Globalisation is causing dramatic changes that are transforming agriculture in developing countries away from supply driven production towards market-driven 'agrifood' business. The impact of these changes on people, economies and the natural environment is, and will continue to be, profound. An immediate impact has been that world commodity prices have fallen to their lowest levels for 35 years. Understanding and being able to respond to such change is vital for the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers in developing countries.

This paper is about the Plank 4 of the new CGIAR Strategy that calls for the adoption, in collaboration with national and regional partners, of a regional approach to research planning, priority-setting and implementation. Given the poverty and impact focus of international public goods research, both NARS and the CGIAR have advantages in pursuing a regional approach as a component of their respective activities.

The ¿Strategic Framework for a Global Post-harvest Initiative - Linking Farmers to Markets¿ was developed following an International Workshop on Post Harvest Systems held in FAO Headquarters in Rome in 2003, jointly organised by FAO/AGS, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and the Post-harvest Global Forum (PhAction). The International Workshop was preceded by regional consultations in Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, West Asia and North Africa, and Central Asia and the Caucasus that assessed regional needs of the post harvest sector.

Workshop objective
The first strategic thrust of SACCAR¿s Strategic Plan for Research and Training Coordination
and Integration, is to ¿Assist NARS to set up national priorities and use them to identify
regional priorities¿. The main objective of this activity is to ensure that the methodology used
in identifying national research priority is the most appropriate and that realistic comparisons
can be carried out. Another important objective is to contribute to a prioritisation system that