Mission statement of the CGIAR NGO Committee

The Mission of the CGIAR NGO Committee is to assist the CGIAR and its associated IARCs to achieve their food security, sustainable agriculture and poverty eradication goals by channeling civil society perspectives and accumulated NGO experiences, so that small and poor farmers of the developing world directly benefit from international agricultural research.

 The Committee focuses on the following objectives:

1) To advocate for the interests, priorities and concerns of small farmers and NGOs so that these are reflected in and incorporated in the international agricultural research agenda.

2) To help establish effective and mutually beneficial partnerships among NGOS, farmer organizations and agricultural research centers in order to mobilize research to benefit the rural poor in less favorable environments.

3) To enhance the IARCs' capacity in areas where NGOs have a comparative advantage such as rural development, local -ovemance, sustainable agriculture, NRM, agroecology, and participatory methodologies

 

Objectives Activitie Achievements to date
To advocate for the interests, priorities and concerns of small farmers and NGOs so that these are incorporated in the international agricultural research agenda.
  • Participation in system and center reviews.
  • Contributions in ICW/MTM, and participation in TAC, IAEG and EPMRS.
  • Fostering NGO participation in Center Boards and contributing to the desi-n of research agendas
  • Compilation and dissemination of technical papers and critical reviews
  • Articulation of NGO and small farmers concerns and expectations regarding IPR, biotechnology and NRM in CGIAR-sponsored meetings and conferences.
  • Participation in GFAR
  • Display and diffusion of NGO publications
To help establish effective and mutually beneficial partnerships among NGOS, farmer organizations and agricultural research centers in order to mobilize research to benefit the rural poor in less favorable environments
  • Organization of thematic workshops.
  • Facilitation of two-wayinformation flow between CGcenters and local organizations.
  • Documentation of sustainable agriculture and NRM success stories from both IARCs and NGOS.
  • Promotion of joint local research initiatives of NGOs and IARCS.
  • Documentation and assessment of existing research partnerships among farmer groups, NGOs and IARCs
  • Sponsorship of workshops pertaining to research partnerships between NGOs and IARCs (Philippines, ICLARM, CIAT, CIP); soil fertility replenishment (Kenya, ICRAF); IPM (Benin IITA, FAO, ICIPE, WARDA), indigenous peoples' NR-M (Indonesia, CIFOR/ ICRAF), and agrobiodiversity (Peru, CIP).
  • Soil fertility replenishment activities in Mali, Cameroon and Uganda (ICRAF).
  • NGO-led diffusion of WARDA rice varieties in Mali.
  Preparation of public awareness materials of NGOC activities
  • NGO and CIMMYT NRM agroecology research partnership in Mexico.
  • Participation in China Forum (CGIAR).
  • NGO partnership in the documentation of successes of IRRI's rainfed rice project in Eastern India.
  • Documentation of NRM best practices among Chinese NGOS.
  • NGOC proposal for Interdev database development, submitted to Global Forum.
To enhance the IARCs'capacity in areas where NGOs leave a comparative advanta-e such as rural development, local -ovemance, sustainable a,-,riculture, NRM, agroecolo,,,y, and participatory methodologies.
  • Identification and documentation of best practices on sustainable agriculture and NRM.
  • Fostering the development of methodologies leading to pro-poor sustainable agriculturetechnologies.
  • Contribution to the development of the IARCs' NRM strategies
  • Consultations to document successful approaches in NRM(Washington, DC, and China).
  • Latin America workshop on future research needs of small-scale agriculture (CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP).
  • Workshop on scaling up successful sustainable agriculture initiatives (Berkeley).
  • Bellaggio, Italy, conference on food security enhancing sustainable agriculture experiences in the developing world.