CGIAR Annual Report 2012: partnership for impact

Abstract

As CGIAR begins its fourth year of reform, it is important to take stock of our efforts, recognize the enormous progress we have made to date, as well as the challenges we still face, and ensure that we are making the most of new opportunities to optimize the impact of our research for the benefit of the poor. In this regard, CGIAR made strong progress in 2012, marked by critical milestones and important developments ranging from scientific breakthroughs, to historical gains in funding, to landmark achievements in how we conduct our business. We solidified our commitment to a programmatic approach to research with a fully approved portfolio of CGIAR Research Programs; launched initiatives to ensure that gender equality is a top priority in all aspects of our work; took steps to create a more performance-based system; and generated new knowledge, tools, and technologies, including agricultural innovations that are nutrition-sensitive and climate smart. This year's Annual Report showcases how new ways of doing research are improving the incomes, food security, and health and wellbeing of poor smallholders and their families, and illustrates the importance of strategic partnerships in delivering that impact. Success stories range from linking small-scale producers of chili peppers in Bolivia and Peru with international markets, to blending traditional knowledge with modern technologies to sustainably increase the productivity of farmers, fishers, and livestock keepers in the Zambezi River basin in southern Africa. As part of our work to exploit the potential of agriculture to improve nutrition and health, in 2012 CGIAR and its partners made available four new biofortified food crops to farmers in India, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Zambia. In addition to containing higher levels of critical nutrients, the crops – beans, cassava, maize, and pearl millet – are high yielding and drought or heat tolerant, offering the potential for significant nutritional benefits in regions that are increasingly affected by climate change. In India and Zambia, CGIAR is partnering with private seed companies to ensure that new varieties get into farmers' fields with greater speed and scale, with the ultimate goal of combating malnutrition. Recognizing the importance of private–public partnerships to improve and accelerate access to the best technologies, knowledge, and innovation to achieve maximum impact for the poor, in 2012 CGIAR adopted its first ever system-wide Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets. This groundbreaking policy will enable CGIAR to better harness the strengths of all partners so that the outcomes of CGIAR research can be used effectively by those who need them most. Ensuring that the results of our research move more quickly into the hands of smallscale farmers, fishers, and foresters will continue to be both a challenge and a priority in future. Complementing this effort, during the second CGIAR Funders Forum, donors endorsed the Strategy and Results Framework Action Plan developed by the CGIAR Consortium in 2012. The Plan, which also defines a set of goals and targets for good partnerships, promises an increased focus on impact-driven research by identifying more precise intermediate development outcomes for each of the CGIAR Research Programs. Clearly defined indicators will improve and streamline reporting, facilitate transparent decisionmaking, and better ensure that donors know what to expect from their investments, making the entire system more accountable. CGIAR also took a number of steps in 2012 to better meet the needs of poor rural women, reduce the gender gap in agriculture, and empower female farmers. In collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI), CGIAR developed a firstof-its-kind tool that measures the empowerment and inclusion of women in agriculture to document obstacles and constraints, and ultimately overcome them. Research by other CGIAR scientists identified opportunities for increasing women's earnings through the marketing of non-timber forestry products. And when women have more opportunities to flourish, everyone benefits. Food security increases, poverty drops, children are better nourished, and environmental stewardship improves.