At its meeting in Cairo, the Global Forum Steering Committee (GF-SC) decided to establish a Secretariat for the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and asked the World Bank/ESDAR to host the Secretariat in Washington.
- what are the different possible types of global partnerships, initiatives, actions or
programs that can be promoted;
- what are the types of decentralized initiatives which can qualify to build global
partnerships and global actions;
- what kind of tools and methods can allow ¿pulling together and transforming
decentralized initiatives into global initiatives using a bottom-up approach¿ (Dr R S
Paroda).
This paper addresses these three questions and, for each of the five priority areas for
Contents: Annex 1: Terms of reference for GFAR Review Panel. Annex 2: The GFAR Chart. Annex 3: The seven stakeholders of GFAR. Annex 4: Form for GFAR Panel Review Questionnaire. Annex 5: GFAR Global Vision Statement. Annex 6: Set of summary tables showing activities in GFAR action plan by stakeholders. Annex 7: Diagram of EGFAR/RAIS/NAIS Information /Knowledge systems. Annex 8: Case study of AARINENA Regional Forum. Annex 9: Case study of WECARD/CORAF. Annex 10: Financial support from GFAR/NARS Secretariat to R/SR Fora, as of 1st June 2000.
This report represents the first external review of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research
(GFAR), undertaken by a panel of experts commissioned by the GFAR Steering Committee
(GFAR-SC). The panel was requested to assess GFAR¿s progress to date and make
recommendations for future direction.¿
¿The review focused on the concept of GFAR; its organisational structure, governance and operating
procedures; the roles of its stakeholders; approaches to developing a sustainable funding strategy; the
Business Plan and priorities for future action
During 2004 GFAR made steady overall progress, passing several important landmarks. Conspicuous among these landmarks was completion of the Forum¿s 10-Year Strategy for 2004-2013 and its spearhead in the near term, a rolling Business Plan for 2004-2006.
This Annual Report for 2004 contains, in addition to a round-up of Stakeholder Highlights, a specially commissioned theme feature focusing on one of the four priorities flagged in the Strategy: collaborative research partnerships.
In this document, we highlight the activities undertaken by the GFAR family during
the year 2003, especially our global partnership programmes and the work of the five
regional fora and the GFAR Secretariat
"The discussions focused on an interrelated sets of issues at the global level:
- Changes in poverty: nature, causes, and dynamics.
- New constraints on productivity: agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
- New threats to sustainability of agroecosystems and their NR context.
The intent was to identify topics or issues of importance, not yet the object of enough CGIAR research, that might form part of the CGIAR's agenda."
It seems that most if not all of us in the Asia Panel agreed about the centrality of poverty reduction to the mission of the CGIAR.¿
Other arguments: Productivity, sustainability, institutional sustainability of innovation systems and international competitiveness.
"In Week 1 we were to discuss (1) changes in poverty: its causes, nature and dynamics, (2) new constraints on productivity in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, and (3) new threats to sustainability of agro-ecosystems and their natural resource context, all of this being done to arrive at a prioritized list of challenges within the CGIAR mandate and comparative advantage."
Terms of Reference for the Second GFAR External Evaluation