Partnerships, platforms and power - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 169

Box 7.1 The discourse of change in the CGIAR remains
remarkably stable

• Integrated natural resource management (INRM): “The shift from

empirical to process-oriented research and use of system approaches
will allow us to focus on ways of making ecosystems and natural
resources managers such as farmers and others more capable of
adapting positively in response to change, to work at multiple scales,
and to suggest ways of dealing with the tradeoffs that are inevitable
in various resource management options” (CGIAR, 2000).

• Ecoregional approach : “For the CGIAR to meet these challenges,

changes in programming and organization that respond both to
these changing global circumstances and to past operation ineffi-
ciencies are demanded. The second dimension is to adopt a new
spirit of partnership with other research groups, and to design new
mechanisms for closer integration across country, regional and
international levels to bring greater coherence and efficiency to the
global agricultural research system as a whole” (TAC, 1993).

• Global Challenge Programs : “The [CGIAR] System focuses the major

part of its efforts on large multi-institutional research programs,
which address specific problem areas using the expertise and
competence of existing and new Center programs, and other
partners. Most research programs are identified through a process
which pulls in the suggestions of on-the-ground partners and
potential new allies. The approach to problems is defined within an
overarching vision of how the best science, together with other
knowledge, can address the most urgent issues in a manner which
will reduce poverty and promote development” (CGIAR, 2001).

• CGIAR Research Programs : “It has been recognized for more than a

decade that the ever more complex issues facing agricultural research
for development require an innovative approach to research. No
single research institution working alone can address the critically
important issues of global climate change, agriculture, and food
security and rural poverty” (CGIAR, undated b).

The history of the CGIAR represents an orderly decadal progression as in
Figure 7.2 and summarizes that progression as: “Sweeping changes in the first
decade of the 21st century transformed our loose coalition into a streamlined
global partnership working as one” (CGIAR undated a). An earlier depiction
(Figure 7.3) shows the same evolution as a progression of topics as seen by the
CGIAR Centers.