The first plenary meeting of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) took place in Dresden, Germany, on 21-23 May 2000, under the chairmanship of Dr. R. S. Paroda. The topic of the conference was "Strengthening Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development in the Context of Globalisation". The overall objective of the conference was to strengthen research partnerships among the stakeholders of agricultural research for development (ARD). Three specific objectives were assigned to the Conference: (a) Formulation and endorsement of a Global Shared Vision and development of a Global Strategic Agenda; (b) identification of new innovative research partnerships in four priority areas (Genetic Resources Management & Biotechnology; Natural Resources Management & Agro-ecology; Global Networks along the principle of Commodity Chains; Policy Management & Institutional Strengthening) and consensus-building on the respective implementation strategies; and (c) promotion of information and knowledge exchanges between the GFAR Stakeholders. The present report summarises the main results of the Dresden Conference in achieving these three objectives.
Over 400 participants attended the GFAR-2000 meeting from the seven stakeholder constituencies that make up the Global Forum: national agricultural research systems (NARS), international agricultural research centres (IARCs-CGIAR), advanced research institutes (ARIs), farmers' organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the private sector and donors. Participants came from both developing and developed countries, and from all regions of the world.
All background documents as well as those prepared during the conference can be found on the GFAR website (see http://www.egfar.org). It should be pointed out that given the fact that GFAR is a stakeholder-led initiative, the various programmes and activities that are described in this report are all based on initiatives that are taken by specific interested stakeholders (NARS, IARCs, NGOs, ARIs, farmers or the private sector). The GFAR Secretariat plays a facilitating role in this process, but is not responsible for the implementation of the various programmes and activities. In each section reference is made to the lead stakeholder (s) related to each activity.
The GFAR-2000 Conference was opened by Uschi Eid, BMZ Parliamentarian State Secretary, representing the Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, right after the welcome address by Raj Paroda, chair of GFAR, and the introductory remarks by the representatives of FAO, IFAD, the World Bank and the European Commission. In the first plenary session the chair of GFAR presented a general view of the activities that have been carried out since the establishment of the Global Forum in 1996, the results so far obtained and the proposals that will be presented and discussed in the Dresden Conference. The various stakeholders that constitute the Global Forum have been working together during the last two years in strengthening the different constituencies related to agricultural research for development, in order to start implementing the objectives adopted in 1996 and to prepare the GFAR-2000 Conference as an important stepping stone in this process.
As the result of the consultative process that was carried out during the year prior to the conference, and building on the visions elaborated by the different Regional Fora and categories of stakeholders, the "Dresden Declaration: Towards a Global System for Agricultural Research for Development" was formulated (see Annex I). The dialogue was greatly facilitated by face-to-face group dynamics, based on small inter-stakeholder round-tables that were organised during one of the sessions of the conference. It is important to point out that a declaration and a global vision are not an end in themselves. Much more important is the process of involving stakeholders in discussion with each other, of developing a capacity for strategic thinking, and of developing common perceptions of the type of world we are seeking to achieve and of the role agriculture and agricultural research play in its construction.
This declaration spells out the main elements of a vision of a "Knowledge-Intensive Agriculture" that can respond to the challenges of food security, poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability, taking full advantage of the opportunities generated by scientific progress and by the institutional diversification of agricultural research and the changing patterns of research organisation. A more detailed analysis of the context in which this declaration takes place has been made in a companion issues paper which was presented in the first day of the conference: "Agriculture in the Early 21st Century".2 During the last year Regional/Sub-regional Fora and other stakeholders have carried out strategic thinking exercises that have involved analysis of trends and the development of shared visions, either at the regional level or at the stakeholder level. These various visioning processes greatly contributed to shaping the Dresden Declaration.
An important characteristic of the vision presented in the Dresden Declaration is the ownership by all stakeholders of ARD. In developing this common vision, however, it was also agreed that the diversity of opinions and of perspectives that characterise the various stakeholders is one of the main strengths of GFAR, and that this diversity should be preserved. Although there was sufficient basis of common understanding for a common vision to emerge, it was pointed out that stakeholders did have different views on the relative importance of the various components of the declaration. For example, different stakeholders have different views on the potential role genetically modified organisms play in achieving food security. Thus it was agreed that the Dresden Declaration should be regarded as a basis for ongoing discussion between and among all stakeholder groups. Stakeholders have been invited to comment on the declaration. It was considered that these differences of opinion do not preclude the enormous potential for cooperation between stakeholders and the positive attitude of all to see GFAR as a place where the controversial issues can be discussed and analysed. In fact, the main issues that have emerged from the dialogue among stakeholders have already started to define a global agenda of strategic ARD policy issues. This will be more explicitly addressed in the post GFAR-2000 phase, in consultation with all stakeholders.
A second declaration was also approved in one of the main thematic areas in which GFAR members have been active: the "Dresden Declaration on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture" (see Annex II). This is analysed in more detail below.
All GFAR stakeholders mobilised themselves for the preparation of this key session of the conference. Fifty-two (52) cases of successful research partnerships and forty-six (46) proposals for innovative partnerships were tabled in each of the four priority themes: GRM and biotechnology, NRM and agro-ecology, global commodity chains, and policy management and institutional development. A book will be published with the reports presented on these cases of successful partnerships and with an analysis of the main lessons learned from them in terms of success factors and constraints that may increase or limit their effectiveness. Furthermore, these reports are already available in EGFAR and can be downloaded from the GFAR-2000 section (outputs) in the EGFAR Homepage (www.egfar.org ). Besides the successful cases of research partnerships with a clear development impact in recent years, 46 new innovative research partnership proposals were also discussed by the different working groups in each theme. The respective interested stakeholders will continue to develop them in the near future, on the basis of the work done both before and during the Dresden Conference. The GFAR Secretariat is discussing with the interested stakeholders and with donors how best to proceed in the further operationalization of those partnership proposals that were considered of interest for further development.3 A few concrete examples are presented hereunder.
The second day of GFAR-2000 was dedicated to an exchange of ideas among stakeholders of ARD on how best to organize research partnerships in the four thematic areas that have been selected for the Global Forum: GRM and biotechnology, NRM and agroecology, commodity chains and policy management and institutional development. Ismail Serageldin, Chair of the CGIAR, set the stage for the discussion by analyzing the main factors that influence agricultural research in the new century, and how the new areas of science are generating both opportunities and challenges for the continued production of international public goods required for the objectives of food security, poverty eradication and sustainable development. Alberto Duque Portugal, President of EMBRAPA of Brazil, presented a NARS perspective on research partnerships. He did so by analyzing the EMBRAPA Strategy for Strategic Alliances and Research Partnerships, showing how a NARS can develop a policy for the selective use of different types of partnerships for different purposes (with ARIs, with IARCs, with the private sector, with NGOs, with farmers), in a coherent policy aimed at strengthening its capacity to achieve its objectives. Within this integrated strategy, different types of partnerships are developed for different purposes: access to frontier knowledge in the new areas of science, training and capacity building, problem-solving in specific areas through collaborative arrangements with the relevant stakeholder (i.e. farmers), extension and technology transfer to the agricultural producers, etc.
Klaus Leisinger, President of the Novartis Foundation, presented a private sector perspective, emphasizing the importance of research partnerships in developing a common understanding of key issues related to poverty eradication and sustainable development. He analyzed several concrete cases through which this has been done. Ann Waters-Bayer, from the Forum Umwelt and Entwicklung, presented an NGO perspective. She analyzed the importance of research partnerships and the forms they take for strengthening the process of "knowledge management for local innovation". This approach is aimed both at promoting innovation processes at the local level through participatory research, and at systematizing knowledge on innovative practices of NRM at the local level (local wisdom) and combining it with relevant scientific knowledge in a "knowledge management" process aimed at disseminating and scaling-up these innovative approaches. Finally Henry Rouillé d'Orfeuil, Vice Chair of GFAR, presented an overview on how the various initiatives in the context of GFAR had sought to organize individual and decentralized partnership proposals into Global Programmes in the four thematic areas. These ideas were subsequently further developed after GFAR-2000 in the paper that is mentioned in footnote 2 of this paper. Brief summaries of the ideas and partnership proposals that were discussed in each of these four areas are presented in the next section.
During the various sessions of GFAR-2000 another important dimension was clearly emphasized by IFAP and by Via Campesina, who pointed out the need to look at research partnerships from the perspective of farmers, and of small farmers in particular. The farmer not only is the main user of the results of agricultural research, but he/she is also an important actor in the research process itself, especially in a context where research, extension and production are brought closer together. The approach of knowledge management for local innovation, as well as the participatory research approaches the CGIAR has pioneered, are particularly useful for this.
In the area of Genetic Resources Management initial focus has been on the complex policy issues, at national and international levels, that have profound implications on the conservation and use of these resources. A Dresden Declaration on Plant Genetic Resources, with five concrete recommendations, was adopted after very intensive consultation among all stakeholders (see Annex II). Several stakeholders emphasised the fact that a complementary effort has to be carried out in order to make this declaration extensive to plant and animal genetic resources. In livestock and in aquaculture these issues are equally important, and in the management of micro-organisms as well. Besides the declaration, a very active exchange of opinions took place on the basis of the results of the ten papers that were prepared as part of the GFAR Initiative on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (GRFA), that is being carried out with the involvement of all stakeholders and in close collaboration with FAO and with IPGRI. Among the various proposals discussed, several initiatives were identified for action by the respective stakeholders and the GFAR secretariat:
The strategy that is being utilised in the further discussion and development by the interested stakeholders of other partnership proposals that were discussed at the Conference, is described in the paper mentioned in footnote 3 above.
In the area of biotechnology four proposals were discussed, each one representing a particularly innovative approach to research partnerships. The emerging global network on trait discovery in rice represents a very innovative form of research partnership that brings together research groups in IARCs, ARIs, NARS and the private sector, in an area where investment requirements make it very difficult for a single actor to cover the research challenge that is being confronted, and where this new area of science can make a very significant contribution to food security. This network is been lead by IRRI and a group of ARIs and NARS, that are seeking innovative ways of collaborating with the private sector. Since this case was mainly discussed in the special workshop organised on public/private research partnerships in biotechnology and genomics that took place within GFAR-2000, see sub-section (c) (below) for further information. Similarly, the Global Initiative for the Improvement of Livestock Productivity through the Control of Trypanosomiasis is an excellent example of an emerging strategic alliance between IARCs (ILRI), ARIs and NARS that are working in the area of biotechnology and animal genetic resources that can make a significant contribution to a very serious problem that livestock production confronts in Sub-Sahara Africa and other regions of the developing world. Livestock represents one of the main basis of sustainable rural livelihoods in many parts of the world.
Both cases mentioned in the previous paragraph represent an excellent example of what in the context of the Global Forum are being called global R&D framework programmes. These can be conceived as multi-stakeholder programmes that seek to develop a concerted effort among interested potential partners, around a crop, or around a major problem or topic of agricultural production or of natural resource management. Through the concerted action of the various partners involved (NARS, IARCs, NGOs, Farmers, ARIs), the effectiveness of their efforts in achieving their shared development objectives can be greatly increased. The issue of the development of a critical mass of researchers in key strategic areas, as well as the synergisms and economies of scale that can be achieved, constitute their main value-added in the present context of a globalised science. These Framework Programmes provide a "framework for concerted action" on the topic/commodity/issue that is being addressed, and they can be developed at either the global or regional levels.4 Some further thoughts will be presented below in analysing similar global programmes that are emerging in the area of NRM.
The third main proposal is of a different nature, since it relates to the development of a common vision for the role of biotechnology in food and agriculture. This initiative is being implemented through a series of activities that are being lead by the CGIAR (i.e. the 1999 international workshop on this topic), by the Regional/Sub-regional Fora that are analysing this issue in the context of the needs and research capacities that exist in each region, and by FAO in the case of the global electronic conference presently taking place on this topic. GFAR is complementing this last activity through a more direct involvement of the Regional Fora in the discussion of these issues at the regional level, with the objective of seeking to develop a greater ownership of these ideas by NARS and by policy-makers in developing countries. Additionally it was indicated that the GFAR secretariat should explore ways of building national capacity to communicate the needs of developing countries in the biotechnology area, and should pay special attention to the promotion of public-private sector partnerships. These needs are being addressed quite often by the public sector, when they could more efficiently be tackled by public-private sector partnerships. A second specific recommendation of the biotechnology group was for the creation of a public education and journalists education program, on the benefits and risks of biotechnology as well as on the regulatory and safety measures that are or should be in place. The fourth proposal that was discussed in this group was the creation of a Biocollecting Society as a way of protecting indigenous knowledge on genetic resources, which is an interesting initiative that will pursued by the relevant institutions.
One of the special events that took place within GFAR-2000 was a "Workshop on Public/Private Research Partnerships in Biotechnology and Genomics", that was organized by the GFAR secretariat, the GFAR private sector group and the CGIAR private sector committee. The objectives of the workshops were: (a) to develop operational principles and approaches for innovative global public/private research partnerships, and (b) to review two cases of possible partnership proposals: one on rice genome sequences and the other one on GMO risk and benefit assessment.
Two complementary ongoing experiences were analysed with respect to the first case of potential research partnership on rice genome sequencing. The first one is a proposal for a collaborative research agenda for trait discovery in rice based on the establishment of a public common platform where information and genetic resources can be widely shared to accelerate trait discovery, that was presented by Ken Fischer. This proposal, which is being initiated by an international working group on functional genomics that is linked to the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project lead by IRRI, is a special case of the Global R&D Framework Programmes previously mentioned. This type of global research programme reflects the characteristics and the challenges that are confronted in the frontier areas of science, such as functional genomics, where new actors are appearing, the balance between public and private research is being changed, IPR issues are becoming clearly important due to the increasing importance of proprietary technologies and new opportunities and challenges are emerging for public/private research partnerships. The second ongoing experience that was discussed with respect to the first case is the Monsanto plan to share its rice genome sequences with the world research community, presented by Gerard Barry of the Crop Genomics Integration Team of this company. The discussion centered around the announcement that the rice genome sequence has been decoded to the level of a "working draft" (not yet a complete sequence), and around the cooperation Monsanto can develop with the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project (IRGSP), with the previous proposal for a collaborative research agenda and with other researchers.
It is interesting to point out that a similar collaborative research agenda is being explored by a similar type of network of research groups in the case of cotton (cotton genome sequencing). This similarity may reflect the fact that the characteristics and requirements of the new areas of science (i.e. investment requirements, critical mass of researchers required, the clear advantages of pooling genetic resources, the importance of knowledge management in this type of research process, etc.), may be leading to a new pattern of research organization in global science in the area of functional genomics and in similar areas of frontier science. The development of a "public common research platform" where information and genetic resources can be widely shared, linked to a global network working in this area, could be at the heart of this research organizational pattern. In order to move in this direction, the challenge for the international community, both public and private, is to develop a shared vision for rice research, and develop policy principles for intellectual property rights that will be acceptable to both. The basic goal of the policy must be to ensure that the developing world can access the technology deriving from this collaboration at low or no royalty. At the same time, it must be recognized that private investment in exploring the various biological resources (now primarily developed by the public sector) depends on the ability of the private researcher to obtain and exercise strong intellectual property rights, especially in the developed world. There is a third challenge that these collaborative ventures confront, which is that of developing a funding strategy that can combine adequately public and private sources of funding. The funding strategy is obviously linked to the IPR issues previously mentioned.
The development of research partnerships with the characteristics mentioned above would make it feasible to strike a balance between the need to continue producing international public goods required for poverty eradication and sustainable development, and the parallel development of proprietary technology that characterizes these areas of science. It is interesting to point out that certain NARS have already successfully developed research partnerships of this type, where these issues have been addressed. Here GFAR could play a facilitating role from two points of view. One is that of facilitating the dialogue among the interested partners involved, such as was the case during the GFAR-2000 workshop. Secondly, it could play a role in facilitating the establishment of the new partnerships, especially in the case of the non-CGIAR commodities, such as cotton. This is also related to another issue that has emerged in GFAR, which is that of the need to strengthen the IPR management capacity of agricultural research institutions to properly operate in this new environment, both in the case of NARS and in IARCs. For more detailed information see the minutes of this workshop.5
The second major topic that the Workshop analysed was that of a proposal presented by Peter Gregory (Senior Consultant, Jellinek, Schwartz and Connolly, Inc.) to create a financing consortium that would contract up to six cutting-edge research studies on the impact of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) around the globe. The initiative would also ensure that the information generated would be communicated to the public and to all other stakeholders in GM crop technology. Consortium members would include development banks, country foreign aid programs, foundations, and private companies. A steering committee would set priorities and oversee the progress of the consortium's activities. The committee would comprise a highly diversified group of stakeholders representing regional and sub-regional research and development organizations, international research centers, non-government organizations, farmers' organizations, advanced research institutions, private companies, and civil society. Through this joint effort that would bring together different stakeholders (i.e. researchers, NGOs, farmers' organizations, private companies, civil society), a greater dialogue among the partners involved and a better information basis for decision-making could be generated.
A large number of concrete proposals for research partnerships in the area of Natural Resource Management and Agroecology were presented at the Conference. It should be pointed out that NGOs and Farmers' Associations are playing a very important role in developing these proposals, working jointly with NARS, with IARCs and with ARIs. A framework for Prolinnova (PROmoting Local INNOVAtion), which is designed to link local and global knowledge in agroecology and NRM, was discussed. As part of this initiative, mechanisms are proposed to: a) document and systematise local innovations and innovation processes; and b) facilitate application of this information to stimulate further innovation at the local level. Numerous projects presented at GFAR-2000 are being developed within this initiative. Examples are:
Such scaling-up requires forms of collaboration that differ from conventional research partnerships, as various institutions of research, development and policymaking must engage themselves in this process to ensure effective development impact. Several stakeholders emphasised that a closer cooperation in research and development in NRM should be developed with existing regional and global initiatives in forestry and in fisheries, including aquaculture.
The further development and operationalization of the partnerships related to NRM and agroecology that were discussed in the Conference will be in the hands of the respective stakeholders. The GFAR secretariat will encourage interlinkages of these projects within the Prolinnova framework, in line with the «Knowledge Management for Local Innovation» initiative that is being led by NGOs. In view of the innovative nature of this approach and the multiplier impact that can be achieved, concrete follow-up will be given to this initiative. For more information see the various papers presented on this topic in GFAR-2000. Many other research partnership proposals were presented in the area of NRM, but they are basically related to specific projects in particular locations that will be further developed by the interested stakeholders. The efforts of the GFAR secretariat will be focused on facilitating the development of the "global R&D framework programmes" that have been mentioned in the last two sections.6
PROLINNOVA is a good example of such "global R&D framework programmes". Two other programmes of this nature were presented in GFAR-2000 in the area of NRM: the Global Programme for Roots and Tuber Research and the Global Programme of Research on Sustainable Land Management (SLM). While PROLINNOVA is being lead by a consortium of NGOs that are working in close collaboration with NARS and IARCs, in the case of the last two programmes the role of the lead organisation is being played by IARCs (CIP for roots and tubers and CIAT and IBSRAM for SLM). But the same principle applies. In both cases there is a strong interest of involving very actively NARS, NGOs, ARIs, Farmers and the private sector. The same characteristics are found in the cases related to commodity-chains that will be mentioned in the next section (i.e. PROCOCOs, the Global Cassava Strategy, and CORNET-ASARECA). This implies going beyond the concept of a programme of an international centre, or of a system-wide programme (referring to the CGIAR system), to a different approach that is based on a multi-stakeholder programme that seeks to develop a concerted effort among interested potential partners. This is one of the new forms for the organisation of scientific research that is emerging in the context of the globalised science that characterises this turn of century. As pointed out above, the development of a critical mass of researchers in key strategic areas, the capacity to develop region-specific research in the context of a common global framework, the possibility of developing concerted efforts among different stakeholders where each one has an important comparative advantage or role that it can bring to the overall programme, and the synergisms and economies of scale that can be achieved, constitute the main value-added of this type of programmes. The consolidation of these new and innovative programmes is one of the challenges that global ARD presently confronts. The CGIAR has a very important role to play in this process, but opening up to work in close collaboration with the other stakeholders. In close interaction with IARCs, with the CGIAR Secretariat and with other stakeholders, the GFAR Secretariat should explore ways of promoting and facilitating this process.
GFAR-2000 highlighted the important role of both major commodities and neglected/underutilised species in rural economies in developing countries, as well as their significant contribution to food security and poverty alleviation. The meeting recognised the need for GFAR to facilitate the development of innovative partnerships in this area, fostering public/private sector collaboration. The "commodity chain" or "filière" approach, which looks at the entire system, from production to consumption, was felt to be very relevant for both categories, due to the importance of involving the various stakeholders, especially in the context of a market economy.
For major commodities, the "global programme" approach based on the example of PROMUSA was endorsed. For these commodities it was recommended that the IPGRI/CIRAD unit in Montpellier that was established in the context of the Global Forum should continue to support existing initiatives and, for other commodities, to stimulate contacts between stakeholders to further the development of Global Programmes. In this category, the creation of a global research program for coconuts (PROCOCOS) was endorsed, that will bring together research groups and the coconut industry. A declaration of intent was signed during the meeting by IPGRI/COGENT and BUROTROP to work jointly in the further development of PROCOCOS. In addition, other candidate crops were identified, such as cocoa and cotton, for which an interest in developing a Global Programme was expressed. For some species, including date palm (AARINENA) and coffee (ASARECA), regional initiatives were started, which might later develop into Global Programmes by linking them to other existing regional initiatives.
For neglected and underutilised species, a regional approach based on the same principles was felt to be more appropriate. Given the importance of neglected or underutilised species, it was agreed that a Task Force will be established, made up of IPGRI, ICUC and FAO, in order to develop a strategic research plan for the utilisation of these crops through sub-regional and regional networks and to develop a global plan of action. An interesting emerging proposal is the project to strengthen the International Bambara Groundnut Network (BAMNET), linking it to research programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to strengthen stakeholder involvement. At the end of the Conference Germany indicated direct support to this initiative and to other underutilised crops. Another emerging proposal is the RESECA project in the LAC region, aimed at promoting the development of rural agroindustries that seek to generate non-farm employment and income in the rural sector. A follow-up meeting will be organised in Firenze with the interested partners that are presently developing this proposal. It is interesting to point out that initiatives such as the RESECA project are mobilising financial resources from non-conventional funding sources for ARD and are clearly involving the private sector. The GFAR Secretariat will facilitate the process, but the project is being developed and implemented by the interested stakeholders.
The strengthening of the policy management and institutional development capacity of stakeholders plays a key role in increasing the impact of agricultural research. Many opportunities for partnerships were identified at the regional and sub-regional level. An example of the regional initiatives that are emerging in this thematic area is the West African Policy-analysis Network that is being established by farmers' organisations, besides ECAPAPA in ASARECA and REPA in CORAF. In cooperation with IFPRI and the respective RF/SRF, interested stakeholders agreed to work on inter-regional collaboration for the comparative analysis of policy options and policy instruments in key areas of agricultural and ARD policy. In addition to this, the working groups identified three issues or topics in which the various stakeholders are particularly interested in carrying out collaborative research efforts, in order to profit from the comparative analysis that can be done between countries and to facilitate the dissemination of information on best practice on these topics. These three topics are: (1) the issue of competitiveness, in order to assist agricultural policy formulation, policy adjustments, and institutional developments by monitoring and assessing the status of competitiveness in developing countries as globalisation occurs and to provide options for interventions that support competitiveness; (2) identification of approaches and strategies that would enhance public-private partnerships, by identifying opportunities and options to reduce obstacles to partnerships between the private and public sectors in developing countries (for example, opportunities in GRM and biotechnology, and how to manage IPR issues in these cases); and (3) policy research aimed at developing appropriate actions for the transformation of agricultural R&D organisations. Two specific questions that were identified in this third topic are those of the interaction between research/extension/innovation (with strong farmer involvement), and the issue of the sub-regional integration of R&D programmes, where some Sub-regional Fora are already experimenting with innovative ways of integrating national research programmes into sub-regional research efforts in specific fields (i.e. SADC Genebank and PROCISUR).
An exchange of experiences among regions/sub-regions could be very useful on this last topic. One of the interesting proposals for new innovative research partnerships that was presented in GFAR-2000 is that of the present experience that is being carried out by the NARS of PROCISUR of seeking an effective integration of their national research programmes in certain fields in order to achieve a critical mass of researchers, linking them to sub-regional networks of innovation. Given the importance of this issue for the effectiveness of NARS in a rapidly changing agricultural research environment, the regional integration of research capacities among NARS in a given sub-region can be facilitated through the dissemination of best practice and of successful cases. This goes beyond the development of regional networks and regional programmes, since in a process of regional integration you have to re-think the national programmes in the context of an integrated programming effort that is done in the sub-regional space. Experiences such as those that are presently underway in PROCISUR and PROCIANDINO should be carefully followed and assessed to see what can we learn from these integration efforts in science, in terms of how to do it and in terms of limiting factors that may constraint the effectiveness of such approaches.
The five Regional Fora presented reports on their evolution and on the activities they are carrying out. Over the last two years, the four now well-established Regional Fora have achieved significant results, in particular in defining their visions, as well as the regional priorities and strategies to address them. Information and communication is another field in which major progress has also been made. The recent establishment of the CAC Forum was also welcome. Among the various aspects discussed with respect to how to strengthen regional/sub-regional organisations, the need to increase stakeholder involvement in the Regional Fora was clearly highlighted. As part of this process, the NGOs have nominated contact points in each region, in order to develop NGO involvement. IFAP is doing the same for Farmers' Organisations.
The regional and sub-regional fora were also very active in the formulation of new innovative partnerships at the regional level based on their more specific priorities. In this respect, we can mention the proposals on date-palm in the AARINENA (WANA) region, on crop-livestock integration in the Mashreq sub-region of WANA, on tropical fruits in the Caribbean, and on coffee in East Africa, the formulation of which were supported by the NARS/GFAR Secretariat. The follow-up to the CORNET proposal in coffee that is emerging in East Africa will be discussed in the coming ASARECA meeting to be held in July. AARINENA and the European Forum (EFARD) are collaborating in the further development of the date palm regional initiative.
A very interesting and promising development that is currently taking place as part of GFAR is the increasing dialogue between different regions and the promotion of inter-regional collaboration. The initiative has been taken by the European region (the European Forum on ARD - EFARD) which suggested to organise bilateral (region to region) meetings with the WANA (AARINENA) and the SSA (FARA) regions to discuss modalities for developing research partnerships and not, as usual, to discuss the funding of projects. For further information on how the EFARD/AARINENA inter-regional partnership is developing, please consult the "Partner ships" section in the EGFAR website (www.egfar.org/ nars). Along the same principles, AARINENA and APAARI agreed to assist the CAC region to develop a research programme on cotton. This inter-regional cooperation is one of the most dynamic dimensions that are emerging in GFAR.
In developing the Global Forum and the active interaction among all stakeholders of ARD in the globalized world of today, intensive use is being made of e-mail and of EGFAR (the Electronic Global Forum on Agricultural Research) as a communication platform among stakeholders. In this area of facilitating information and knowledge flows among stakeholders, a meeting of the five emerging Regional Agricultural Information Systems (RAIS) that are related to the Regional Fora (AARINENA, FORAGRO/INFOTEC, FARA, APAARI and EIARD-InfoSys) was held as a special event in GFAR-2000. The conclusions and recommendations that came out of this specialised event within GFAR-2000 were reported to the Tuesday morning plenary on this topic (May 23). The report that was presented in this session of the Dresden Conference showed the great progress that has been made in implementing the recommendations of the Rome Consultation Meeting on Enhancing Global Cooperation in ARD Information, that was held in FAO in March of 1999. In furthering this process, the five RAIS jointly established a permanent electronic discussion group that will operate through EGFAR, in order to exchange continuously ideas and experiences among them, as a way of supporting through South/South and North/South cooperation (among Regional/Sub-regional Fora) the further development of the RAIS. This electronic discussion group is now starting to operate as a way of exchanging experiences and of real-time consultation and advise among them. On the basis of the meeting they had in GFAR-2000, the five RAIS are now jointly formulating a project to develop what they refer to as an Information Partnership among the RAIS of the RF/SRF. In the month right after GFAR-2000 the five RAIS established a website based in EGFAR, that can be accessed though the Gateway function of the EGFAR website (www.egfar.org/NARS).
The NARS Forum of EGFAR was also launched at GFAR-2000 with the various NARS that are playing different roles in it. The NARS Forum is a website that is being developed in cooperation with FAO and with ISNAR, that will seek to develop a user-driven open Knowledge Marketplace on topics and issues that are of interest to the management of NARS and to their development. The objectives of this initiative are quite clear: to use Internet and modern information management techniques to create a cumulative knowledge pool on strategic issues of NARS development and management, and to allow research managers around the world to tap into this knowledge pool, enriching it through its continuous and dynamic use. Stakeholder involvement and ownership by NARS is of critical importance. More information on the NARS Forum can be obtained directly from the "Forum" section in the NARS website of EGFAR (see www.egfar.org/NARS).
One of the interesting characteristics of GFAR is the strong involvement and participation by all stakeholders of agricultural research. The last day of the conference each stakeholder presented its own perspective on the main issues discussed in the conference and the contribution each stakeholder can make to GFAR.
The National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) endorsed the framework for action that emerged from GFAR-2000 based on the research partnership proposals that are being developed in the four priority areas, and pointed out that they are deeply committed to work with the other GFAR stakeholders in increasing the effectiveness of agricultural research in terms of its impact on food security, poverty eradication and environmental sustainability. They also emphasized the importance of strengthening NARS and the Regional/Sub-regional Fora, given the key role they play in linking agricultural research to development.
The international research centres (IARCs) of the CGIAR pointed out that it is important to emphasize that the role of GFAR is to facilitate research partnerships, but that the research will be in the hands of the respective stakeholders. The international centres feel they can make an important contribution to all four of the major areas identified in the framework for action and are willing to do so.
The advanced research institutes (ARIs) pointed out that they are interested in strengthening their participation in GFAR, especially in those regions where information on GFAR had still not permeated the agricultural research community. They also highlighted their interest on education, training, research partnerships and outreach activities, in the areas that have been discussed in GFAR-2000.
The private sector emphasized the need to give a sense of urgency for effective action in responding to the challenges of food security and sustainable development. In doing so, three factors play a critical role in this process: the importance of information and education on the benefits and risks of modern biotechnology; the need to develop innovative partnerships between the public and the private sector; and the importance of having a forum where a dialogue among stakeholders can be held around the key issues that have been identified in GFAR-2000. The benefit of having a small amount of seed money for pilot proposals on key joint efforts was highlighted, as a way of having good examples and innovative models that could move ahead.
The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) commended the openness of GFAR and the possibility of dialogue; but they also pointed out that the dialogue process has to be strengthened in order to avoid some of the limitations that have been confronted, and to really develop a forum to debate strategic issues of common concern and to seek to build on areas of agreement. The NGOs expressed their interest in participating in research partnerships on small farmer-led agro-ecological and NRM research, on policy options for IPR management, on implementation of the Global Leipzig Plan of Action, on analysis of impacts/risks of GMOs, on impact of trade liberalization and on implementation of the biosafety protocol.
Two farmers' organizations represented this key stakeholder: IFAP and Via Campesina. IFAP pointed out the importance of developing effective mechanisms to better integrate the farmer into the research process. They proposed that GFAR take an advocacy role to ensure that public research is better funded. Furthermore, IFAP stressed the need to look at farming systems as a whole, including their contribution to food security, sustainable management of natural resources, maintaining cultural traditions and contributing to the vitality of rural areas. They also called for policy research to guide and support technological change. Via Campesina expressed that in the future they would like to have an opportunity to present their experiences with agro-ecological research at the farm level, with water management and with seed production, given the importance of strengthening the participation of the farmer in the research and extension process. They emphasized the need to take into consideration the various factors that impinge upon the welfare of the small farmer, such as access to land, and they expressed their concern with the privatization of knowledge and the patenting of life.
Finally the donors pointed out that they clearly see in the Global Forum not a funding mechanism but the emergence of a platform for the exchange of information and experiences among stakeholders, for the generation of new research partnerships, and for the development of new approaches to knowledge management. New research partnerships have been identified and are coming out of GFAR-2000. They also felt the need to emphasize the sense of urgency the world faces in addressing the issues of food security, poverty eradication and sustainable natural resource management, since these are prerequisites for assuring peaceful coexistence, the attainment of human rights and basic human development, as the Dresden Declaration correctly points out.
We, the representatives of the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and of their Regional/Sub-regional Fora of developing countries, participating in GFAR-2000 in Dresden, Germany, May 21-23, 2000 would like to make the following recommendation and clarification about the Global Shared Vision and Framework of Action and the Dresden declaration.
We endorse the principles set out by GFAR in the Draft Statement of the Global Shared Vision and in the GFAR 2000 declaration. However, we recommend that the two documents be merged and the final version be more concise, precise and consistent throughout.
The National Agricultural Research Systems completely support the framework for action as foreseen in GFAR-2000 for the promotion of global research partnerships under the four priority areas of Genetic Resources Management and Biotechnology, Natural Resources Management and Agro-ecology, International Cooperation on Commodity Chains and Policy Management and Institutional Development. The NARS are committed to work with other GFAR stakeholders for the effective tackling of issues related to Food Security, Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Natural Resources Management especially water in the dry areas.
As mentioned above, all the four lines of action selected have high global and regional relevance in Agricultural Research and Development and, in order to materialize it, active participation and involvement of Regional/Sub-regional Fora and the NARS of the developing countries is highly crucial for the successful outcome of global partnership. Moreover, we are strongly committed to work with other GFAR stakeholders to implement the agreed framework of action and recommendations made at GFAR 2000.
The NARS recommend that the next GFAR Meeting review the progress made on the Global shared vision and the four lines of action which were selected as high priorities in GFAR 2000. We all hope that these concerted efforts will lead to a secured food world without witnessing the indignation of poverty for a just, equitable and secured future.
Referring to the 1st question about the Dresden Declaration and the Global Shared Vision, the IARCs group will propose a number of editorial and structural comments to the Secretariat which, we believe, will contribute to making the Declaration and the Global Shared Vision an even more powerful document. I will not, however, expand further on these comments here.
I would like to share the following suggestions made by the IARC group.
With regards to the structure, the IARC group felt that the part of the document Global Shared Vision should be short and concise. To this effect, some of the points in the Global Shared Vision could be transferred to the preamble. The Global Shared Vision would then start by indicating what kind of agriculture the GFAR envisages, describe what kind of agricultural research is necessary to move towards these goals and conclude by stating what would be the role of GFAR in the implementation of the Global Shared Vision. The document should also specify that the Global Forum and, in particular, the Secretariat, is not to be an implementing agency. The wording in the text is sometimes a little confusing and it is therefore recommended that in the editing, a clear distinction should be made between the role of the Secretariat and that of the stakeholders. The document should also clearly state that the GFAR will not be a funding agency but will facilitate partnerships among the stakeholder categories. The distinction between the function of the Secretariat and the role of the stakeholders should be made quite clear.
The IARCs feel that the Global Forum 2000 provided an excellent opportunity for stakeholders to meet and to exchange views and also generated clear initial benefits. While some issues certainly need to be discussed further and achievements in some areas were restricted, IARCs fully recognize that GFAR has provided a positive start. Future interaction amongst stakeholders will no doubt become more enhanced and efficient as the programme develops.
In response to the question regarding the international centres' contribution to the Framework for Action, the IARCs group feel that a significant contribution can be made to all four of the major areas identified in the framework for action and the group also confirmed their willingness to do so.
The IARCs group made two comments in response to this question. The first comment concerns the representation among the NARS category. It was felt that there was a poor representation of the fisheries, forestry and livestock sector and a dominance of the crops sector and suggested that something be done in this area. The second comment was a suggestion that some other international organizations (e.g. UNDP) might also be able to make useful contributions to the GFAR.
These were the comments and views presented by the International Centres.
The ARIs stakeholders made their editorial comments on the Dresden Declaration and Global Vision, but in essence we endorse the spirit of the declaration. Many of the things that were brought up in the first group (the NARS) were also a concern for the ARIs.
We are very pleased with the outcome of this conference. It is very similar to the outcome of the recent European Forum.
The ARIs are very interested in global issues and global partnerships. The ARIs stakeholders have committed many of their financial and human resources to the mission of GFAR.
We are very interested in education, training, research and outreach activities. We will continue to give our resources to this mission. We do seek full participation in the GFAR endeavor. The ARIs will do a better job in informing their constituencies of GFAR and of the GFAR mission.
We have some suggestions: there is a need for a clarification of the role of GFAR. We are looking forward to seeing a plan of action with an outline of targets and timetables. Several times the reduction in transaction costs was mentioned, so we are looking at ways to reduce transaction costs.
Finally, as far as representation, we were wondering who represented the consumers in this initiative.
We were asked to address four areas from a Private Sector perspective:
While I won't go through all of the points listed on the slide, I'll just highlight a couple for you. One of the key points we would like to highlight is that there is a sense of urgency and we would say that time is critical. We would like to see this agenda move forward quickly across stakeholder groups. We cannot afford to be standing here five years from now not having made any progress with regard to driving this agenda forward. Another key point we would like to make is in addition to modern biotechnology being referenced in the document, we would also like to see included other new and developing technologies. This is recognition that modern biotechnology is very important but it's just one tool in the whole set of tools needed. A third point I would like to highlight is with regard to the plan of action. We would like to see expanded beyond training and education for journalists the establishment of a program which would increase public education and training to include decision makers, scholars and the public at large in the debate about the benefits and the risks of modern biotechnology. The final point I'll make on this piece is with regard to the last point on the slide: we strongly endorse the need for enhancing public and private partnerships with the objectives of identifying opportunities and providing options to reduce the barriers to drive these partnerships in developing countries in areas including GRM, modern biotechnology and IPR. We also see this as a matter of urgency. The current draft, with these points taken into consideration is supported by the Private Sector Stakeholders
Our group spent a great deal of time discussing this. This has certainly been a platform for sharing information and facilitating development of partnerships. It also has highlighted some key issues and the need for continuing dialogue among the stakeholders. This forum can allow public sector stakeholders to provide key input to the private sector with regard to key needs and the potential areas of focus for technology transfer. There is an opportunity to forward technology transfer to developing markets that quite frankly will not be developed by the private sector. We believe this forum can provide a foundation for moving that ahead faster. We also raised some issues that we see as areas for improvement. We do think that it would be beneficial if there were some small amount of seed money for pilot proposals. We talked about several pilot proposals in some of the workshops and if there was some amount of seed money it would have value in trying to forward a couple of these proposals so that we can have some good examples and models moving ahead. We also would like to clearly understand the expectations of the other stakeholder groups with regard to the private sector's participation in GFAR, specifically with regard to developing countries. We see value in participating in this forum and would like to understand how other stakeholders view our role. Finally, we think that there are important issues that can be addressed if we can develop a level of trust across stakeholder groups to the extent that we could invite stakeholders from the public sector into our private sector companies at an earlier stage of technology development to share information at an earlier stage about what we are doing, how we are trying to move things forward, how that might be a good fit in some parts of the public sector in areas that have needs for these technologies, etc.
Clearly there is a need for information and education across regions (not just developing countries but also developed countries) regarding the global food security problems. We think that's a first step to lead to the next point which is: before you can educate and share information to raise public awareness about the benefits and risks of modern biotechnology people in developed areas need a good understanding of the global food security problems and issues. We felt like the private sector satellite workshop that was held last evening generated a great deal of dialogue and some good discussion. There were three cases presented, two that dealt with rice genomics, one with regard to rice genome sequencing, the other along the lines of functional genomics and the third case study about the risk and benefits of GMOs. We felt like those were areas where we certainly want to continue to drive the dialogue forward. We want interested parties to continue to work with us to move these projects forward. Finally, we felt that it would be important and we would be interested in participating in the development of some sort of Council that could assist in eliminating some of the barriers associated with IPR and harness some of the opportunities for technology transfer. We'd like to explore means to make this more transparent to the public to see if we can get past some of the barriers that we have standing in our way today.
From a private sector perspective, we felt there is a need for broader representation. The private sector is such a broad and diverse group and it tends to get represented only by multinationals or larger private sector companies but there is a need to be more inclusive and look at small local private sector companies and support for representation of those local companies in this discussion and in this forum in the future. When we are trying to drive partnerships and bringing technology forward, we felt under-represented. We do represent some of the key potential partners for the other stakeholders and so we need to look at the level of participation. We even talked about the need and the want (I would say) of the group involved to have a private sector workshop to try and develop and advance further a platform for how we shall progress in modern technology, not just modern biotechnology, to try and drive this forward and broaden our stakeholder representation.
We have both positive comments as well as concerns to express on the assessment of the GFAR and the Global Vision declaration.
On the positive side, this GFAR worked as an initial forum for stakeholders to identify differences and convergences. It is a dialogue process which must be strengthened. We approve the emphasis on agro-ecology and natural resources management (NRM) and participatory research, and we appreciate the opportunity given to the NGOs to help design this particular portion of the GFAR. The discussion on genetic resources management was particularly open and useful. As NGOs, we had good opportunities for participation in the workshops. We commend the GFAR for being more open than the CGIAR system.
But we also have a few negative comments. The opportunities for Civil Society presence and participation were imbalanced. The numbers were dominated by certain stakeholder groups. There was no translation outside of the plenary, and this made it hard for many farmers to have a voice. There was a very imbalanced gender composition. I know I am in the company of great minds who crunch statistics on a daily basis, so here is something for our minds. For example, of the 31 plenary speakers, 16 came from government and multilateral agencies, 13 from research centres, one from NGOs, and none from farmers organisations; there were 29 men and only 2 women, 19 from the North and 11 from the South [and one from the East].
We are concerned about the tendencies to promote the development of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), to promote the free market and trade liberalisation policies, and to accept the growing role of industry in public research centres at all levels.
The revised draft was made available to us too late to do serious work on it. We are much less happy with the second draft than with the first one (which was not 100% acceptable either, but better). So, unfortunately, we cannot endorse this new version without major re-drafting.
As for the future: The GFAR can be a forum for debate and for consensus building on areas of agreement. We need a formal structure and good facilitation to guarantee balanced stakeholder participation. This is a Global Forum, not a Global Monologue Organisation (GMO?!). In the future, there must be participation of farmer organisations and NGOs in all levels of decision making from NARS to the Steering Committee of the GFAR.
Some ideas and suggestions: There should be more concretely contextualised research in terms of small farmers, rural poverty and development, access to land and natural resources, etc. It should place a clear priority on agro-ecology and NRM, because this presents fewer risks and greater immediate benefits. It should restrict emphasis on GMOs to risk assessment and laboratory studies. We would like to see a move in agroecology and NRM and participation from words to practice. We challenge you on that. And we would like to see funding mechanisms move toward a trust-fund model with open and balanced competition.
The steps forward: We want to develop a common vision of a collaborative process of dialogue to seek areas of cooperation which welcomes diversity and acknowledges differences. We want to move forward with the GFAR. The NGOs are open to partnerships with farmer organisations, NARIs, IARCs, universities, etc. - partnerships in family-led agro-ecological and NRM research, policy options for the Centres on intellectual property rights, implementing the Leipzig Global Plan of Action, analysing the impact and risks of GMOs, trade liberalisation and implementing the Biosafety Protocol. Regarding mechanisms for partnerships, there is a need for continuing communication between stakeholder groups and the GFAR. The NGOs have named regional contact persons at the close of our stakeholder group meeting.
We reiterate that formal mechanisms must be implemented to assure balanced participation in all aspects. Finally, we look forward to continued engagement with stakeholders in full recognition of our differences and complementarities.
The farmers' group that met in Dresden on the occasion of the GFAR 2000 Conference supports the work of GFAR to strengthen networking and partnerships among stakeholders of the global agricultural research system. It is essential to consider the research system in its globality, encompassing farmers, researchers, extension workers, policy makers, and other civil society organizations.
Farmers are the clients of agricultural research. It is important that the global research system responds to their needs. Agricultural research and rural development must therefore be farmer-centered and farmer driven. Farmers must be actively involved in the establishment, implementation and assessment of research programs. GFAR offers the opportunity of establishing new participatory methods in research, which define problems in a broad social and economic framework.
Linkages between farmers, research, and technology transfer need to be strengthened at the local, national, regional and international levels.
Focus on family agriculture and on development
Farmers agree that the special focus of GFAR should be on "research for development". It is critical that the work of GFAR lead to an improvement of the situation of family farmers - particularly small-scale family farmers - in their efforts to achieve food security and the elimination of rural poverty, while at the same time preserving the natural resource base for future generations.
Research is needed to address the difficult situation faced by farmers, especially those in remote and marginalized areas, so that they are better able to cope with external shocks such as globalization and liberalization, the effects of climate change, or health and safety problems. More research is also needed on risk management for small farmers.
Farmers must be aware of what technological and policy changes are on the horizon. Thus developments in research need to be accompanied by training for farmers, on new developments, and how they can cope with them.
Effective mechanisms must be developed for the participation of farmers and other stakeholders in policy decisions. However, in order for farmers to be effective partners in the development process, they must be organized into strong farmers' organizations. These organizations will need to possess a good communications system with their members to reach out to farmers even in the most remote and marginalized area. They will also need good analytical and policy development capacity. It is therefore essential that GFAR include in its research partnerships, projects to strengthen the capacity of farmers' organizations.
Farmers view with serious concern the reductions that have occurred in government funding for agricultural research. The best research is today being increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few large multinational corporations, where it is protected by patents. The issue of who owns and controls research greatly determines who benefits from it.
For farmers, it is fundamental that GFAR take on an advocacy role to redress the imbalance between public and private funding of research. GFAR must call for more funds to be invested in the public sector so that high-quality scientists can be attracted to working on agricultural research that is available to all. A target should be established to increase public funding of agricultural research so that it at least matches that of the private sector. Increasing public interest in food and environmental issues should help to facilitate achieving this goal.
Adequate resources should be made available for extensions work so that the results of research actually reach the farmers
Agricultural research should empower farmers so that they become more economically, socially and ecologically sustainable. Farmers' rights to plant farm-saved seed must be guaranteed. GFAR must be an advocate for national and international legislation to allow farmers complete access to, and complete freedom to use, seeds developed over centuries by traditional agriculture.
Farmers also see an important role for GFAR in establishing research partnerships to help farmers to preserve their land and water resources. Degradation of land and water resources is a serious threat in many developing countries. Helping farmers in this area is not commercially attractive to private companies, but should be a role of GFAR.
Agricultural has many functions in society, including food security, sustainable management of natural resources, maintaining cultural traditions, and contributing to the vitality of rural communities. GFAR should therefore look at research in an integrated manner, in terms of the whole complex, diversified system of production and livelihoods in rural communities. Its actions must help to strengthen this system, by building on the local knowledge of farmers, and helping farmers to become more sustainable.
Research should also focus on the food chain, from the "gate" to the "plate". However, care must be taken to continue to ensure the autonomy and independence of each sector so as not to encourage vertical integration. Research partnerships to strengthen the functioning of farmers'' cooperatives and farmers' development cooperation should be given a high priority in this area.
Developments in research and technology will have little impact if farmers do not have a favorable environment in which to work.
Education is critical for farmers to make progress in a `knowledge economy'. Consideration should therefore be given to establishing regional centres where information on best practices or success stories can be accessed by farmers' organizations and others.
Farmers need access to resources, particularly land and water. They need access to credit at affordable rates, and they need adequate infrastructure, particularly for marketing, transport, storage, information and communications.
These are all areas where GFAR can make a major contribution to giving increased priority for policy research.
Policy research is also important to guide and support technological change. It should cover such questions as intellectual property rights, biosafety and food safety.
The emergence of a global food and agricultural system has not benefited agricultural producers in all countries. Many small family farmers in developing countries are facing enormous difficulties in adjusting to globalization. Research is therefore needed to analyze the effects of globalization and liberalization on the competitivity of the small farm sector. This analysis should include a review of government support service, as these are often inadequate to help farmers compete in global markets.
Agricultural research should strengthen farmers' in their efforts to feed a growing world population, and at the same time preserve the environment. For this, it is necessary to ensure that research is well funded, and that farmers everywhere have access to it. It is also necessary to strengthen the links between farmers' organizations and the institutions responsible for research and technology transfer.
However, research and technology will not have an impact unless other problems are also addressed, such as land tenure, credit, organization of the farmers, and education.
The future agenda for GFAR therefore has to be very broad. GFAR has an essential advocacy role to promote common stakeholder interests, and it has a role in capacity building, as well as a role in facilitating farmer-driven research partnerships that contribute to achieving the goals of food security for all, and sustainable rural development.
I address this conference as a member of the International Executive Secretariat of VIA CAMPESINA, an international organization of landless peasants and small farmers, rural women, indigenous peoples, and rural workers, who are the poorest people in the planet.
We want to thank the GFAR for inviting us to participate in this forum for the first time; we think it is very important to join this event and we acknowledge the considerable efforts made to create a participatory forum open to all the sectors. We want to express our frank, positive and friendly encouragement to further strengthen this participatory process that we deem highly important. In view of the important debates on agricultural research and other issues, we would have appreciated a stronger and more direct participation of our organization in the discussions. We would have liked to share with you our experiences in agricultural research and regret that we only had the opportunity to address the forum at the end of the event.
We have noticed that the forum counted on the participation of more than 33 distinguished experts, University researchers and representatives from the transnational companies and only one organization representing the small and medium farmers. I would like to stress that our comments are made in an open and respectful manner. I am certain that if we continue the debate in the future, we will overcome these constraints. For instance, we would have liked to share with you the experiences on agricultural research with organic seeds made by the Movement of Landless People in Brazil; or the experiences on organic farming achieved by the Karnataka Peasant Association in India; or the water and sheep husbandry management experience carried out by farmers in Senegal, as well as many other experiments that small farmers and peasants are carrying out in their own plots. I think we need to combine laboratory, academic research and farmers research in the field. It is necessary to join scientific academic research with peasants and rural people's research. But these are constraints that we can come through, as the process goes on. Another constraint we have faced, specially the participants from the Third World or developing countries, is related to language, because we do not speak English and we did not always have interpreters that could facilitate our participation in the working groups. We acknowledge that the organizers have made an effort to overcome this constraint and in the end we were able to solve it. Nevertheless it is necessary to take this aspect into account from the beginning, otherwise our participation would be only a presence, while communication means exchange, dialogue.
We consider that scientific research must also be democratized. It is not desirable that agricultural research concentrates more and more in the transnational sector whose capital allows it to invest in research, and worst, in research that patents living organisms and hampers Farmers Rights. It is necessary to count on democratic, more participatory research departing from peasants and small and medium farmers' needs. Moreover, research must not proceed separately from the problems that affect agriculture as well as other concrete constraints i.e.: access to land, agrarian reform. Discussions have been made about food security, but we want to contribute with another concept, food sovereignty which means the right to consume healthy and nutrient food, and the right to produce it.
The agricultural crisis is partly due to the fact that farmers, who have been traditionally the food producers, now are being replaced by large transnational enterprises, an option which is unacceptable for the members of Via Campesina. We therefore need agricultural research, agricultural research for life, for food, for agrarian reform, in favor of genetic resources, in favor of farmers' rights.
Finally, we have carefully read the final declaration to be adopted in this forum. We share many of its purposes but not all of them, and we have submitted our comments to the Secretariat, a written contribution aimed at having a larger participation of peasants, rural women, and small and medium farmers. We request that our demands be taken into account and that the research process be conceived keeping in mind the farmers needs because we have much to contribute to this effort. We will carefully consider the final resolution, because our organization has studied, analyzed and decided to participate in good will in this process which we consider a valuable effort. But at the same time our participation will not be possible if exclusion factors develop, if our views are not taken into account or if we are not consulted properly to avoid manipulation. Chair, this is our position and we wanted to express it here. Tomorrow we will hold a press conference to inform our member organizations about our participation and about the nature of this forum.
We have submitted the comments we deemed important and we encourage the forum to continue its process. We live a historical and important moment that will allow us to reorient agricultural policy at the world level, without excluding, discriminating and manipulating peasants rights rural women and agricultural workers. Research must not be carried out with the aim of strengthening a highly industrialized and modern agriculture for export purposes that may destroy small and medium farmers' markets. We must work in order to strengthen peasants' agriculture, which may be economically viable, and socially fair and sustainable from the ecological point of view.
We, in our group, had a very lively and active discussion on the introductory paper. Considerable concern has been expressed with regard to the ambitious target of increasing food production not only to such an extent that it keeps pace with the population that grows, but even surpassing it.
In accordance with previous statements we felt that biotechnology in itself is not a target but a most valuable tool complementing and even fostering our activities with regard to the overall objectives of reaching food security and poverty reduction.
Similarly, we feel that establishing a new funding mechanism is not really a necessity for achieving our targets, but having a platform, a forum for the intensified exchange of information and new technologies, for establishing new partnerships and approaches to knowledge management, that is what we expect from the Global Forum.
With these remarks in mind we are convinced that the paper in front of us can be whole- heatedly endorsed because it emphasises and strengthens the spirit of ownership. It is this enlarged and fortified understanding of a common ownership of which we are so proud and which we participated in developing it over the last three days.
Food security, poverty eradication and the management of natural resources are the key issues that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency - having the still growing world population and thus growing demands in mind.
We also need to assure peaceful and constructive co-existence for the realization of human rights and optimum human development in the new millennium.
Agriculture and rural development and the management of natural resources ask for substantive and additional support from all stakeholders and at all levels. The agriculture we are envisaging needs to be sustainable, equitable, profitable and competitive. It also needs to be diversified and at the same time flexible to cope with the agricultural and eco-agricultural changes. It will respond to a wide range of knowledge and innovations provided from a multiplicity of sources.
If we will succeed in implementing all these visions from our deliberations here, we are very confident that the Global Forum in Dresden has started a new approach and is well on its way moving even in the most promising direction.
At the dawn of the 21st century, we, the stakeholders of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), wish to remind the international community of the increasing importance and relevance of the three challenges that have guided agricultural research over the past decades:
These challenges have to be addressed in a rapidly changing socio-economic context. The following trends provide uncommon opportunities but may also create some threats to agricultural research for development:
To address these challenges, the GFAR stakeholders gathered in Dresden, Germany, from 21 to 23 May 2000, have adopted the following Global Vision for Agricultural Research for Development which builds on the diversity and complementarity of the different GFAR stakeholders.
Advances in agricultural research and development, including major breakthroughs in the new areas of science, have significantly contributed to meeting the challenge of food and nutrition security, agricultural sustainability, production and productivity. However, the world still faces an increasingly complex challenge of feeding its growing population and of eradicating poverty, while assuring an equitable and sustainable use of its natural resources.
We, the GFAR stakeholders, believe that:
We share a vision for the future encompassing: (a) the appreciation of the role knowledge plays in the development of agriculture; (b) the conviction that knowledge generation and utilisation is increasingly based on global research systems and networks and on farmers-led experiments and innovations; and (c) the belief that new developments in areas of natural resource management, information and communication technologies (ICT) and modern biotechnology generate new opportunities. These new developments represent an enormous potential but, at the same time, could lead to serious negative effects, widening of technology gaps and social exclusion processes. As a consequence, their socio-economic, human health and environmental impacts have to be monitored, risks and benefits evaluated and then regulated as appropriate.
The GFAR stakeholders envision the development of an agriculture including crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry, which is:
This vision implies a progressive shift of paradigm in Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) towards a holistic "Knowledge Intensive Agriculture" accessible to small and poor farmers.
In implementing this vision, the GFAR stakeholders agree to adhere to the following principles:
The GFAR stakeholders commit themselves to establishing the following three building blocks of the Global System for Agricultural Research for Development as first steps to implement the Global Vision:
We are convinced that these concerted actions can contribute to the emergence of a global system for agricultural research for development. We are also convinced that this will not succeed without additional investments in agricultural research, which implies additional efforts from the international community and the establishment of new funding mechanisms to mobilise both the public and private sectors. Therefore, the GFAR stakeholders request the policy and decision-makers to strongly support the on-going renewal of agricultural research for development.
In view of the above considerations, the Participants in this Global Forum on Agricultural Research:
2 The full version of the paper on "Agriculture in the Early 21st Century", as well as an Executive Summary that presents in a very condensed form the main issues and trends analyzed, can be downloaded from the documents section in EGFAR (www.egfar.org)
3 For a more detailed discussion of the options that are being explored in following up on the various partnership proposals, see "Some Thoughts on the Follow-up to GFAR-2000 on Research Partnerships"; Rome, GFAR Secretariat, July 26, 2000.
4 For a further discussion of this idea and its implications see "Some Thoughts on the Follow-up to GFAR-2000 on Research Partnerships"; Rome, GFAR Secretariat, July of 2000.
5 GFAR: "Minutes of the GFAR-2000 Workshop on Private-Public Research Partnerships in Biotechnology and Genomics"; Rome, GFAR Secretariat, May 22, 2000.
6 For a more detailed discussion of this approach, see "Some Thoughts on the Follow-up to GFAR-2000 on Research Partnerships"; Rome, GFAR Secretariat, July 28, 2000.
