Putting the poor centre stage
The Global Forum has been working to put the poor at the centre of agricultural research. For us, this hinges on fostering cost-effective partnerships and strategic alliances across the whole spectrum of stakeholders – ranging from farmers to policy makers.

Global Advocacy
The Global Forum has also been emphasizing the importance of advocacy – by calling for civil society organizations to play a stronger role in ARD decision-making processes at the national, regional and global levels, for example. This work has directly influenced the fact that civil society is now becoming more directly involved in the governance of Regional Fora for agricultural research and more and so creating more relevant and effective research systems.

The Global Forum’s Triennial Conferences:

• Dresden, 2000 – This Triennial highlighted key issues effecting the conservation and use of genetic resources for food and agriculture, which directly contributed to the success and negotiation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture;
  
• Dakar, 2003 – The Conference in Dakar actively drew in Civil Society into research planning and linking research and rural innovation, thus putting the poor at the receiving end of valuable agricultural knowledge;
  
• New Delhi, 2006 – Not only did the Delhi Triennial emphasize new thinking in innovation systems, but it also initiated ways to break down present knowledge barriers, so that those who need it the most can have better access.

These have brought together hundreds of key players from around the world in order to plan concerted action to address emerging global issues. They’ve also resulted in new types of innovation systems thinking that places communities at the heart of new solutions and recognizes the importance of joining together and recognizing the roles played by all stakeholders.

Inter-regional Partnerships
As part of our focus on bringing partners together, we’ve also established radically new working partnerships (known as Global Partnership Programmes) to address strategic ARD issues of global relevance. True to the Global Forum’s ethic, they’re jointly developed, carried out and owned by a wide variety of different stakeholders, many of whom have never recognized the value of working together before.

We believe that Regional Fora are the cornerstones of any global system to improve agriculture. So, we’ve worked hard over the years to support their efforts to define regional research priorities, develop regional agricultural information systems, create ‘South-South’ partnerships and establish thematic networks dealing with issues such as conservation agriculture, under-utilized crops and agricultural biotechnology. Support for increased participation by the Regional Fora in each other’s general assemblies and events has built closer interaction and learning between regions.

Institutions for the Future
The Forum has also worked with international programmes to help them meet the needs of society more effectively. We directly engaged stakeholders in the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme, for example. And, through regional and global consultations, we’ve helped to ensure that a wide variety of partners are involved in work to identify the priorities and needs of future research and innovation systems.

Examples include the Promotion of Local Innovation (or Prolinnova) project, which is building a global learning network to promote local innovation in ecologically-oriented agriculture and natural resources management (see also their webiste at www.prolinnova.net). The DURAS Project (Promotion of Sustainable Development in ARD in the South) is another example, which is demonstrating exactly how effective multi-stakeholder partnerships can be established and carried out despite initial differences in perspectives (see also their website at www.duras-project.net).

The Forum is also thinking ahead, and working to ensure that tomorrow’s young professionals are fully equipped to take up the challenges that we are throwing down for them today. To this end, the Global Forum played a key role in the birth of the Young Professionals’ Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD). This platform allows young professionals around the world to express their ideas and realize the potential that they have to contribute to the building of a more dynamic agricultural research system in the future.

YPARD facilitates the exchange of information and knowledge among young professionals across disciplines, professions, age and regions. As well as promoting agriculture as a valuable profession, YPARD also gives these up-and-coming movers and shakers access to a broad range of opportunities while, at the same time, making it possible for them to contribute to strategic ARD policy debates.

Knowledge Sharing
Another major focus of the Global Forum has been work to overcome barriers to knowledge flow – as information is the key to the innovation needed to combat poverty. Through the Information and Communication Management for ARD (ICM4ARD) initiative, for example, the Global Forum has helped agricultural research institutions (and a range of communities) to access, manage and share knowledge and organize and catalogue complex information systems. We’re also collaborating with the managers of key information databases to establish standardized and synchronized mechanisms to make it easy for everyone to access this valuable information.

The Global Forum’s own recently updated website (egfar.org) promotes the discussion of important global issues in ARD, by providing access to online fora such as discussion boards and blogs, etc. The aim is to showcase as clearly as possible the work being done by the many agricultural institutions and communities that have key roles to play in the sharing of knowledge.