Forum Conference
GFAR Triennial Conferences
Since its origin, GFAR has organized, Triennial Conferences, providing the main international venue for agricultural research for development (AR4D) stakeholders from around the world to meet and discuss issues of global concern. Past Conferences each addressed a specific theme:
These conferences brought together hundreds of actors from around the world, to plan concerted actions addressing global issues. They have resulted in new thinking that places rural communities directly at the heart of the development challenge and that recognizes the need for practical collaboration between different sectors and countries, if AR4D is to achieve its desired large scale impacts against a range of national and international development needs.
The GCARD process
In 2008, the reform process of the CGIAR created a new demand, for a process by which progress in the change to a more impact-oriented international agricultural research system could be addressed and discussed alongside parallel measures to transform and strengthen national and regional AR4D systems.
The GFAR Triennial Conference and the CGIAR Annual General Meeting were thus brought together, to create the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD), organized by GFAR in collaboration with the CGIAR.
GCARD is not a conventional conference, it comprises a rolling process of dialogue and action to transform and strengthen AR4D systems at all levels.
The first GCARD process, leading to the Conference event in Montpellier, France (2010) began with a groundbreaking bottom-up dialogue that has re-defined agricultural research priorities in each region, reflecting development needs as identified by over 2,000 active participants concerned with the future of agriculture and its role in development. This gave rise to a global analysis of the challenges faced by AR4D systems in better contributing towards development goals.
The Conference itself achieved an exciting new collective spirit for action and change among all those involved. Its outcomes led to development of the GCARD ROADMAP: Transforming Agricultural Research for Development Systems for Global Impact.
The GCARD Roadmap highlights the essential changes needed to establish well-functioning AR4D systems at national, regional and global levels and proposes a 6-point plan of key actions required to transform AR4D systems around the world.
These powerful messages have now been endorsed by representatives from all stakeholder sectors, including the CGIAR Consortium and have been endorsed and welcomed by the G20 Ministers of Agriculture in their June 2011 Declaration: Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture.
