2006 was a very active year for GFAR. A wide variety of programs and activities were conducted by its members and partner organizations. The highlights of the year were the Review of the Global Partnership Project, the 2nd External Review of GFAR and the GFAR 2006 triennial Conference at New Delhi. For 2007, GFAR has on its agenda the development of its 2007-2009 Business Plan. This is in addition to several continuing regional and interregional and partnership building activities of GFAR.

From March 30 till April 1 2007, representatives of GFAR stakeholders met and participated in a retreat at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt to develop the GFAR 2007-2009 Business plan. After carefully considering the changing environment for global agricultural research for development, GFAR’s strategy for the future was realigned to focus more on poor, small holder producers. The emphasis would be in promoting and fostering agricultural innovation systems for development. As its strategic objectives, GFAR would further strengthen its leadership role in strategic thinking and consensus building among ARD stakeholders on challenges faced by agricultural development and their possible solutions. It will continue to foster and promote partnerships on both North-South and South-South axis among its stakeholders for agricultural research for development (ARD). GFAR’s role in information and knowledge sharing and exchange related to ARD would be further reinforced, especially through the use of information and communications technology through EGFAR. In the Business Plan for 2007-2009, GFAR will take up specific activities that contribute to adapting agriculture to climate change, linking small holder producers to markets, reorienting agricultural research, education and extension and enabling innovative approaches for knowledge access by smallholder producers.

In this newsletter, we include the communiqué released at the GFAR participatory retreat to develop its 2007-2009 Business Plan. The final Business Plan, after approval of the GFAR Steering Committee, is expected to be ready for implementation by end of May 2007.