Use of pooled funding
In 2021, the CGIAR Trust Fund provided pooled funding, received via Funding Windows 1 and 2 (W1/2), for programming carried out by CGIAR’s Research Programs (CRPs) and Platforms.
CRPs use W1/2 funding to provide approved budgeted programmatic funding for research and pathways to scale and impact.
Activities funded by W1/2 during 2021 included the following:
- enhancing partnerships
- establishing capacity development activities
- running monitoring, evaluation, learning, and impact assessment (MELIA) studies
- developing and piloting innovations
- promoting policy support and engagement
- generating innovative research outputs
- setting up gender, youth, and inclusion research and engagement
- updating public goods, such as tools and websites
CRPs and Platforms also revised funding allocations to ensure sufficient resources were directed to COVID-19-related research and activities.
CGIAR Platforms used their funds in 2021 to cover the critical recurring costs of maintaining the functions of genebanks, breeding, and data management.
Table 1 provides further examples of approved W1/2 use reported in 2021.
Table 1. Examples of approved W1/2 use in 2021
| CRP | Example | Type of use |
| Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) | Policy | W1/W2 funds were used to support the Stories of Change and Stories of Challenge initiatives, which captured and supported experiential learning on how countries can address the undernutrition challenge and obesity epidemic, respectively. A4NH contributed to numerous outputs and dissemination events, with targeted contributions to national programs in India, Malawi, Ethiopia, and several West African countries. |
| Fish (FISH) | Gender | FISH conducted strategic gender research and integration, including the development and testing of the Women’s Empowerment in Fisheries Index (WEFI). FISH also led the chapter on gender-transformative approaches (GTAs) for a CGIAR-wide book on gender, published evidence-based articles on GTA pilots in Zambia, and produced a good practice guide to advance gender equitable livelihoods in coral reef social-ecological systems. |
| Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) | Research, Delivery | FTA developed diversification options for tree-crop commodity production systems, including a synthesis on context-specific rehabilitation and renovation options for cocoa farms and a tool to facilitate decisions by farmers and extension staff across Latin America.
FTA is developing diversification options for tree-crop commodity production systems. |
| Grain, Legumes, and Dryland Cereals (GLDC) | Partnerships | GLDC distributed a total of 6,000 small seed packs for the Pan-African Soybean Variety trials and two tons of foundation seed to private seed companies for trials in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, and Nigeria. |
| Livestock Agrifood Systems (LIVESTOCK) | Capacity development | LIVESTOCK further developed the Comprehensive Livestock Environmental Assessment for Improved Nutrition, a Secured Environment and Sustainable Development along Livestock Value Chains (CLEANED) tool and provided training and implementation assistance in Africa and the Americas. |
| Policies, Markets, and Institutions (PIM) | Research | PIM implemented several COVID-19 studies, including an assessment of country-level impacts of COVID-19 and policy responses based on PIM computable general equilibrium modeling tools and social accounting matrices, and a synthesis of studies on the impacts of COVID-19 on value chains. PIM also contributed to developing the COVID-19 Policy Response Portal and participated in the Asia node of the World Pandemic Research Network. |
| Rice (RICE)
|
Delivery | RICE disseminated RiceAdvice, an android-based application for rice crop management, in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal and RiceAdvice-WeedManager for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) | Partnerships | RTB implemented the Innovation Catalogue, an online platform that offers a comprehensive, single-entry point for exploring a selection of 100 agricultural innovations developed by RTB. |
| Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) | MELIA | WLE produced a series of synthesis reports on resource recovery and reuse business models (food waste, wastewater aquaculture, and sewage sludge), urban food systems, and controlled environment agriculture. |
