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Changing Times, Time to Change
| Recent turmoil in food, energy and financial markets
will likely persist in the years to come. Climate change is
expected to constrain the productivity of crops, as
altered temperature and rainfall patterns depress yields
and intensify pest and disease pressures. More frequent
and intense drought and tropical storms will further
undermine the food security and well-being of
smallholder farmers, fishers and foresters and their
ability to supply markets. |
What's New
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The Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR) must confront these challenges in
keeping with its mission to reduce poverty and hunger,
improve human health and nutrition, and enhance
ecosystem resilience through high quality international
agricultural research, partnership and leadership. To
meet these challenges in a changing world, the CGIAR
is also changing. In December 2009, the CGIAR opened
a new chapter in its 39-year history by adopting a new
business model based on two years of consultations
within and beyond the partnership.
A Balanced Partnership
The new model for the CGIAR emphasizes clear lines
of accountability and balances the partnership between
those who conduct research, on the one hand, and
those who fund it, on the other. It opens the system
for stronger collaboration and partnership with other
research and development actors. This more businesslike
structure and its clarified roles, responsibilities and
decision-making processes promise to enable the CGIAR
to do more in fulfillment of its mandate.
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The core pillars of the new partnership are the CGIAR
Fund and the Consortium of CGIAR Centers. The
Consortium unites the international agricultural research
Centers supported by the CGIAR and provides a single
contact point for donors. The Consortium is currently
being established as a legal entity. Donors will join
together in the CGIAR Fund, with the aim of
harmonizing their contributions to agricultural research
for development, improving the quantity and quality
of funding available, and engendering greater financial
stability. Reinforcing this two-pillar management
structure are various bridging mechanisms, including
a Strategy and Results Framework (SRF), which guides
the development of a results-oriented research agenda
in line with the CGIAR’s new vision and strategic
objectives (see box on left).
The Consortium Board takes the lead in formulating and refining the SRF, working in partnership with Fund donors, research partners, farmers and other stakeholders through direct consultations and the biennial Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD). During the transition to this new business model in 2010, the Alliance of the CGIAR Centers formulated a draft SRF that was presented to the first GCARD in March 2010 and subsequently submitted to the Consortium Board for approval in May 2010. The Consortium Board accepted the SRF and put it forward to the Funders Forum for its consideration on July 15 2010. |
The Funders Forum is a biennial gathering of all donors to the CGIAR. A key role of the Funders Forum is to set the strategic direction for the CGIAR through the SRF. The July 2010 Funders Forum accepted the SRF as a work in progress with agreement that the Consortium Board would take the lead in revising the strategy within six months for consideration by an ad hoc session of the Funders Forum. The decision-making body for the Fund is the Fund Council, which comprises eight representatives from developed countries, eight from developing countries and regional organizations, and six from multilateral and global organizations and foundations. The Fund Council meets face to face twice a year to make decisions on behalf of all Fund donors, who may participate in meetings as observers.
The Fund Council appoints the Independent Science
and Partnership Council (ISPC), a standing panel of
world-class scientific experts, whose overarching
purpose is to provide independent advice and expertise
to CGIAR donors through the Fund Council, to which it
reports. The ISPC serves as a second intellectual bridge
between the Fund and the Consortium, helping to
ensure, through its expert advice, the alignment of the
research program with the SRF.
Results-Oriented Research
The research agenda set out by the SRF will be implemented
through a portfolio of Mega Programs. As with the SRF,
the Consortium Board takes the lead in selecting and
defining Mega Programs, which are then submitted to the
Fund Council for approval and funding. Fundamental to
developing the SRF and its Mega Programs is their
alignment with the perspectives and priorities of end
users, as expressed through GCARD and other contacts. A first set of fast-tracked Mega Programs is
expected to be approved in late 2010.
The Mega Programs will be implemented on the basis
of performance agreements between the Fund Council and the Consortium, a third bridging mechanism.
Similarly, funding and performance agreements will
ensure mutual accountability between the Consortium
and its member research Centers (to which the
Consortium provides shared services in human
resources, information technology, intellectual property
management, and finance and procurement, thereby
streamlining Center operations and reducing costs).
The implementation of research through contractual
relationships — both within the CGIAR and between
the lead Centers of CGIAR Mega Programs and research
partners outside the CGIAR — puts greater emphasis
on results on the ground.
Governance, Monitoring and Evaluation
Governing the Consortium is the Consortium Board,
established in February 2010, with 10 voting members
(including the Consortium chief executive officer) and
two observers. With the support of the Consortium
Office, the Consortium Board oversees the performance
of Mega Programs and of member Centers as set forth
in funding and performance agreements.
The World Bank serves as the trustee of the new CGIAR
Fund. The trustee effectuates funding and performance
agreements between the Fund and the Consortium and
holds in trust Fund donor monies until their transfer to
the Consortium and its members, as allocated by the
Fund Council, to finance SRF implementation. Fund
donors may designate their funds in one of three ways:
unrestricted funding to the entire CGIAR program
portfolio, programmatic funding for one or more
Mega Programs, and institutional funding for one
or more Centers. The Fund Office, the support unit
of the Funders Forum and the Fund Council,
is housed at the World Bank.
The fourth bridging mechanism joining the Fund and
the Consortium is the monitoring and evaluation (M&E)
framework. The funders and implementers of CGIAR
international agricultural research for development share
mutual accountability to all users of that research and,
along with research partners, have a shared responsibility
for getting CGIAR research into use to achieve
development outcomes. A primary objective of CGIAR
reform was to streamline review processes, clarify core
responsibilities and reduce duplication. The new M&E
framework is designed to achieve these objectives while
strengthening M&E outputs and meeting the fiduciary
requirements of the Fund and the Consortium.
The Consortium Board commissions periodic external
evaluations of Mega Program components and/or
crosscutting issues and external evaluations of Centers.
The Fund Council commissions independent evaluations
of Mega Programs. Every 6 to 7 years, an independent
evaluation of the entire CGIAR partnership is commissioned
by a reference group constituted for the purpose.
All evaluations are publicly disclosed.
What is Different?
Under the new business model, funding becomes more
results oriented through Mega Programs, which are the
organizing structure of the CGIAR research agenda as
defined by the new SRF. Monitoring and evaluation
come under a unified framework, streamlining review
processes, clarifying core responsibilities and reducing
duplication while ensuring the CGIAR’s accountability
to stakeholders and meeting the fiduciary requirements
of the Fund and the Consortium.
Performance and funding agreements enhance an
institutional and partnership culture oriented toward
results. These binding contracts — between the
Consortium and the Fund Council, the Consortium
and Mega Programs’ lead Centers, and lead Centers
and their research partners — provide strong incentives
to deliver results.
Finally, the strengthened management structure
prepares the CGIAR to absorb vastly more program
funding, with a target annual budget of US$1 billion.
The CGIAR is now better structured to effectively and
efficiently implement a greatly expanded research
program supported by increased funding. This makes
the CGIAR a more attractive vehicle for donors’
investments in food security, rural development,
climate change adaptation and mitigation, and
environmental protection. And it makes the funders
and implementers of CGIAR research more accountable
to all users of that research — especially smallholder
farm, fisher and forest communities — as they meet
their mutual responsibility to get CGIAR research into
use to achieve development outcomes.
A New Joint Declaration
At the CGIAR Business Meeting on 7-8 December 2009, in Washington DC, CGIAR Members unanimously endorsed a Joint Declaration setting out key principles of the new CGIAR:
- A harmonized approach for supporting and conducting research through a dual structure, which consists of a Consortium of CGIAR Centers and a new CGIAR Fund
- Management for results in accordance with the Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) and portfolio of Mega Programs that derive from the SRF
- Effective governance and efficient operations for better provision and use of resources
- Strong collaboration and partnerships with and among funders, implementers, and users of SRF research as well as other external partners supporting the SRF
Next Steps
Implementation of the reforms will take place throughout 2010, led by the Consortium Board and Fund Council. For further information and updates please see "Implementing the New CGIAR".
page last updated October 1, 2010
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