April 2002
News from the Stakeholders
Donor Community
The Non Govermental Organizations
Bringing NGOs into the Global ARD Community
The GFAR External Review recommended that both these stakeholder constituencies continue to receive special assistance so as to strengthen their representation in GFAR.
To facilitate strengthening the NGO constituency, NGOs named NGO Regional Focal Points in each region (except North America). These focal points are responsible for keeping NGOs and FOs in their regions informed about GFAR activities and to encourage them to further influence research agendas at the national and regional levels.
GFAR had been working with NGOs to fostering global and regional research partnerships in the area of natural resource management and agroecology (NRM/AE) and in regional priority-setting (RPS). These activities have led to interesting pilot initiatives that NGOs and FOs are pursuing, such as the PROLINNOVA (Promotion of Local Innovation) Initiative and follow-up activities to the Guacimo Meeting of small farmers held in August 2001. NGOs have also been engaged in discussions on implementing GFAR- facilitated Global Partnership Programmes (GPPs), which are multi-stakeholder collaborative initiatives initiated around themes identified through the RPS process. GFAR is facilitating the strengthening of NGOs participation in Global ARD by emphasizing the need for stakeholders to not only have representation in decision-making bodies at the global level but also to effectively "represent a constituency".
Another important step in increasing the participation of Civil Society Organizations in ARD is the recent decision by the EFARD Steering Committee at their February meeting in Rome, to open up a seat on the EFARD SC for each stakeholder group that is not already represented by the national representatives. Three seats have therefore been made available to Farmers' Organizations, NGOs and the Private Sector. The Working Group within the EFARD SC will decide upon the most effective means that each stakeholder group can be truly representative of their constituency, and the funding strategies that will ensure their participation.
For more information please see GFAR's policy paper on Farmers' Organizations and NGOs, "Strengthening the Participation of Farmers' Organizations and of NGOs in Global ARD".
Bringing Farmers into the Global ARD Community
The Farmers' Organizations
The First GFAR External Review points out that: "A key responsibility of the GFAR Secretariat is to assist stakeholders to further develop their constituencies. This is especially true for farmers' organizations, in view of their relative lack of a strong voice in agricultural research decision-making, and the need to redress this to make research much more demand-led, and also for NGOs in view of their large numbers and varied scope and goals." The GFAR External Review recommended that both these stakeholder constituencies continue to receive special assistance so as to strengthen their representation in GFAR.
Genius lies in pointing out the obvious and no where is this more true than with the statement that farmers are as fundamental to agriculture as water is to plants. As the end users of research and technology and producers of the world's food supply, farmers are the pulse of agricultural research and the back bone of agricultural production. Farmers' Organizations (FOs) are thus key stakeholders in Agricultural Research for Development and must have the capacity to function with agility in the new global ARD community. This is particularly true as governments around the world decrease public investment in the agricultural sector and, in some cases, farmers are forced to shoulder many of the activities previously conducted and funded by the government. As such, they are playing an increasingly important role in rural development and agricultural research. The growing number of partnerships between FOs and scientists, public and private agricultural institutions and NGOs reflects this trend and reinforces the need to improve the capacity of FOs to enter as equals into partnerships with others who are often institutionally and financially stronger. Strengthening FOs is thus fundamental to develop the agricultural research capacity and the agricultural sector of nations and regions.
GFAR is working closely with FOs to ensure their participation in ARD and has recently released a policy paper entitled "Strengthening the Participation of Farmers' Organizations and of NGOs in Global ARD". The paper analyzes the various strategies and means through which GFAR is helping out strengthen FOs and NGOs and facilitate their participation in ARD at the regional and the global levels. In particular, GFAR, together with some FOs, is exploring the possibility of establishing a representative body at the global level. This would act as a farmers co-ordinating body at the global level. Such a coalition would ensure that farmers have a collective voice at the global level and thus have greater impact on lobbying, influencing global research and development agendas and mobilizing funding.
Another important step in increasing the participation of Civil Society Organizations in ARD is the recent decision by the EFARD Steering Committee, on February 22 in Rome, to open up a seat on the EFARD SC for each stakeholder group that is not already represented by the national representatives. (See "Bringing NGOs into the Global ARD Community").
The Donors CommunityAgreement Between IFAD, the GFAR and the FAO of the UN Concerning the Establishment and Operation of the GFAR Secretariat
The so-called Multi-Donor Agreement (MDA) between IFAD and FAO is now finalized and is expected to be signed in May 2002, during the GFAR SC. A specific appendix to the MDA will be added in order to detail ongoing projects and their related funding. It will mainly focus on the "Fonds de Solidarité Prioritaire" of the French MAE, the PISA project to be launched through the IAO/ICEPS/GFAR consortium with the support of the "Ministeri degli Affari Esteri" of Italy, and the DG/DEV funding to be discussed in the near future with the European Commission.
GFAR Secretariat
c/o FAO, SDR, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla - 00100 Rome, Italy
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