Collaboration between national, international, and advanced research institutes for eco-regional research

Abstract

The paper looks at changes in the institutional environment for agricultural research arising from the global concerns about sustainable uses of natural resources. The primary focus is on the nature of collaboration between national agricultural research institutions and the international agricultural research centres (IARCs) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Consideration is given to how the CGIAR as part of a wider research community is refocusing its research agenda to derive greater complementarity with components of the global research system. Also described is the sharper distinction that will be made between the global and regional research activities of the CGIAR, in order to increase the participation of national institutions in the planning and conduct of research. This should result in a sharing of responsibility that contributes more effectively to both sustained growth in agricultural production and conservation of the natural resource base. Examples are given to illustrate the diverse characteristics of recent initiatives which address resource management problems through partnership arrangements among national, regional and international research institutions. There are unlikely to be simple prescriptions for successful partnership arrangements, but more probably, general guiding principles could be captured by sharing experiences among the different partnership groups.