Several Global Initiatives in ARD were discussed at the Conference. Olanrewanju Smith (Executive Secretary, GFAR) described the evolution of GFAR from Dresden (2000) to Delhi (2006). GFAR was born after a 2 years consultation period (1994-96), and was a radical shift in paradigm as it encouraged a multi-stakeholder partnerships approach.

He distinguished the phases of GFAR’s development as: 1. An intense period of institutional and constituency building (1996-2000); 2. The Dresden Conference (2000) validated the basic principles of GFAR and led to the addition of an inclusiveness principle; 3. The Dakar Conference (2003) was a participatory business plan development exercise. The current business plan developed based on outcomes from the Dakar Conference identified 5 pillars for action which include: advocacy, public awareness and strategic thinking, management information systems, interregional collaboration and collaborative research partnerships. Two cross-cutting pillars are active involvement of civil society organizations and engagement of the private sector in GFAR and ARD activities. GFAR was especially successful in organizing global partnerships programme and innovative and competitive grants. He hoped that the Delhi Conference would give clear and loud answers as to who should do what in ARD to reach the global development goals of eradicating hunger and alleviating poverty. 

Stephen Rudgard (FAO) summarized the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (http://www.millenniumassessment.org/) and stressed that challenges were not only agronomic but also that there were significant social and economic issues so that multi-disciplinary approaches are needed to tackle problems. For example, a better understanding of agro-ecosystem thresholds vis-à-vis response to damage and provision of services, and a focus on indirect drivers of agro-ecosystem change (people and policies) are needed to ensure sustainable use of resources.

William Dar (Director General, ICRISAT, representing the CGIAR) described the roles of the CGIAR Alliance in achieving the MDGs. CGIAR’s objectives are to generate and share public goods to increase agricultural productivity and to foster strategic alliances. The priorities of the CG centres have shifted from commodity based to a more problem-oriented and holistic approach over the last 30 years. He saw several areas of complementarity between the GFAR and CGIAR Alliance priorities. The new priorities of the CGIAR include sustaining biodiversity, producing more and better food at lower cost through genetic improvement, reducing rural poverty through crop diversification and emerging markets, encouraging sustainable use of natural resources, and improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation.

Carl Greenidge (representing the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, IAASTD) described how this organization aims to broadly assess agricultural knowledge, science and technology for policy makers and enhance local capacity to design solutions to problems. Challenges in this endeavour include integrating local and institutional knowledge, dealing with uncertain information, and differentiating between evidence-based findings and different value systems and ideologies.