Assessments/Projections/Foresights on Agricultural Research for Development

25th-26th February 2010 (Wageningen)at CTA Head office. Second workshop of the Assessments/Projections/Foresights Seminar. For the development of strategies by all those involved in international agricultural research, further discussion among stakeholders is required to bring convergences and differences to the fore. The purpose was to identify what lies ahead and where research priorities should be placed.

1. Assessments (IAASTD, WDR 2008, SCAR2)
2. Projections (IFPRI, FAO, Millennium Institute)
3. Foresights (Mediterra CIHEAM, Agrimonde, SCAR1 Foresights, UK Foresights…)

Backgound:

The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) is an intergovernmental process, with a multi-stakeholder Bureau, under the co-sponsorship of the FAO, GEF, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, the World Bank and WHO with the aim of evaluating the relevance, quality and effectiveness of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology (AKST); and effectiveness of public and private sector policies as well as institutional arrangements in relation to AKST.

 The IAASTD is composed of one Global Assessment and five Sub-global Assessments, which will use the same basic framework as the Global Assessment, i.e., the impacts of AKST on hunger, poverty, nutrition, human health, and environmental and social sustainability in relation to both the past and the future. The Global and Sub-global assessments will be peer-reviewed by governments and experts, and approved by the Panel of participating governments.

The theme of the World Bank's World Development Report (WDR) 2008 was Agriculture for Development. The World Development Report 2008 called for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries. The report warns that the sector must be placed at the center of the development agenda if the goals of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 are to be realized.