Agricultural Futures - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 843

deployed in cross-cultural, global processes” How is “representation” constructed and
legitimized?How,asaresult,docollectiveunderstandingsofglobalissuesemerge?
DrawingonadetailedanalysisoftheIAASTDprocessbetween2003and2008,the
chapter argues that, in such assessments, the politics of knowledge need to be made
more explicit, and that negotiations around politics and values must be placed center
stage. The black-boxing of uncertainty, or the eclipsing of more fundamental clashes
over interpretation and meaning, must be avoided for processes of participation and
engagement in global assessments to become more meaningful, democratic, and
accountable.FollowingMoufe(2005),thechapterofersacritiqueofsimplisticforms
of deliberative democratic practice, and argues that there is a need to “bring politics
back in.”
The International Assessment of
Agricultural Knowledge, Science and
Technology (IAASTD)
heoverallpurposeoftheIAASTD,whichconcludedwithainalplenarysessionin
JohannesburginApril2008,was“toassessagriculturalknowledge,scienceandtechnol-
ogy in order to use it more effectively to reduce hunger and poverty, improve rural liveli-
hoods, and facilitate equitable, environmentally, socially and economically sustainable
development.”3 No one could argue with that goal of course. But how was this ambitious
aimtoberealized?
heIAASTDwasannouncedduring2002,anditwasinitiatedonivecontinentsin
early2003withaseriesofconsultationmeetings.Sincetheniveregionalreportsand
oneglobalreport(IAASTD2009)havebeenproduced,allcontributingtoasynthesis
and summaries for decision makers for each continental report and the global report.
A totalof400authorswererecruitedtowritethereports,andanoverallframeworkwas
hammered out in a series of meetings,4 a process overseen by a complex governance
structure(Scoones2008).
he IAASTD received very substantial inancial backing from a wide range of
bilateraldonors,UNorganizations,andtheWorldBank,withatotalbudgetofmore
thanUS$15m.5 With agriculture and technology once again rising in importance in
the development agenda, many agencies saw this as an excellent opportunity to map
out a way forward. A combination of a multi-stakeholder and an intergovernmental
UN process proved appealing, as this offered the combination of inclusion and dia-
logue, including civil society and private business actors as well as formal decision
makingandbuy-inbynation-states.Wasthisperhapsthemodelforthefuture—
pickingthebestoftheIPCCandtheMAandcombiningtheminanapproachto
global decision making that was at once scientifically sound, politically legitimate,
and participatory?