CGIAR Ministerial-Level Meeting

February 9-10, 1995
Lucerne, Switzerland

Contents

THE LUCERNE DECLARATION

We, Ministers, Heads of Agencies, and Delegates representing the membership of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR):

Cognizant of the vicious circle of poverty, population growth, and environmental degradation that affects the world's poor;

Encouraged by the progress the world community is making in shaping a global agenda to deal with the urgent problems of the environment, population growth, social development, and the participation of women;

Mindful of the potential contribution of agriculture to development, particularly in alleviating the suffering of 1 billion people who live in abject poverty, most of them malnourished;

Aware that population growth in developing countries and rising incomes will double food demand by 2025, threatening the future food security of much of humanity and the integrity of the Earth's natural resources, especially soil and water, and biological diversity;

Convinced that the new knowledge and technologies generated by scientific research are necessary to meet the rising food demand in a long-term sustainable way, from a limited and fragile natural resource base;

Recognizing the outstanding achievements of scientific research conducted by CGIAR research centers which have raised the productivity of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; thus contributing to the generation of rural income and employment, the lowering of food prices, and the alleviation of urban and rural poverty, while promoting South-North research partnerships:

Call for the renewal and reinforcement of this successful work, aimed now at the multiple challenges of increasing and protecting agricultural productivity, safeguarding natural resources, and helping to achieve people-centered policies for environmentally sustainable development;

Endorse the vision of the renewed CGIAR of helping to combat poverty and hunger in the world by mobilizing both indigenous knowledge and modern science, and through sharply focused research priorities, tighter governance, greater efforts at South-North partnership, and flexible financing arrangements, as an appropriate response to the challenges of the coming century; and

Affirm our strong support for the revitalized CGIAR as one of the main instruments of the world community whose contribution, in close partnership with other actors, is of considerable importance to the successful implementation of the emerging global development agenda.

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THE LUCERNE ACTION PROGRAM

INTRODUCTION

Ministers, Heads of Agencies, and Delegates endorse the thrusts and themes of the background studies prepared for their meeting. They welcome the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as a cosponsor of the CGIAR. They reaffirm the strong need to ensure continuity of publicly funded research, complementing research conducted by the private sector, on problems of international significance in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. This reaffirmation is based on the need to help meet the food needs of the poor and on the contribution that agricultural research can make to poverty alleviation in the context of sustainable development. Although it is a small component of the global research system, the CGIAR has an important role to play as a catalyst and bridge builder.

BROADER PARTNERSHIPS

In the light of its position within the global agricultural research system, the CGIAR has a responsibility to step up its efforts to develop a more open and participatory system with full South-North ownership.

Accordingly, the CGIAR is encouraged to:

  1. Continue to broaden its membership by including more developing countries as active members who participate fully in CGIAR deliberations;
  2. Convene a committee of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a committee of the private sector as a means of improving dialogue among the CGIAR, the private sector, and members of the civil society who are interested in the same issues as the CGIAR;
  3. Accelerate the process of systematizing participation by national agricultural research systems (NARS) of developing countries in setting and implementing the Group's agenda (a specific action plan to do so is being prepared by the NARS and representatives of the CGIAR, and will be presented at International Centers Week 1995); and
  4. Complete its transition from a donor/client approach to equal partnership of all participants from the South and North within the CGIAR system.

RESEARCH AGENDA

The mission of the CGIAR is to contribute, through its research, to promoting sustainable agriculture for food security in the developing countries.

Therefore, the CGIAR is urged to:

1. Conduct strategic and applied research, with its products being international public goods;

2. Focus its research agenda on problem-solving through interdisciplinary programs implemented by one or more international centers, in collaboration with a full range of partners;

3. Concentrate such programs on increasing productivity, protecting the environment, saving biodiversity, improving policies, and contributing to strengthening agricultural research in developing countries;

4. Address more forcefully the international issues of water scarcity, soil and nutrient management, and aquatic resources;

5. Pay special attention to Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, which face the greatest challenges in eradicating poverty and malnutrition;

6. Ensure that research programs address the problems of the poor in less-endowed areas, in addition to continuing its work on high potential areas;

7. Reinforce the series of notable actions already taken to protect the human heritage of genetic resources, viz:

a. placing the plant genetic resources collections of the CGIAR centers under the auspices of the FAO Commission on Plant Genetic Resources;
b. creating a system-wide program on genetic resources; and
c. establishing a committee of experts to provide the CGIAR system with support and advice on all aspects of plant genetic resources policy;

8. Work in closer partnership and collaboration with public and private research organizations in the South, including farmer groups, universities, NGOs, and international institutions to design and conduct research programs;

9. Work in closer partnership and collaboration with public and private research organizations and universities from developed countries to design and conduct joint research programs; and

10. Ensure that the setting of its research agenda reflects the views and goals of global and regional forums on agricultural research.

GOVERNANCE

Collegiality and informality are important and durable assets of the CGIAR. Therefore, the CGIAR should not be established as a formal international organization, but could benefit from strengthening its decision making processes and consultative mechanisms.

Toward this end, the CGIAR is requested to:

1. Retain overall decision making powers in its general membership or "committee of the whole," supported in this task by a Steering Committee and its component standing committees on Oversight and Finance as well as ad hoc committees established when necessary;

2. Ensure that scientific advice of the highest quality continues to be provided by the CGIAR's independent Technical Advisory Committee; and

3. Strengthen the assessment of its performance and impact by establishing an independent evaluation function reporting to the CGIAR as a whole.

FINANCE

Higher levels of investment in agricultural research are needed to meet the challenge for innovation and new technologies which can contribute to higher and sustainable agricultural production. To ensure a concentrated and sustained effort, investments must be expanded for all components of the global system at the national, regional, and international levels. As to the CGIAR, participants commit themselves to (i) consolidate current complementary funding into the main funding of the agreed agenda, and (ii) maintain the real value of the level of support and, wherever possible, to increase it. For those donors who can do so, multi-year commitments to the CGIAR would help to increase predictability and facilitate programming.

To ensure that support for the CGIAR is stable and predictable, members are urged to:

1. Institute a negotiation and review process, involving all members, to ensure a full funding of the agreed research agenda;

2. Continue to use a matrix framework to articulate the CGIAR's programs and to serve as a benchmark for funding and monitoring CGIAR activities, thus enhancing transparency and accountability;

3. Provide their support to centers, programs, or both to facilitate agreement on a financing plan which funds all components of the agreed research agenda fully; and

4. Disburse their pledged contributions as early as possible in the financial year, to ensure timely implementation of approved programs.

Meanwhile, the CGIAR is urged to:

1. Continue its efforts to expand its membership from both the North and the South;

2. Solicit philanthropic financial participation of the private sector without compromising the public good character of the CGIAR's research; and

3. Explore the feasibility of setting up a fund or a foundation which can seek contributions to support agricultural research.

Additionally, the CGIAR is encouraged to undertake research in Eastern Europe and in countries of the former Soviet Union. However, as more than a marginal effort will be required, such activities should be initiated only when a clear program of work where the CGIAR has a distinctive comparative advantage has been established, and a minimum level of separate and additional funding has been secured. For this purpose, the CGIAR should establish a separate fund to ensure no diversion or dilution of the current focus of responsibilities. The CGIAR should carry out an analysis to determine options for decision making in this area of activity. In the meantime, contacts with scientific establishments in that part of the world should be encouraged.

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