The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) is an undertaking by all the
stakeholders of agricultural research for development aimed at promoting cost-effective partnerships
and strategic alliances among the key players involved in this area of research. One of the premises
of GFAR is the conviction that knowledge generation and utilization is increasingly based on
transnational research systems and networks in the globalized world of today. The mission of the
Global Forum is ¿to mobilize the various stakeholders that constitute the research community in
their efforts to alleviate poverty, increase food security and promote the sustainable use of natural
resources¿. In order to achieve these objectives, GFAR seeks to mobilize, through a highly
participatory and bottom-up approach, the concerted efforts of all the relevant stakeholders:
national agricultural research systems (NARS), international research centres (CGIAR), advanced
research institutions in the developed countries, farmers¿ organizations, NGOs, the private sector and
donors. A very important step in this process is the building up and strengthening of the
Regional/Sub-regional Fora for Agricultural Research for Development (RF/SRFs), representing all
the relevant stakeholders in the various regions of the world. Two such regional fora are the
Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA)
and the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development (EFARD). Similar fora have
been established in the other regions of the world as part of the process of the collective construction
of the Global Forum (GFAR).