Continuing reform within the CGIAR was the central focus of a presentation, followed by commentary and extensive discussion in the opening session of Centers’ and Members’ Day.

The presentation, entitled “The Alliance’s Engagement in Revitalizing the CGIAR,” was made on behalf of the Alliance of the CGIAR Centers by Emile Frison, who chairs the Alliance Executive. After briefly reviewing major challenges in agriculture, Frison stressed the need for a more flexible and effective CGIAR and for increased investment in agricultural research, following a long period of weakening donor support. He noted that important developments in the CGIAR – particularly new leadership, the Change Management Process and External Review – offer a unique opportunity for strengthening engagement between all components of the CGIAR.

In the remainder of the presentation, Frison underlined the Alliance’s commitment to continued reform, with emphasis on four key aspects:

1. Full engagement of the Alliance in the Change Management Process – The Alliance needs to act with urgency and responsibility in a coordinated way.
2. Positive dynamics between the four pillars of the CGIAR – It is important to have a climate of trust, frank communication and appropriate distribution of responsibilities between the Alliance of the Centers, the Members and the CGIAR and Science Council Secretariats; various options are open for working toward these ends. The Change Management Process should be based on a shared vision, focused on a set of global development challenges that the CGIAR is well placed to address, given its research priorities.
3. Transparency, accountability and effectiveness in the Alliance – Various organizational models have been proposed that could reinforce these values in the Alliance. There is a “real appetite” among Centers for greater collaboration and connectedness.
4. Stronger commitment from donors and policymakers – The goal is a revitalized CGIAR that is truly worthy of increased investment, with innovative funding mechanisms and strong incentives for collective action. The challenge is to meet Members’ requirements (e.g., for short-terms results and clear accountability), while enabling the Centers to engage in long-term research and maintain key scientific capacities.

The presentation was followed by comments from representatives of the World Bank, Global Forum on International Agricultural Research (GFAR), Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and US Agency for International Development (USAID).

One of the key issues they raised was the need to enhance the quality of research partnerships and focus these more sharply on problem solving. For this purpose, the CGIAR – which is, after all, a small part of the global research system – must fully exploit its comparative advantages and achieve greater synergy with other groups working toward the same goals in the broader world of development. It is also essential for the CGIAR to better integrate research on agriculture with that on natural resource management and for donors to heighten their level of commitment to agriculture, in keeping with recent shifts in the environment for overseas development aid, as reflected, for example, in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

The presentation and subsequent comments stimulated a lively discussion, covering such topics as the pro-poor focus of research; participation of the rural poor and other stakeholders in shaping research agendas; broadening access to global knowledge in agriculture; balance between upstream and applied research; stronger and better engagement between the CGIAR and its research partners; the need to reduce transaction costs in partnerships; the role of new actors in agricultural development, particularly private philanthropic organizations; and the interesting coincidence that various reports of major reviews of global agricultural research and development will be released in 2008.

The rest of the day was organized so as to provide Centers and Members with ample opportunities for dialogue on matters related to the work of the Centers. Seven lunch-time sessions were programmed to share information about new initiatives, partnerships.