CIRAD's new Contractual Objectives agreed with the State anchor its scientific and partnership strategy firmly to the SDGs

Institutional news 24 March 2020
CIRAD recently agreed its new Contractual Objectives with its parent ministries, for the period 2019-2023. The document commits CIRAD to four main ambitions centring on the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly no poverty and zero hunger and no poverty (SDGs 1 and 2). It is part of the process of drafting two French programming laws, one on development and international aid and the other on research.
Frédérique Vidal, French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and CIRAD President Managing Director Michel Eddi signed CIRAD's Contractual Objectives for the period 2019-2023 at the Paris International Agricultural Show on Monday 24 February 2020 © CIRAD
Frédérique Vidal, French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and CIRAD President Managing Director Michel Eddi signed CIRAD's Contractual Objectives for the period 2019-2023 at the Paris International Agricultural Show on Monday 24 February 2020 © CIRAD

Frédérique Vidal, French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and CIRAD President Managing Director Michel Eddi signed CIRAD's Contractual Objectives for the period 2019-2023 at the Paris International Agricultural Show on Monday 24 February 2020 © CIRAD

Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and CIRAD President Managing Director Michel Eddi signed the new CIRAD Contractual Objectives during the Paris International Agricultural Show.

As Michel Eddi points out, the transitions currently required, notably in the global South, are unparalleled, be they demographic, socioeconomic, environmental, or relating to climate, energy, food or health. "Science must meet these challenges, and CIRAD has an ever greater role to play, particularly through its partnerships in Africa" .

To help societies in the global South achieve sustainable development, CIRAD now has four main objectives for the period 2019-2023: science, partnerships, training and impact.

Four objectives to achieve sustainable development in the global South

1. Science is CIRAD's core business . It must both be useful and serve change and impact on every level of sustainable development, from smallholder farmers to public policy.

In addition to its six key thematic fields , CIRAD is committed to three transverse operations on:

  • Gender in research and innovation, in line with its role as coordinator of the H2020 Gender-SMART project
  • Tropical agricultural value chains, to boost productivity and sustainability
  • Research platforms, to build on and share data and models and pool research infrastructures.

2. Partnership is CIRAD's guiding operating principle. This means assigning researchers long term to its partner organizations in the global South, in tropical, subtropical and Mediterranean environments. This is illustrated by the DeSIRA projects launched recently, which focus on Africa, but CIRAD also intends to step up its operations in Southeast Asia, Latin and Central America, and the French overseas regions.

In addition to working with other French and international research organizations, CIRAD is keen to strengthen its links with the European Commission and its member states, and international organizations such as FAO, development banks such as the AFD, and the private sector . Co-building solutions to the vast challenges faced means building global, multilateral and multi-stakeholder partnerships.

3. Training is a more recent objective for CIRAD, which considers that development is impossible without capacity building. Its operations in this field centre on training in, for and with the global South, notably professional training backed by organizations in the countries concerned.

4. Impact is the essential purpose of CIRAD's activities. This means impact in terms of change in public policymaking, economic and social processes, in favour of producers and population groups in the global South. CIRAD's expertise and partnerships must generate policy, technical and social innovations. The stakeholders who raise the problems to be solved will be involved in finding the solutions from which they will benefit.