A shared vision for 2040: CGIAR leaders reflect on landmark meetings at IITA
Senior leaders from across CGIAR left IITA’s Ibadan campus with renewed commitment to collaboration, stronger partnerships, and a future in which agriculture, nature, and innovation work together to address global food and nutrition challenges.
- CGIAR
- Board meeting
- Science
- research
- GLT meeting
- food systems
- Vision 2040
Cover Image: A cross section of Director Generals from CGIAR centers after the GLT meeting. (Photo: Israel Oluwole/IITA)
Senior leaders from across CGIAR left IITA’s Ibadan campus with renewed commitment to collaboration, stronger partnerships, and a future in which agriculture, nature, and innovation work together to address global food and nutrition challenges.
For one week in September 2026, IITA headquarters Ibadan campus played host to not one, not two, but three major CGIAR events one after the other: the first in-person CGIAR Board meeting (23–25 September), the CGIAR Futures Workshop (26–27 September), and the CGIAR Global Leadership Team (GLT) meeting (28–29 September).
Together, the events brought Board Chairs, funder representatives, Center Directors General, and senior leaders from across the CGIAR system to IITA headquarters.
For many participants, the meetings offered more than an opportunity to discuss governance and strategy. They created space to consider how CGIAR must evolve to meet a changing world—one shaped by climate change, demographic shifts, technological advances, geopolitical uncertainty, and growing pressure on food systems.
“The demand for CGIAR and the work that we do is going to be bigger and much more demanding than ever,” said Renaud Seligmann, Chair of the CGIAR System Council.
“For us to come together to address and tackle the problems of today and tomorrow, so we can make malnutrition, hunger, inequalities, and poverty history, is very important.”
Looking ahead to 2040
A central focus of the week was the CGIAR Futures Workshop, where participants explored possible scenarios for CGIAR through 2040 and discussed how the global research partnership can remain relevant, agile, and responsive.
For Professor Appolinaire Djikeng, Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the discussions underscored the need for CGIAR to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape.
“The world is changing, and CGIAR has to be agile and flexible to deliver on those pressures,” Professor Djikeng said.
He emphasized that future agricultural solutions must be developed alongside environmental solutions.
“Agriculture can no longer be entertained alone. It has to be mixed with nature. We have to co-create solutions that demonstrate that agriculture cannot succeed if nature fails, and vice versa.”