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Foreword
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Agriculture lies at the heart of the
social and economic fabric of the world's developing countries. Most
of the world's poor live in those countries and are engaged in agriculture.
When conflicts and natural disasters strike, they not only take a
heavy toll on human lives but also cause serious damage to agriculture
and to the natural resources on which agriculture depends. The poor
suffer most when agriculture, the main source of their livelihood,
is damaged. They are also the ones whose lives are most at risk during
attacks of the forces of nature or in man-made conflicts.
Research has shown that poverty and hunger breed despair and desperation,
compelling the poor to make unthinkable choices. Without hope for
a better future, illiterate youth are tempted into an alternative
life of banditry, violence, and terrorism for pay and plunder. If
poverty and hunger can be alleviated, the frequency of man-made conflicts
can be greatly reduced.
For nearly three decades the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR) has focused its mission on helping developing countries
turn agriculture into an engine of propoor, sustainable economic growth.
Conflicts and natural disasters have often interfered with this mission,
and disrupted the long-term work in strengthening human and institutional
capacities, establishing more productive cropping systems, and improving
the sustainability of farming. Nevertheless, the CGIAR Centers quickly
reworked their strategy, partnering with donors, governments, emergency
relief agencies, non-governmental organizations and others to ensure
that emergency assistance made the best possible use of available
knowledge and technology. As soon as they could, they moved on to
help the affected countries rebuild their agriculture, as well as
human capacity and research infrastructure so critical to long-term
recovery.
Over the course of dealing with crises caused by conflicts and natural
disasters in at least 47 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin
America, the CGIAR Centers have been learning important new lessons.
It became clear that by reducing poverty, pro-poor agricultural development
could actually diminish some of the conditions that lead to conflict
and render people susceptible to natural disasters. Agricultural development
and poverty reduction strengthen resilience by establishing coping
and recovery mechanisms, such as international skill networks and
gene bank safety nets. And a knowledge-based approach to helping countries
rebuild increases the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of relief
operations--an approach that has been referred to as `smart aid' in
this study.
These lessons have convinced us that an ongoing partnership between
research and emergency aid can significantly improve the ability of
the international community to prepare for, as well as respond to
the inevitable future crises. Such a pre-emptive approach will alleviate
more suffering than dealing with each emergency as an ad-hoc event,
after the fact. We hope "Healing Wounds" brings this point
home. The volume, indeed, brings to light an important role of the
CGIAR that has remained less known and unrecognized. It reminds all
of us in both the research and the emergency relief sectors of how
much we need each other, and, above all, how much the poor need us,
especially in times of crises. |
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Adel EI-Beltagy
Director General
ICARDA
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Kanayo Nwanze
Director General
WARDA |
William Dar
Director General
ICRISAT |
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Executive Committee of the
Center Directors Committee of the CGIAR
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