The generation and application of knowledge is critical to meeting the enormous global challenges facing agriculture, yet major concerns remain: the poor have been last to benefit from research (as recently documented in the World Development Report and IAASTD); Many apparently effective technologies have not been adopted and societies have been losing confidence in agricultural science.

In essence, why are research and extension institutions not effectively connected with those they are intended to benefit and so not valued and supported to the extent they should be in the societies they serve?

GFAR’s premise is that these problems result from the fundamental gap between scientific knowledge, which is reductionist, trusted and validated by its method and local knowledge, which is holistic and trusted and validated by practical experiences and culture. The fundamental need is to link and reconcile these knowledge and their associated trust bases as sustainable development must value and capitalize on both.

This means active change in our research, education and extension institutions, to take a wider view of innovation systems in which many actors each play a role and to break down the communication, control and power barriers between scientific innovation and that arising in the farmer’s field. GFAR’s focus puts the poor, and particularly the rural poor, at the centre of research and innovation processes, with research embedded in development processes, rather than starting from a technological perspective.
To do so requires change in the way institutions and individuals are focused and behave, so that they become more open to true and equitable partnership and more willing to engage with knowledge and perspectives beyond their own walls. This is a revolutionary process for agricultural science. Given that existing institutions cannot change overnight, this needs to be achieved through evolution of thinking, institutional management and behaviors, resulting in progressive change among all involved.

The CGIAR Change Management Partnerships Working Group recommendation for Strategic outcome-based planning for the CGIAR, subsequently taken up in the agreed Change proposal was that:

“Appropriate consultative processes with relevant non-member stakeholders should be organized at the CGIAR system level to define strategic dimensions and main priorities. WG2 considers the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) to be the most appropriate institutional mechanism to oversee this process.”

This stragetic role is highlighted in the objectives listed below.

Specific objectives
Activities proposed aim to ensure that the voices of the poor are heard and responded to at all stages in institutional operation, from research planning, to implementation, to scaling-out and lesson learning from the research itself. This needs to happen in all constituencies of the Global Forum, so that they are strengthened at all levels to:

1. Engage civil society and local innovation into agricultural research systems
2. Strengthen the voices of civil society in regional and national research planning
3. Steer and influence change in the CGIAR