Silakan bergabung kalau ada yang berminat. Hubungi langsung Miguel.
Salam,
Rahmad.-
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Enhancing Civil Society Input into the CGIAR
Electronic conference in January 2001 in preparation for a workshop to be held
in South Africa in May 2001
Project coordinator and contact:
Dr. Miguel Altieri
Co-Chair CGIAR-NGOC
U.C. BerkeleyESPM
Berkeley, CA 94720-3112
Tel: 510-642-9802 Fax: 510-642-7428
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is the
key international body charged with research related to food production in
developing countries. Historically, the CG system was the incubator for the new
crop varieties that underpinned the Green Revolution (GR). While the GR was
successful at boosting food-crop yields in many parts of the Third World, it
was far less successful at reducing hunger, yet alone rural poverty. This
should not be surprising, as the GR was conceived as a natural-science based
approach to major problems hunger and poverty that have much more complex
causes, including many structural factors. The CG system is now poised to
launch a New Green Revolution, aimed at combating the hunger remaining after
the original GR. Again, the key tools are to be based on natural sciences, this
time primarily biotechnology and soil-fertility management, embedded in a
policy package that includes trade liberalization and partnerships with the
private sector. The CGIAR is undertaking a major re-organization to launch this
new approach. Thus far, key actors from civil society above all,
non-governmental, small-farmer and community-based organizations in the Third
World have not been very involved in this process of re-organization. Civil
society has been given or has taken little opportunity to influence the foci,
structure and approach of international agricultural research.
For this reason, the Non-Governmental Organizations Committee (NGOC) of the
CGIAR with the support of the Ford Foundation is initiating a process to
encourage and allow key actors in civil society (NGOs; farmer organizations;
environmental, policy advocacy and consumer groups; etc.) to participate in the
discussions and debates about the future directions of the CG system and to
influence the system�s research agenda.
As a first series of activities, the NGOC will be organizing an electronic
conference, during which a broad group of actors in civil society will be
invited to discuss issues related to influencing international agricultural
research. This will be in preparation for a face-to-face workshop on this topic
to be held in May 2001 in South Africa, prior to the Mid-Term Meeting of the
CGIAR. Here, civil society will be able to engage in dialogue with donors and
members of the CGIAR and its Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on key issues
which must be discerned so that the CGIAR can proceed quickly with a research
agenda to alleviate poverty. In the light of continuing debate within the CGIAR
about its future mission, structure and governance, the workshop in South
Africa will allow civil society to gain a better understanding of and to have a
greater influence on how the CGIAR can be re-organized so that it can carry out
its pro-poor mission. The electronic conference and the subsequent workshop
will provide excellent opportunities for NGOs and farmer organizations
concerned with agricultural research for development to develop a strategy to
ensure that the newly-evolving CGIAR structures for determining and
coordinating the research agenda allow a balanced influence by civil society,
scientists, academics and the private sector.
Some key questions to be addressed at the preparatory electronic conference
include:
a. How can the research agenda, structure and governance of the CGIAR be
improved so that agricultural research can address more effectively the
challenges of poverty alleviation, food security and natural resource
conservation?
b. How can better dialogue be achieved between civil society and the CGIAR
on these fundamental challenges, and how can common ground for joint action be
found?
c. How can the role played by the NGOC in these respects be improved, and
how can better use be made of the resources available to it? Or would an
alternative structure to the NGOC be more effective in conveying civil-society
input into international agricultural research for development? If so, what
would the alternative be and how could it be set up?
d. Though what mechanisms could the NGOC interact better with other
structures to influence international agricultural research? How could a
coordinated strategy be developed with NGOs and other civil-society
organizations that are not represented directly in the NGOC?
e. What should be the plan of action for the NGOC to implement in the
coming years in partnership with all members of civil society interested in
joining the efforts?
A major issue to be discussed is the growing prevalence of partnerships between
publicly-financed international research centers and private-sector
biotechnology companies. Many members of civil society are concerned that as
more CG centers enter into partnerships with private corporations serious
ethical questions emerge about what type of research is carried out and who
owns the research results. There is a danger that research in the CG centers
could increasingly reflect the interests of private funding organizations at
the expense of public-goods research. Publicly-financed research is crucial for
poor farmers, who find it difficult to purchase and save seeds in a world where
most industries insist on systems of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) which
deny farmers the right to multiply seed on their farms and which restrict the
CG centers in their research options. In this connection, goals of the
electronic conference and subsequent face-to-face workshop would be to make
this situation more widely known and to envision a strategy to ensure that
publicly-funded international agricultural research addresses primarily the
interests of poor farmers.
The electronic conference will run for two weeks in January 2001. A summary of
the main conclusions and recommendations coming out of these discussions will
serve as an input for the face-to-face workshop in May 2001 in South Africa,
where civil-society actors, public-sector donors and key CGIAR and TAC members
will discuss the mission of the CGIAR and how its research agenda can be
tailored to the needs and circumstances of poor farmers. Results from
deliberations on re-organization of the CGIAR which will emerge during and
after International Centers Week in October 2000 in Washington D.C. will also
serve as an input for the May 2001 workshop involving members of civil society.
The electronic conference will be coordinated by RIMISP (International Network
on Methodology of Farming Systems Research) in Santiago, Chile. All persons who
can take an active part in the discussions during the two-week period from 8 to
19 January 2001 should send a message to Miguel Altieri
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) expressing their interest. You will then be sent
further information about how to join the conference.
Please forward the information about this electronic conference to NGOs, farmer
organizations and other civil-society organizations, especially in the Third
World, who have a stake in agricultural research for development.
