CGIAR Formed an Advisory Panel & Hold Consultations to Boost Partner Engagement

As the organization continues its transition to a unified and integrated One CGIAR, the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) System Board has established a high-level Advisory Panel to oversee a new series of consultations aimed at strengthening strategic engagement with the country and regional partners.

The announcement follows calls from the CGIAR's System Council, which met earlier this month and is made up of representatives from country partners and funders. Representatives from the System Council reaffirmed their strong commitment to moving forward with the One CGIAR transition and called for greater participation from the country and regional partners. This call has been echoed by other stakeholders, including former CGIAR senior staff.

"Our partners have been and will continue to be critical in guiding the One CGIAR transition," said Marco Ferroni, Chair of the CGIAR System Board. "While diverse representation from the global South has been systematically included in key decision-making processes related to the reform, we have heard and agree that we need to do more to engage our key country and regional partners." We are increasing our engagement efforts, with a focus on listening and adjusting how we work with our partners to ensure that their perspectives are reflected and served in CGIAR reform and the future."

The high-level Advisory Panel will include representatives from different regions as well as national agricultural research systems, government ministries, and the private sector. It will be based on the CGIAR's Engagement Framework for Partnerships and Advocacy, which outlines the guiding principles, systems, and approaches that partners and CGIAR will use to achieve their common goals. The Advisory Panel will assist CGIAR in further developing its regional and national engagement strategies in accordance with the Framework's principles.

"I welcome the redoubling of efforts to engage with key partners to build a CGIAR fit for the future," said Namanga Ngongi, former President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a former member of the CGIAR System Board, and former Chair of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture's Board of Directors (IITA).

"The current challenges we face – climate change, biodiversity loss, conflict, and pandemic – are more interconnected and interdependent than ever before." CGIAR must change and evolve in tandem with the rest of the world, providing research efforts and solutions that are equally interconnected and have an impact locally, regionally, and globally."

"Food systems are at the heart of the world's accelerating environmental crisis," Alice Ruhweza, a member of the CGIAR System Board and Africa Regional Director at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said. The transition to One CGIAR represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fundamentally transform our organization in order to deliver the innovations required to address some of humanity's most pressing challenges.

The One CGIAR transition unites 12 CGIAR Research Centers/Alliances and the System Organization under a single umbrella. Centers keep their legal status and brands while cooperating more closely in an integrated operational structure overseen by unified governance. CGIAR has over 3,000 partners worldwide and over 9,000 employees in nearly 90 countries.

"We welcome the renewed impetus and additional opportunities to engage our valued partners," said Claudia Sadoff, Convener of the CGIAR's Executive Management Team and Managing Director, Research Delivery and Impact. "We will continue to improve people's livelihoods, nutrition, resilience, and food security only by working with our partners, listening, and adapting."