1. 40th CGIAR Anniversary, FAO, 2 December 2011
Kevin Cleaver
I am pleased to join you all in celebrating the 40th anniversary of the
newly reformed CGIAR. The CGIAR is an organisation with a more robust
and efficient architecture and an array of approved CGIAR Research
Programmes (CRPs) representing a diversity of world-wide public and
private partnerships. These promise to improve the effectiveness and
impact of our RforD investments.
IFAD has a strategic partnership with the CGIAR system. It was a co-
sponsor in the old system and will be active in the Fund Council of the
reformed CGIAR in the future. IFAD has invested grants worth more than
US$200 million in research led by the CGIAR. In strategic alliance with the
European Commission (EC) to support the CGIAR, IFAD has also
administered more than US$235 million of EC funds to GCIAR centres. In
2010, 30 per cent of our large grants were for CGIAR-managed
programmes. This reflects IFAD’s conviction that agricultural productivity
growth will be a key ingredient, though not the only one, to the
development of smallholder agriculture and the key role the CGIAR plays
in enhancing agricultural productivity.
IFAD’s support for CGIAR-led research has focused on agricultural
innovation targeted to smallholder farmers, and on capacity building of
partners in national programmes. Partners have included civil society
organisations and farmer groups, as well as national agriculture research
and extension systems. IFAD support has mainly involved adaptive
research for the development and diffusion of sustainable agricultural
technologies. Research supported by IFAD usually involves commodities of
importance to rural poor people – such as cassava, cowpeas, yams, small
ruminants, agriculture in resource poor environments, and policy
research.
IFAD was involved in the CGIAR Change Programme, co-leading the
Change Steering Team (CST) and was a member of the Working Group
that proposed the new funding modalities for the financing of the CGIAR
agenda. We are particularly happy with these new CGIAR funding
modalities. We strongly support the independent evaluation of the system,
the introduction of programme performance contracts, and the creation of
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2. a Fund Council; key outcomes of the CGIAR reform. In terms of strategic
partnerships, IFAD will maintain its strong engagement with the Global
Agricultural Research community, including through the GFAR platform.
We believe that CGIAR partnership with a broad spectrum of global R&D
stakeholders, is important. These include CSOs, farmer organisations, and
the private sector as well as governments. The partnerships help make
CGIAR research more pro-poor.
IFAD is therefore happy to work with the "newly reformed" CGIAR and will
explore the most relevant and efficient modalities for supporting the work
of the Consortium of CGIAR Centres and their partners.
Finally, I wish you all success in your endeavour to continue to facilitate
the development of, and investment in, a practical and dynamic
partnership-driven agenda. If managed well the CRP agenda promises to
make agricultural research increasingly effective in transforming the lives
of poor rural people – particularly those who labour hard on roughly 500
million smallholder farms throughout the developing world.
Thank you.
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