Institutional Learning and Change Initiative

Keywords:

GCARD; partnership; R&D

Abstract:

The first Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) was held on March 28-31, 2010 in Montpellier, France. We attended the conference as resource persons invited by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and the Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative, which co-organized a workshop on partnership prior to the conference. They were also involved in organizing a session on “Improving Partnership” on Day 3 of the GCARD, and in reporting on the session in the final plenary. Over 1,000 researchers, policymakers, farmers, donors, and members of civil society from every region of the world came together “to develop a new agricultural research-for-development (AR4D) architecture that is geared toward reducing both hunger and poverty.” It was the first time all key players, from farmer to donor, have gathered to iron out an action plan for AR4D. A key document prepared by Uma Lele, Jules Pretty, Gene Terry, and Eduardo Trigo, “Transforming Agricultural Research for Development,” highlights key themes that emerged from pre-conference regional and thematic consultations and a review of literature. A final version of the document, including a “roadmap” for future actions is to be issued at the end of June. The conference program, daily summaries of discussions, videos of presentations, documents related to the event, and press releases are available on the conference website. This note presents our “personal highlights” for the conference, with particular emphasis on the theme of partnership.