The year 2006 is an important landmark in the short history of GFAR. Firstly, it will mark the
tenth anniversary of the founding of GFAR. Secondly in 2006, GFAR will hold its third
general conference when stakeholders get together to reflect on the past and plan for the
future. Finally, it represents the final year of our triennial business plan cycle (2004-2006). It
is therefore a year when we should reflect on our past efforts and achievements, and share the
outcome with others. Efforts were made by the Secretariat to devote some attention to a
According to the GFAR charter, one of the main task and responsibility of the Secretariat is to assist GFAR stakeholders in the formulation of the GFAR BP, and its implementation through an annual Programme of Work (PoW), which according to the first external review panel of GFAR should clearly indicate what the secretariat will do to facilitate the implementation of the BP by the stakeholders. The role of the Secretariat is therefore mainly one of facilitation, except perhaps in two areas where it is expected to play a lead role and take responsibility for implementation.
The GFAR Management Team commends the Panel for an excellent report which globally conveys a positive opinion on GFAR¿s achievements and has very good and concrete suggestions for its future development. The GFAR Management Team wishes also to express its thanks to the Panel members for their openness and the transparency with which they conducted the review.
The GFAR Charter defines the rules and regulations of the Global Forum on Agricultural
Research (GFAR). The Charter was approved by the GFAR Steering Committee (GFARSC)
in October 1998 and was first revised following the First GFAR External Review that
took place in mid-2000. This second revision, the principle of which was endorsed during the
12th GFAR-SC Meeting, takes into account various changes that have taken place since then
and in the wake of globalization of agriculture, and the recognition that the NARS sub-
The NARS Stakeholders statement
The Stakeholder Group of the Advanced Research Institutes (ARIs) met on 23 May 2003, at the
occasion of the 2nd triennial conference of the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) in
Dakar. The group meeting was attended by eleven representatives of nine ARIs in Europe (7), North
America (1) and the Pacific (1).
Emerging issues related to Business Plan: 1) Advocacy role for agricultural
research for development as top priority for GFAR. 2) Endorse facilitating and catalytic
role of GFAR Secretariat. 3) Endorse the five areas I identified as priorities ¿ sustainable financing mechanism. 4) Longterm perspective and sustainability considerations. 5) IARCs can provide information and form partnerships to support advocacy role¿share research results, data. 6) We can contribute to advocacy role through IARCs¿ networks. 7) Future Harvest Foundation can contribute to GFAR advocacy role
Evaluation of the Conference: 1) It is important to have better representation of the farmers¿ constituency, with an equal level of participation as the NGO constituency. 2) Farmers are pleased with the CSO per-conference meeting. This 2-day event, linked to the GFAR Conference should be retained and extended to regional and sub-regional GFAR meetings. 3) Farmers regret the overlap of dates between the FARA meeting and the Pre-Conference CSO meeting.
Evaluation of the Conference: 1) It is important to have better representation of the farmers¿ constituency, with an equal level of participation as the NGO constituency. 2) Farmers are pleased with the CSO per-conference meeting. This 2-day event, linked to the GFAR Conference should be retained and extended to regional and sub-regional GFAR meetings. 3) Farmers regret the overlap of dates between the FARA meeting and the Pre-Conference CSO meeting.