Special Edition Special Edition Special Edition Special Edition
October 2002
Facilitating Stakeholder-led Initiatives
Changes at GFAR
Facilitating Stakeholder-led Initiatives
Towards Global Partnership Programmes (GPPs)
The Regional Priority Setting (RPS) exercise facilitated by GFAR has led to the identification of key research topics. Some stakeholders are already developing several Global Partnership Programmes (GPPs) in the following areas based on the identified regional priorities:
- Rural innovation for the support and development of SMEs
- Livestock and animal production
- Rural knowledge systems
Rural Innovation for the Support and Development of SMEs (Rural SMEs)
The objectives of poverty eradication and food security cannot be reached only by increasing food production through the development of appropriate technologies. It is also important to directly address the issues of value added and employment generation through the development of SMEs. For these reasons, rural innovation has a very important role to play. It requires an integrated view of the different factors that take part in this process, and is based on an increase in productivity or competitiveness of a given product, as a consequence of an improvement in either production or marketing technologies or know-how.
Rural Knowledge Systems (RKS)
Among the activities that the GFAR Secretariat is facilitating are those related to rural knowledge systems. Broadly, these include efforts aimed at addressing mutual learning and sharing among various ARD stakeholders, in a participatory way, of agriculture-related information, technology and knowledge, so that these can be made accessible to communities in forms which they can utilise. Through RKS, it is expected that local communities will be empowered and their livelihoods improved. It is also expected that RKS will encourage local innovation and will be useful in validating research results.
Livestock Health and Production (LHP)
One of the priority issues that needs to be addressed in alleviating rural poverty and promoting environmental protection is that related to crop-livestock integration. This includes topics related to animal diseases and their impact on productivity; ensuring food security and safety; reduction of diseases transmitted from animals to humans; and livestock and animal husbandry policies that enable the rural poor to overcome poverty. Thus, GFAR is promoting greater involvement of all ARD stakeholders, notably veterinarians, extensionists, donors, women and farmers in implementing ARD partnership programmes in this area.
GFAR Secretariat as a service bureau
In facilitating the development of various initiatives related to Rural SMEs, RKS and LHP, GFAR Secretariat functions as a service bureau and provides a common meeting place where these initiatives can be discussed and developed in a participatory way. It serves as a neutral platform where ARD stakeholders can participate, identify and bring together their comparative advantages in developing GPPs related to these three topics.
In collaboration with other lead ARD stakeholder institutions, several Focal Points (FPs) from the GFAR Secretariat will animate and serve as “interlocutors” for each of these initiatives. They will support the coordination and collection of information with/from relevant persons and institutions involved in these initiatives; facilitate the exchange of ideas and information among them; coordinate and organise discussions; and facilitate stakeholder participation in the partnership process.
Added Value
This effort is expected to bring out the following specific added value:
- Create networks of like-minded initiatives
- Promote and facilitate complementarity and synergies
- Enrich discussions and perspectives through the participation and involvement of various stakeholders
- Facilitate as a neutral platform, the discussion of issues in a participatory way
- Facilitate communication and information flow to provide stakeholders more time to analyse proposed initiatives
GFAR Secretariat Focal Points
Livestock and animal production
Tel: +39.06.570 53194
Rural knowledge systems
Tel: +39.06.570 55083
Rural innovation and SMEs
Tel: +39.06.570 54505
New Executive Secretary and New Canadian Volunteer
Dr. Olanrewaju Babatunde Smith, a citizen of Nigeria and Canada, has been recruited as the new Executive Secretary of GFAR. Dr. Smith joins GFAR from the International Development Research Centre (IRDC) in Canada, where he has served as a Senior Manager in the Environment and Natural Resources Management sector for the past 13 years. He replaces Dr. Fernando Chaparro who left GFAR in February 2002.
Dr. Smith holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from the University of Liege, Belgium, a Doctor of Tropical Veterinary Medicine (DTVM) degree and a Diploma in Parasitology from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Animal and Poultry Science from the University of Guelph in Canada. After an academic career as Professor of Animal Production and Health at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria spanning 11 years, he joined IDRC, initially serving as Regional Representative for West and Central Africa based at the IDRC Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal, and eventually moving to IDRC headquarters in Canada where he served as a Research Manager.
Dr. Smith brings to GFAR a wealth of agricultural research and development experience accumulated from years of sustained interaction with national and international agricultural research systems, bi and multilateral development agencies and participation in intergovernmental fora (e.g., UN Convention to Combat Desertification). He is married with two children.
The new GFAR Executive Secretary is expected to be en post in December 2002.
In mid-September, we were joined by Ms. Lani Trenouth, who comes to us via the Canadian Federation of Agriculture sponsored by the Canadian government. She received a Bsc degree in Environmental Earth Sciences in December 1999 from the University of Calgary, and since then has pursued various projects in Latin America. Ms. Trenouth was brought on board to continue the work done by Ms. Sara McHattie, who left the Secretariat last July. She will be primarly involved in facilitating the participation of Farmers' Organizations in activities of GFAR, including the GFAR 2003 Conference in May 2003.
More specifically, Ms. Trenouth will be involved in the following duties: working with Farmers' Organizations to cultivate and develop collaborative programmes; compiling a comprehensive global database of Farmers' Organizations, both regionally and thematically; providing support to the development of the Farmers' Organizations web page of EGFAR; and promoting a stronger voice from Farmers' Organizations in the future direction of agricultural research for development.
GFAR Chair & Vice-Chair Complete their Terms Office
Drs. Raj Paroda and Henri Rouillé d'Orfeuil will relinquish their posts as GFAR Chair and Vice Chair after more than three years of successfully guiding the Global Forum on Agricultural Research. The election of new GFAR Chair and Vice Chair will take place during the October 2002 GFAR Steering Committee Meeting in Manila, Philippines.
The two gentlemen have provided guidance to GFAR in fostering new forms of cooperation in ARD to benefit GFAR Stakeholders. Some of the major achievements under their term of office include the organisation of 'Global Forum 2000 in Dresden', which resulted in two declarations; the emergence of new regional ARD organisations; the conduct of regional priority setting exercises; and the launching of several Global Partnership Programmes (GPPs).
In his letter to all GFAR stakeholders, Dr. Paroda expressed his gratitude to all the members of the GFAR Steering Committee and colleagues from national and international systems.
Part of that letter reads:
“...For me, GFAR would always be a global institution of great hope for the better future of our younger generations. All this could be possible only because of the active support and involvement of colleagues like you, which enabled GFAR to take such a big leap from its inception phase that today it has become a great 'Movement' to reckon with. Let us continue our best efforts to nurture the GFAR!”
For his part, Dr. Rouillé d'Orfeuil wrote:
“Let me encourage you to further support the strengthening of GFAR and to allow each of its constituencies, which are the actors of agricultural research, to develop its own action in full synergy with the others. If human community and earth were well, if the farmers were in good situation, we could all have a rest. But it is not the case.”
Dr. Rajedra Singh Paroda has been the Chair of GFAR from 1998 to 2002. He is a plant breeder, university teacher and an acknowledged research administrator. He holds a PhD (plant breeding and genetics) from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. He has served in different positions in the Indian administration, including as as Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Secretary-Department of Agricultural Research & Education. He has been appointed as Head of the Program Facilitation Unit for the CGIAR Program for Central Asia & the Caucasus and he's based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Dr. Henri Rouillé d'Orfeuil has been GFAR Vice-Chair from 1998 to 2002. He holds a PhD in Economic Sciences. He is also the Chairman of the Institute for the Study of the Economic and Social Development at the University Paris-I; Chairman of the René Dumont Foundation and Chairman of “FINANSOL” - Finances et Solidarité. He is currently attached, on a part-time basis, to the Directorate of External Relations of CIRAD (France).
GFAR's New Multi-Donor Agreement
During the GFAR Interim Executive Committee Meeting in October 2002 in Rome, FAO, IFAD and GFAR reached agreement on putting the final touches to a Multi-Donor Agreement (MDA) for GFAR. The completion of this MDA will result in much better recognition of GFAR, both from a legal as well as a function point of view. The new MDA replaces the Letter of Agreement previously signed in July 19998 between FAO's Deputy Director General and the GFAR Chair.
The new Multi-Donor Agreement will be signed at a special signing ceremony during the next GFAR Steering Committee Meeting in Manila, October 27th, 2002.
New Dates for the 2003 GFAR Conference
Arrangements for the organisation of the 2003 GFAR Conference in Dakar, Senegal, are progressing smoothly. After receiving comments and suggestions from stakeholders on the first draft document circulated in July 2002, an improved second draft document was presented to a meeting of the Steering Committee of the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development (EFARD-SC) in Brussels in September 2002. Thereafter, the draft was discussed with members of the Senegalese National Organising Committee in Dakar and the GFAR Interim Executive Committee in Rome. These rounds of consultations have produced remarkable results. We have now reached an agreement with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the Senegalese National Organising Committee to hold the 2003 GFAR Conference on May 22 & 23, 2003. The GFAR Conference follows closely behind the 2nd FARA General Assembly which will now take place on May 19 & 20th, 2003 in Dakar, Senegal. In between the FARA and GFAR meetings, there will be an Agricultural Day scheduled for May 21st, 2003, during which our host, the Senegalese NARS, will show us some of the work they have been doing.
Other developments regarding the GFAR 2003 Conference include a revised theme for the conference, which now reads “From Regional Priorities to Global Action: Linking Research and Rural Innovation to Development”. The membership of the Conference Working Group, tasked with overseeing the organisation of GFAR 2003, has been finalised and will meet for the first time in Manila in October 2002 at the GFAR Midterm Meetings. Until then, we encourage all GFAR stakeholders to continue to send us their comments and suggestions as we endeavour to find ways to further improve the programme for the GFAR Conference and ensure that you have a very successful meeting in Dakar in 2003.
GFAR Secretariat
c/o FAO, SDR, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla - 00100 Rome, Italy
Tel. +39.06.5705.3413 Fax +39.06.5705.3898
E-mail: