The CGIAR Challenge Programs: Gaining Momentum

After 4 years of innovation and achievement, Challenge Programs supported by the CGIAR are poised for an expanded role in its work to foster sustainable livelihoods across the developing world through agricultural research.

Expansion and Review

February 5 is the deadline for sending ideas, or "concept notes" (via email to cpideas@cgiar.org), for "Cycle 2" Challenge Programs. Based on a review of these by the CGIAR's Science and Executive Councils, a call for preliminary proposals will be issued on May 11. For more information about the process, see the Challenge Program pages on the CGIAR Web site.

Around the middle of this year, the first in a series of external reviews of current Challenge Programs will get under way, starting with the HarvestPlus and Water and Food Programs and continuing with the Generation Program .

"We expect that the insights and recommendations gleaned from the reviews will prove useful not just to the current Programs but to the new ones, as they decide how best to organize their research efforts, governance and collaborative arrangements," says Manuel Lantin, scientific advisor in the CGIAR Secretariat. The Secretariat is jointly organizing with the CGIAR Science Council both the review of current Challenge Programs as well as the process for development of Cycle 2 Programs.

Once the reviews have been completed, the CGIAR will have a comprehensive assessment of the Challenge Programs already in place. "But even now," says Lantin, "there appears to be a consensus among CGIAR stakeholders that the programs are fulfilling their original purpose and are consequently bolstering support for the new cycle."

Origins in Reform

Why did the CGIAR create the Challenge Programs in the first place? They are key building blocks in a far-reaching reform process, which the CGIAR undertook at the turn of the century to strengthen the scientific foundations of its work, broaden its research partnerships and streamline its operations.

"The original idea," comments CGIAR Director Francisco Reifschneider, "was that the Challenge Programs would provide our network of Centers and partners with a way to heighten research impact by concentrating their efforts around some of the central development challenges of our time."

The challenges taken up by the first four programs are combating micronutrient malnutrition, overcoming water scarcity, harnessing the power of molecular biology for agricultural development and fulfilling the promise of sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.

Because of the sheer complexity of these issues, the Challenge Programs necessarily work through broad-based research partnerships that bring together the diverse scientific disciplines whose contributions are required to achieve impact. Open, competitive grant schemes are one mechanism by which the Challenge Programs have accomplished this end. Another is alternative leadership; the sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program, for example, is not coordinated by a CGIAR Center at all but rather by a key partner, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

The response of CGIAR donors has been encouraging. In 4 years, annual funding for the four Challenge Programs has grown from US$8.8 million to $60 million, with total funds mobilized amounting to about $124 million since 2003. For the World Bank, which has provided $35 million and is a key supporter of CGIAR reform, the Challenge Programs have demonstrated how Bank funding can leverage further support.

Perhaps, part of the appeal for donors is that the Challenge Programs are, by definition, time-bound; that is, they are driven by a commitment to achieve specific objectives within an agreed time frame.

Record of Accomplishment

Whether the Challenge Programs prosper, though, depends less on their inherent appeal than on their performance, and on that score, the review teams will find plenty to occupy their attention.

• HarvestPlus Program: With the aim of providing sustainable solutions to human dietary deficiencies through "biofortification" of staple foods, the program is simultaneously pursuing fast-track promotion of the nutrient-rich varieties already identified, while advancing rapidly in the development of new varieties. Orange-fleshed varieties of sweet potato, which are rich in beta-carotene (the precursor of vitamin A), have proved to be the most successful example of biofortification so far. Millions of cuttings of improved varieties have already been multiplied and distributed to hundreds of thousands of farm families in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mozambique.

• Water and Food Program: The work of this program is helping make the CGIAR a recognized leader in global efforts to avert the dire consequences of water scarcity for the poor. In August 2006, at Stockholm World Water Week, scientists presented a range of practical examples from projects supported by the program, indicating how to pursue multiple strategies for producing more crops, livestock and fish with the water already in use.

Generation Program: Having concentrated in its first few years on building a diverse portfolio of complementary projects conducted by an extensive network of experts, the program has now gone into "high gear," producing novel approaches and useful tools, such as new candidate genes and gene-based molecular markers. These can be applied in crop improvement for tolerance to stresses such as drought and low phosphorus, which pose major production constraints for poor farmers.

• Sub-Saharan Africa Program: The newest of the four current Challenge Programs, approved only in 2004, this initiative has successfully completed an 18-month "inception phase." It is now on track for demonstrating the effectiveness of "integrated agricultural research for development," an approach designed to reduce the principal constraints to agricultural transformation in the region, including weak markets, inappropriate policies and natural resource degradation.