Links
- Agropolis International
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Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
CGIAR website
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Forum mondial de la recherche agricole
Le site du GFAR
Montpellier hosts the 1st Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD)
23/03/2010 - Article
The 1st Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) is being held in Montpellier from 28 March to 1 Aoril 2010. CIRAD, which has been heavily involved in preparing for the conference, will be present and will be contributing, on behalf of France and the Agreenium consortium, to the proposals to be made regarding changes to international agricultural research.
The Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (ARD), the first of its kind, is being organized by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). It is the starting point for a new type of global governance of ARD. This framework also includes the reform of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is aimed at ensuring more effective operational results and more wide-ranging partnerships.
This first conference, which is intended to be a major multi-stakeholder forum, will be followed by others, every two years. It is intended to devise a form of governance that will serve to establish common strategies on agricultural research for development and coordinate those strategies. All the various stakeholders in the global agricultural research system are involved.
France, which will be hosting the event in Montpellier from 28 to 31 March, has been heavily involved in preparing for the conference. The Agropolis International association is in charge of its organization, with an active contribution from the Agreenium consortium, and CIRAD in particular. France, in the shape of the City of Montpellier, is also a candidate to host the HQ of the future consortium of CGIAR centres.
Towards a Global System for Agricultural Research for Development (GSARD)
Agricultural research for development is the most structured agricultural research sector. On a global level, it is backed up by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), which federates regional forums involving all the partners in research–organizations, producers, the private sector and players from civil society. The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) is one example. There are forums for each of the main world regions: Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and more recently North America.
Reform of international agricultural research
On an international level, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), founded in 1975, is a major player in the global system for agricultural research for development. It comprises fifteen international research centres–the CG centres–funded by a bilateral and multilateral donor group centring on the World Bank. Its role is to act as a catalyst for research on issues relating to global public goods. Since the mid-1990s, France has been playing an active role, particularly in association with its European partners, in changing the system and boosting its efficacy, by fostering strategic partnerships between stakeholders. One such operations concerns the CG, which in 2008 embarked upon a reform of its scientific agenda, based on a strategic framework intended to enable it to measure the impact of its work at field level.
- Category: Institutional