under the Multi-Country Agricultural Productivity Program (MAPP) funded by the World Bank, supports this research orientation coordinated by CORAF/WECARD (West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development) and FARA.

NEPAD adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) to provide a strategic framework for agriculture reforms and investments for sustained development. CAADP’s objective is 7% annual growth through the year 2015. Achieving this will require reforms to improve the policy and institutional environment of the agricultural sector, including greater efficiency in public expenditures for rural infrastructure and a significant increase in their budgets.

African agricultural research organizations like FARA work in a global network. FARA is the technical arm for NEPAD and conducts research on development strategies. This work requires coordinating the donor-supported activities of NARS by the CGIAR, by northern research institutions and universities, and by subregional bodies—ASARECA for East Africa, CORAF/WECARD for West and Central Africa and SADC Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate for southern Africa.

Inadequate coordination and planning of regional and national agricultural research and development are endemic in SSA (IAC, 2004). Synergies have not been exploited because of absent or weak links among national and regional research institutions and universities. In most cases, these institutions compete for funds and serve similar audiences. Collaboration needs to improve significantly among these institutions to take full advantage of the benefits from cooperation.

3.2.2.3 International actors and initiatives
Most of the international support for agriculture research in SSA has come from research institutions and specialized universities from former colonial countries rather than from the CGIAR. After independence in the 1960s, former colonial research stations in SSA devolved and northern research institutions and universities, such as the French Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) and Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), initiated new partnerships with NARS. They focused on structured activities and predominantly invested in building national capacity.

From this background, collaborative planning, managing and training in regional research activities have emerged. French research institutions are actively engaged in combining specific NARS and northern agricultural and development programs with regional and international activities developed by International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) under the recently launched Challenge Programs coordinated by the CGIAR. In addition to creating a national research agency to fund domestic research, in 2005 France established the Inter-institutions and Universities Agency for Research on Development (AIRD), which operate through competitive bidding. Their goal is to increase research on development issues in collaboration with NARS, research institutions in France and universities in the South.

The CGIAR was created in 1971 to mobilize agricultural science institutions to reduce poverty, foster human

well-being, promote agricultural growth and protect the environment. CGIAR comprises a strategic alliance of international and regional organizations and private foundations. Some recent examples of international agricultural research in SSA are drought-tolerant maize, the Africa Rice Center (WARDA) Nerica varieties, improved sorghum varieties (ICRISAT), improved tilapia for integrated aquacultureagriculture (IITA), vitamin A-rich sweet potato (CIP), biological control of the cassava mealy bug, disease-resistant cassava varieties (CIAT/IITA), agroforestry (ICRAF) and control of trypanosomiasis in cattle (ILRI). Collaboration between the CGIAR and NARS can pose questions regarding ownership of research products.

By 2004, a small number of successful projects (5% of total CGIAR-NARS research investments in SSA), had recovered the cumulative 35-year investment of these institutions. Beyond 2004 the same successful projects could generate more than US$1.5 in benefits for every dollar invested (CGIAR Science Council, 2004).

Although CGIAR was behind the Green Revolution in Asia, it has not been able to achieve similar productivity increases in SSA. The causes are numerous, ranging from low use of irrigated farming, poor rural infrastructure, and inadequate local and regional markets. Despite some valuable achievements such as alley cropping, developed by ICRAF, and an agricultural research method developed by IITA, NARS remain relatively weak. Until the late 1980s, IARCs predominantly researched commodities that were not critical in SSA; they paid little attention to cassava, other roots and tubers, and pearl millet or to natural resource management (Diouf, 1989). Progress has been made but a number of donors question CGIAR’s ability to adapt to the needs of NARS and to help in designing sustainable cropping systems, a cornerstone of rural development in SSA (Dore et al., 2006).

In response to criticism, the CGIAR established two task forces in 2003 to examine the program and structure of the CGIAR in Africa. They reported that the CGIAR lacked a vision in SSA, that their activities were not coordinated, and that competition for collaborators overburdened the NARS. Suggestions were made to consolidate IARC activities using a corporate governance model. Intermediary steps to unify include consolidating activities of centers and focusing on two subregional plans and coordinating their implementation through two subregional entities: one for West and central Africa, and the other for eastern and southern Africa.

In 2003, the CGIAR budget for SSA was US$173.3 million, with approximately 90% allocated to four centers in SSA: ICRAF, IITA, ILRI and WARDA. Together these four centers represent slightly over half of the CGIAR’s total annual expenditure. The investment of CGIAR in SSA has remained roughly the same since the late 1990s, but it is expected to increase as a result of the Challenge Program, and the development of the two regional plans.

The Challenge Programs emphasize stronger North– South and South–South partnerships. The Challenge Program on Water for Food (CPWF) aims to increase water use in agriculture to improve livelihoods and to provide water for other users. The program is hosted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and administrated by