criticized for not being sufficiently in­clusive of national programs and development stakeholders. Additional CPs, or similar types of collective actions, could be launched, involving partners from NAE and developing coun­tries together. Oriented towards farmers and building practical solutions, these new collective actions may address:
•   The forecasted impact of climate change on crop and animal productions in poor countries;
•   The forecasted reduction of renewable and nonrenew-able resources, mostly water and fossil energy, and the potential of diversity and diversification;
•   The relation between new, emerging illness in poor countries and agricultural development;
•   The growing urbanization and the role for agricul­tural intensification in favorable and non favorable environments;
•   The potential conflicts in land use arising, for example, between biofuels and food, between exports and do­mestic consumption; the development of stronger food supply chains and more efficiently functioning market­ing arrangements; and
•   The development of rural innovation and raising rural incomes.

members from the other CG centers or NARS—includ­ing universities—private sector and the NGOs.
•     Working on common research issues, among them food diversification and its role in reducing malnutrition, plant adaptation to climate change, or more specifically plant tolerance to drought and other biotic and abiotic stresses, sustainable farming systems and practices to provide niche products for solvent markets and staples for local markets, relying on local resources and ecosys­tem services, developing new environmentally friendly agricultural  technologies,   developing  more   effective post harvesting market arrangements; and
•     Ensuring that international funding for AKST does not perpetuate donor dependence and undermine efforts to develop domestic political support for sustainable fund­ing, especially for the smallholder sector.

Making international agricultural research work better for the poor implies developing well targeted research activities,

 

but this research must, more so than in the past, be able to promote appropriate research carried out in NAE countries. Hence a major question for the CGIAR is how to optimize this evolution, or how to initiate, sustain and mobilize ap­propriate research in NAE that contributes to the interna­tional efforts of the CGIAR centers, which are now trying to orchestrate and strengthen the sustainable cooperative capacity of NARS—including universities—in developing countries.
     This new way of working can mark a shift in how re­search for development activities is designed, monitored and evaluated in CGIAR centers and NAE country institutions altogether. All contributors, from upstream science to de­livery systems and impact assessment must work effectively together from day one to ensure that the expected outcomes and impacts on food security and poverty alleviation are ori­ented to poor communities, farmers and other relevant food system actors with less voice and that practical solutions are developed that can be realized and sustained for generations to come.

The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). GFAR is a joint undertaking of all agricultural research stakehold­ers at the global level built through a bottom-up process from the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) through sub-Regional and Regional Fora (SRF/RF) in the different geographical regions of the world. The GFAR goals are to:
•     Facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge in all agricultural research sectors: crop and animal production,  fisheries,  forestry  and natural  resources management;
•     Promote the integration of NARS from the south and enhance their capacity to produce and transfer technol­ogy that responds to users' needs;
•     Foster cost-effective, collaborative partnerships among the stakeholders in agricultural research and sustainable development;
•     Facilitate the participation of all stakeholders in the for­mulation of a truly global framework for development-oriented agricultural research; and
•     Increase awareness among policymakers and donors of the need for long-term commitment to and investment in, agricultural research.

In the NAE region, the stakeholders involved in Agriculture Research for Development (ARD) have organized them­selves in different ways:
•     In Europe, EFARD18 provides a platform for strategic dialogue among European stakeholder groups in order to promote research partnerships between European and

18 EFARD, the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development, represents the various stakeholders through Na­tional Fora on ARD in European Union (EU) Member States and applicant countries, as well as Norway and Switzerland. EFARD's mission is to strengthen the contribution of Euro­pean ARD to three major worldwide challenges: (1) alleviating poverty and hunger, (2) achieving food security, and (3) assur­ing sustainable development.

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