HE Gebregziabher Gebreyohannes, Ethiopia State Minister of Livestock and Fishery, opens the consultation meeting (photo credit IWMI/D. Tadesse).

Five concrete areas of collaboration have been recommended in a meeting of CGIAR centres and national partners and key stakeholders in a move to better align CGIAR activities with the national Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP 2015-2020). The meeting was scheduled following a decision by the Consortium of CGIAR centres to strengthen the alignment of CGIAR research with the priorities of national governments.

Improved coordination and collaboration of the second generation CGIAR research programs (CRPs), it was argued, will largely take place at country level where research outcomes are more likely to be achieved at scale when they are closely linked to national agricultural and related nutrition and health development priorities and initiatives.

Once the meeting report is finalized and reviewed, a country working group will move this agenda forward.

This 11 December 2015 meeting was part of a wider process of coordination and alignment between CGIAR centres and programs and their national partners in six countries—Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Tanzania and Vietnam. The process is intended to showcase what CGIAR centres and CRPs – and their partners – can achieve as a result of improved collective action (see http://gcard3.cgiar.org/national-consultations for more information on this process).

Opening the Ethiopia-CGIAR meeting, the State Minister of Livestock and Fishery, HE Gebregziabher Gebreyohannes, underlined the importance of sustained investment in agricultural research to deliver poverty reduction, achieve food and nutrition security, boost raw material for industries, and push up export earnings. An increase in production and productivity and developing a drought resilient agriculture, he argued, cannot be sought without strong research support. Thus, national and global research institutions are expected to fill technological gaps and must position themselves to respond to emerging challenges, transforming the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

Representatives from key semi-state organizations, ministries, national research partners and development partners in Ethiopia also outlined their activities. Highlighting priorities in the coming years, in line with the GTPII, they also suggested where they thought Ethiopia would most benefit from closer collaboration with CGIAR centres in the country.

Five action areas

One key action highlighted was to establish a joint CGIAR-national agriculture research system collaboration and communication mechanism. This mechanism, it was recommended, would establish a permanent secretariat for joint planning, sharing of findings, and monitoring and evaluation.

The four other areas of collaboration were: The development of joint research proposals, sharing of equipment and resources, streamlining policy engagement, and improving opportunities and modalities of capacity development.

In terms of capacity building opportunities and modalities, participants focused on the need for both more formal, short-term and on-site training (joint research) training for national partners, and support in out-scaling for CGIAR centres. They also highlighted the need to facilitate access to laboratory facilities. These goals could be achieved through enhanced joint research implementation and supervision, and publications, linkages with international universities and research institutes and staff exchanges.

The participants also recommended more joint proposal development and research, focusing on a systems, rather than sectorial approach, with common objectives linked to national goals. The last recommendation highlighted the need for the development of protocols on shared facilities, equipment and germplasm.

The meeting was introduced by the International Livestock Research Institute Director General’s representative in Ethiopia, Siboniso Moyo, who spoke on the CGIAR work globally and in Ethiopia. She was followed by Dereje Biruk of the Agricultural Transformation Agency, Fentahun Mengistu of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, and Garry Robbins of the United States Agency for International Development on behalf of the Rural Economic Development and Food Security Sector Working Group.

Once the meeting report is finalized and reviewed, a country working group will move this agenda forward. In addition to feeding into the third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD3), the recommendations will guide mechanisms for better alignment, coordination, collaboration and strengthening of the Ethiopia-CGIAR partnership going forward.