The independent forward-looking review of GFAR, commissioned by the EU in 2017-8 concluded that: “GFAR, as a global networking organization, is doing what it is supposed to do: catalyzing transformative change in diverse corners of the global Agri-Food Research and Innovation System”. The review showed clearly that impacts from GFAR Collective Actions can be seen right through to changes in institutions and individuals themselves, their knowledge, skills, capacities and behaviors, “creating conditions for knowledge sharing and dialogues leading to multi-stakeholder partnerships...for bringing technologies and innovation to scale and to render Agri-Food and Nutrition Systems more inclusive and more sustainable."

Among its recommendations for improvement, the review adressed GFAR's internal capacity to harvest information on outcomes of Collective Actions and their potential for transformative impact. The reviewers urged that operational management be improved and that a learning culture be developed among Partners. GFAR Secretariat should provide them with tools and processes to aid in effectively monitoring and evaluating the outputs and outcomes of Collective Actions, and foster mentoring and learning feedback loops. Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) mechanisms and flows will aid in informing and engaging facilitating agencies and strategic partners on GFAR’s distinct value and what it takes to catalyze transformative change in agri-food research and innovation systems, thus attracting pledges of long-term support.

This Key Focus Area includes the following GFAR Collective Actions set out together by Partners in GFAR and endorsed by the GFAR Steering Committee for future development:

Celebrating Collective Success

GFAR is now required to become both a common hub for partnership and a cross-institutional learning environment for Partners in GFAR. As an open and inclusive partnership, GFAR is uniquely placed to provide the space and mechanism for knowledge sharing to support the development of partnership between very diverse actors and to share learning from experiences, to enable the ready transfer of knowledge to millions of stakeholders around the world.

This Collective Action consists in creating a GFAR directory of Partners’ capabilities and Partners’ stories of Collective Actions and learning derived from these. The expected output is an online database of stories which will be a means for all Partners to monitor how GFAR mobilizes Partners and how Partners' knowledge is being shared, as well as to avoid duplicating efforts or repeating mistakes.