Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1
The Challenge Program
on Water and Food: A new
paradigm for research in
the CGIAR
1
Myles J. Fisher,
a*
Amanda Harding
b
and
Eric Kemp-Benedict
c
a
Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical CIAT, Cali, Colombia;
b
CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food CPWF, Paris, France;
c
Stockholm Environment Institute SEI, Bangkok, Thailand;
*
Corresponding
author, mylesjfisher@gmail.com.
The creation of Global Challenge Programs and the
Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF)
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has
always been about food security. It started over 40 years ago in 1971 with four
Centers focused on breeding better staple food crops. In 2000, when it
consisted of 16 Centers, it asked its Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) to
address its future for the next decade, what it should be doing and producing;
how it should be doing it and with whom. TAC produced
A Food Secure World
for All: Toward a New Vision and Strategy for the CGIAR
2
to guide it through
the coming decade (Box 1.1), which was approved at International Centers'
Week, 2000.
3
The CGIAR Chair commissioned a
Change Design and Management Team
(CDMT) to make concrete proposals for how TAC's proposals might be imple-
mented. The CDMT recommended that “[The] CGIAR should formulate
Box 1.1
TAC's vision and strategy
Vision: A food secure world for all.
Goal: To reduce poverty, hunger and malnutrition by sustainably
increasing the productivity of resources in agriculture,
forestry and fisheries.
Mission: To achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in
developing countries through scientific research and research-
related activities in the fields of agriculture, livestock, forestry,
fisheries, policy and natural resources management.
