Timeline

The membership of the CGIAR began with the 19 governments of industrialized countries and other organizations that attended the inaugural meeting on 19 May 1971 as members. One Member, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, arranged a rotational system by which a maximum of five governments represented developing regions and countries at CGIAR deliberations. As developing countries joined the CGIAR, beginning with Nigeria and Saudi Arabia in 1975, rotating representation became anachronistic and was discontinued in the 1990s.

Click here to read about donors in the new CGIAR Fund and Fund Council.

The following table lists CGIAR Members prior to the 2009 reforms by the year they joined.