May 2005
GFAR Secretariat News
MTM and forthcoming GFAR Steering Commettee Meeting
News from the Regional Fora
Asia Pacific
Sub-Saharan Africa
Europe
News from the other Stakeholders
Civil Society Organizations
In this issue
The GFAR Secretariat Staff just came back from Zurich, which hosted the fourth EFARD Conference. During this Conference, responding to changing global needs, the urgency and the relevant means to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were recurrent issues expressed by the participants. The main output of the Conference was the Zurich Declaration which underscores the collective challenge of addressing these issues and the important role of agricultural research as an engine for rural development in the light of global fight against hunger and poverty.
One way for GFAR to contribute to the debate is to draw the attention of stakeholders on the specific role that a multi-stakeholder research and innovation process can play to in renewing the international agricultural research agenda. Improvement of the livelihoods of the rural poor leads to pay more attention on how research can improve the efficiency and sustainability of family agriculture which is expected to generate incomes for the smallholders, thus linking them to market. This issue features an article written by our colleagues from EMBRAPA in Brazil, highlighting this strong southern NARS� policy and its vision of research�s contribution to family agriculture.
Following this feature article, you will go through some news on the GFAR Secretariat�s activities. Significant achievements within the DURAS Project can now be of some interest to think about the lessons learned from this innovative competitive grant mechanism. The launching of a second inter-regional consultation will clarify our expectations to move forward within the ICM4ARD framework.
A selected set of key issues and events follows. As you browse through this issue, you will see a healthy portfolio of activities, some of which were significantly facilitated by the GFAR Secretariat. With the exception of Central Asia and the Caucasus whose regional fora needs further support in terms of building its capacity to act as true fora, you will note that most of our RFs are actively engaging their stakeholders through the various activities they have carried out in the past months.
Finally, this issue of the GFAR electronic newsletter provides us a glimpse of a network civil society organizations called the Arab Network for Sustainable Agriculture Development (ANSAD). An article on CSOs contribution in achieving MDGs is presented at the end of this issue. Bonne lecture !
GFAR Secretariat
c/o FAO, SDR, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla - 00100 Rome, Italy
Tel. +39.06.5705.3413 Fax +39.06.5705.3898
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