CGIAR and NARES leaders convene in Dubai to strengthen breeding partnerships for global food security

A high-level meeting of leaders from African National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES), regional and Sub-Regional Organizations (SROs), Universities, development partners and CGIAR Genetic Innovation, took place on 28-29 October 2024 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was the Third Leadership Consultation Meeting hosted by Genetic Innovation focused on sub-Saharan African.   

The meeting reviewed progress made between 2022 and 2024, while exploring strategies to strengthen breeding and delivery partnerships, integrate good practices across crop breeding networks, and enhance collaboration with universities and local seed companies. 

Taking stock of progress

Participants recognized the progress achieved through the collaboration between CGIAR and NARES under the Accelerated Breeding Initiative’s Work Package Transform, which has been coordinating CGIAR partnerships in crop breeding over the past three years. Key highlights included: 

• Co-defining current and future variety requirements has been achieved by running close to 100 national consultation meetings that have resulted in over 400 national Target Product Profiles (TPPs) covering 15 crops. 

• Comprehensive assessments of over 120 national breeding programs have identified strengths and gaps and enabled the development of customized capacity development plans.

• Partners assume greater roles in regional breeding where they have a clear comparative advantage.  

• Standardized network membership agreements have been developed, spearheaded by the Root, Tuber and Banana Breeding Network, clearly defining commitments and benefits for all parties involved. 

Since 1 January 2025, this work continues under the CGIAR Breeding for Tomorrow (B4T) Science Program, part of the CGIAR 2025–2030 Portfolio. B4T carries forward the achievements of Genetic Innovation, implemented from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024.

Number of regional CGIAR-NARES crop breeding networks per global CGIAR region. Credit: CGIAR/Accelerated Breeding.

Insights for 2025 

For the first time, a formal partnership survey was developed and deployed before the meeting, providing insights into partnership quality from both NARES and CGIAR perspectives. The survey will be deployed annually and serves as a regular health check while identifying areas to prioritize for further improvement. An Aide-Memoire, endorsed during the meeting, captured the key areas of focus for   2025.  

Co-defining breeding priorities and alignment with national development plans 

Participants appreciated the efforts made thus far to co-define regional breeding priorities through the national and regional Product Design Team (PDT) process and indicated that there is a strong need to pursue this approach with all crops. Participants also highlighted the urgent need to ensure all national and regional breeding pipelines are better aligned with national and regional priorities and development plans.  

Building capacity and augmenting partner roles

Capacity building emerged as a critical area for strengthening partnerships. NARES, SMEs and Universities are keen to access modern breeding technology and methods from the CGIAR particularly in quantitative genetics, data management, bioinformatics, phenotyping and genomic tools. Capacity building and sharing, particularly through South-South collaboration, was identified as a core area of focus going forward.

Strengthening partnerships

Equitable partnerships between CGIAR and NARES were reaffirmed as vital to building resilient agricultural systems in Africa. Participants agreed to establish clearer governance structures for joint breeding initiatives, defining roles, responsibilities, and accountability measures. NARES representatives committed to proactively engage in regional networks while CGIAR representatives committed to be more inclusive and engage with network partners at both the management and technical levels.

The three signatories of the 2024 Aide-Memoire signing it together. Credit: CGIAR/Accelerated Breeding.

Focus on universities and the private sector

Unlike the previous GI-NARES leadership meetings, the meeting in Dubai highlighted the growing importance of universities and the private sector in establishing effective regional breeding networks.  

Universities are key players in educating the next generation of agricultural researchers and provide a comparative advantage in several areas including community engagement, cross-disciplinary expertise and scaling modern breeding approaches to opportunity crops. Universities suggested that human capacity development such as tertiary education should be mainstreamed within regional breeding networks. Universities would be willing to host students while CGIAR or NARES scientists could serve as resource people to contribute to the teaching curriculum.    

The private sector plays a critical role in seed production, variety dissemination, and creating local employment. CGIAR has signed MoUs with the International Seed Federation and the Asian-Pacific Seed Association to facilitate linkages with seed companies interested in new germplasm developed by CGIAR-NARES breeding networks. Plans are underway to establish similar agreements with regional organizations like the African Union and AGRA. Involving the private sector early in the breeding process can be very beneficial, including more accurately defining market segments and target product profiles in addition to contributing to the variety advancement process. It was noted that to enhance collaboration, public and private sectors must streamline licensing approaches, improve early generation seed production, build local seed business capacity, and track farmer feedback on varieties.  

GFAiR participated in the meeting and contributed a set of Partnership Principles that can be used to better guide collaboration in the Global South. The newly established CGIAR Accelerator on Capacity Sharing that is part of CGIAR 2025–2030 Portfolio, was also represented at the meeting and reinforced its commitment to boosting capacity sharing through increasing opportunities for young scientists, fostering South-South collaboration, and enhancing leadership development. 

Concluding the meeting, Bish Das, Transform Work Package coordinator, declared: “Our partnership with NARES is vital to ensuring that breeding innovations reach the farmers who need them most. These regular consultations strengthen our shared commitment to delivering impactful solutions and will guide our work going forward.”

Hildegard Lingnau, GFAiR Executive Secretary, presenting GFAiR set of Partnership Principles, used to guide collaboration in the Global South. Credit: CGIAR/Accelerated Breeding

Resources

• PDF scan 2024 Aide Memoire
• PDF scan 2023 Aide Memoire 
• PDF scan 2022 Aide Memoire   
• As CGIAR-NARES networks deliver improved crops, new plans are set to accelerate progress – Marrakesh, 2023  
• CGIAR and national partners move toward stronger crop breeding partnerships to benefit Sub-Saharan African farmers – Nairobi, 2022 

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Main image caption: Third NARES-GI Leadership Consultation Meeting’s group picture, Dubai October 2024. Credit: CGIAR/Accelerated Breeding. We express our gratitude to the CGIAR research funders for their invaluable contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund.