CGIAR Funding

Introduction
The CGIAR is an informal association of sixty-four members that supports agricultural research and related activities of an international public goods nature carried out by fifteen autonomous research centers. Individual members support centers and programs of their choice, and each center directly receives and spends funds and provides accountability through their externally audited financial statements.

The CGIAR is financed by members' contributions. Members of the CGIAR include industrial and developing countries, foundations, and international and regional organizations. In 2007 funding to the CGIAR amounted to over $500 million. Industrial countries, specifically the members of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, account for more than two-thirds of CGIAR financing.

Read the 2006 CGIAR Annual Report

The Research Agenda
The research agenda comprises the bulk of CGIAR center projects and activities. Components may be executed by one or more centers and/or jointly with national agricultural research systems, advanced research institutions, and non-governmental organizations. Centers develop the agenda and work programs in collaboration with partners. Projects included in the agenda must meet the following criteria. They must:

• aim at producing research or research-related (including training) international public goods;
• be of high priority in terms of accomplishing the CGIAR's goals and objectives;
• have acceptable probabilities of success; and
• have no alternative producers or sources of supply with suitable costs or reliability.

Financing Modalities
Centers are primarily financed by annual support from CGIAR members and ad hoc sources who are not CGIAR members. A modest amount is also available from annual miscellaneous income of the centers. The nature of financing does not influence or determine whether a project is part of the agenda. Member financing may be directed to the CGIAR, centers, programs, and projects with different degrees of specificity:

• to the CGIAR with flexibility regarding allocation based on CGIAR priorities;
• to centers or programs without any restrictions (with or without attribution requirements); or
• targeted to a specific center project, subproject, or activity as defined in a contractual agreement.

All members are expected to contribute to the full cost of center operations, including a proportionate share of administrative costs. This can be achieved through providing general support or paying the full indirect costs on restricted-funded projects. Members usually disburse funds based on their financial procedures, directly to centers throughout the year. The CGIAR Secretariat provides disbursement services, through the World Bank, to members who prefer to make a single disbursement to the CGIAR.