The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) has to do with networking. It
has to do with linking stakeholders of agricultural research for development (ARD) around
the discussion and implementation of a common global strategic agenda that may orient their
efforts in this field, and that may integrate them into learning networks and knowledge
systems that may facilitate the generation and flow of relevant knowledge, and its
application to development. Three factors are making instant connectivity, networking, and
much quicker information flows among researchers and among stakeholders possible:
improved information and communication technologies, increased information and
knowledge management skills and decreasing communication costs. In this context,
research partnerships and networking can be utilized as tools for empowering people through
the exchange of information and of knowledge, and through the interrelation of their
research capacities. This is one of the main distinguishing characteristics of the ¿networked
economies¿ that predominate at the turn of the century. These are the building-blocks that
the GFAR is seeking to promote among its stakeholders.