A Dialogue with Civil Society Organizations

By Tom Remington, Principal Agriculture Advisor, Catholic Relief Services

Source: CGIAR Embracing Change E-Newsletter, June 2009 Issue

In late April, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) organized a half day CGIAR and Civil Society Organization (CSO) dialogue in Washington DC. The event was co-hosted with InterAction, a coalition of US based international non-governmental organizations, and followed the CRS Agricultural Symposium on Holistic Innovations in Agriculture Programming on April 20, where Kathy Sierra, CGIAR Chair and Vice President of the World Bank Sustainable Development Network, joined CRS President Ken Hackett in giving keynote addresses, and CGIAR Director Ren Wang delivered a presentation on CGIAR-CSO Partnerships and the CGIAR Change Initiative (http://symposia.crsprogramquality.org/2009-agriculture-symposium/).

At the CGIAR-CSO dialogue, I briefed InterAction members on my participation in the Change Initiative as an NGO representative in the Partnership Working Group during the first phase of the process in 2008. Ren engaged in a rich discussion with those present, sharing updates on the change process, responding to questions, and listening to feedback. After our presentations, current CGIAR-CSO partners highlighted the success stories of joint work through a series of short presentations.

Our discussion made clear that US NGOs and CSOs more broadly are critical partners in agricultural development.  Advocacy groups such as InterAction, through its 174 members, can play an important role in advocating for the support of agricultural research within national governments (e.g. U.S. Congress) – a role that can be significantly enhanced through a strengthened mechanism for dialogue between these groups and the CGIAR. In 2006 alone, US NGOs invested almost US$9 billion dollars in developing countries; with private donors contributing two thirds of these resources and the US government providing the remaining third.  The single largest sector invested in was Long Term Sustainable Development (The Other Partner: NGOs and Private Sector Funding for International Development & Relief, InterAction Brief, February 2009;  http://www.interaction.org/files.cgi/6692_NGO_Finance_Brief_FINAL_3.2.09.pdf).

CSO partners also play an important role in putting research into use. It was acknowledged that the CGIAR has a tremendous amount of knowledge, but that knowledge is only useful when it can be leveraged in partnership with others.  Given the urgent need to increase investments in agricultural research and development, strategic collaboration with CSOs could help to both improve the allocation of resources to agricultural development and deliver more impact on the ground. Some key questions for the new CGIAR are how can it develop strategic partnerships, harness the significant resources of CSOs and the private sector, and achieve significant and sustainable impact on poverty at scale?

Successful complex partnerships need to recognize and embrace asymmetries in knowledge, funding and power. If the new CGIAR can do this, it will go beyond research provision to knowledge creation through mutual learning. If the Change Initiative succeeds in doing this, the CGIAR will remain a leader in both agriculture research and development, and a partner I and others from the CSO community will look forward to working with for years to come.

Tom Remington
Principal Agriculture Advisor,
Catholic Relief Services