Given the limited amount of available resources, some donors and stakeholders have raised the question of focus and priority setting mechanism leading to global program.

Although stakeholders are entirely free to develop whatever partnerships they judge to be important within the framework of the Global Forum, the Secretariat concentrate its efforts on four strategic themes that are considered to be of high priority and high potential impact. Since the GFAR 2000, Dresden meeting, the Secretariat has been discussing this particular point with various stakeholders, and several ideas and criteria are emerging as a consensus on how to move in this direction. This is analysed in a document () on the role of GFAR in strengthening research partnerships. A first step in this direction is the involvement of the Secretariat, as a facilitating unit, in the regional priority setting.

As a result of the discussions which took place during the preparation of the first GFAR Conference (Dresden 2000) and immediately after it, the concept of "Global Programmes" has emerged. The document "Some Thoughts on the Follow-up to GFAR-2000 on Research Partnership" made a first attempt to define this new approach that GFAR would like to promote.

Considering the rapidly changing environment in which agricultural research is evolving and the dynamics generated by GFAR. It is important to anticipate and to design a general standard format that will allow to characterize the initiatives taken by the GFAR stakeholders that may allow Emerging Global Programmes.

This is why in October 2001, GFAR Secretariat, with the support of IFAD, held a workshop on "Methodologies, Organization and Management of Global Partnership Programmes".