Partnerships with purpose
First of all, we think the central purpose of partnerships is to get things done — to work shoulder-to-shoulder in joint projects and programs. We do not engage partnerships simply for partnership’s sake. We believe that a well-defined purpose sharpens everybody’s effectiveness through clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.
Capacity-building carried out within these partnerships is also energized by a clear purpose. Over its 38 years, ICRISAT has used joint projects and programs to train over 15,000 specialists from 48 countries, including 620 in postgraduate degree programs (Masters and PhD) through partnerships with universities worldwide.
Innovation in smallholder partnerships
 Women in Niger rehabilitating degraded lands with high-value okra sown in 'zai' planting pits.
ICRISAT has innovated partnerships to more directly address the needs of smallholders over the last decade, including their connections to entrepreneurial opportunities. Space allows mention of only a few examples; as assessed by our last External Review, ICRISAT is currently involved in 190 active partnerships with institutions around the world.
In Niger we’re working with INRAN, AVRDC and ICRAF to help women’s village groups to rehabilitate degraded lands with high-value crops, improving their incomes, empowerment and the nutritional status of their children. Through aflatoxin detection technology, we’re helping the 100,000-member strong National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) to meet the rigorous food safety standards of high-value groundnut export markets to the UK, generating precious income for this poverty-stricken country. And in partnership with India, our Agri-Science Park has attracted US$5.5 million over the past four years including support for 108 joint ventures with the private sector to move research-for-development (R4D) products from the lab to the small farm through our award-winning Agri-Business Incubator initiative.
Partners as equals
In decades past, one-way technology transfer from ‘experts’ to ‘users’ formed the paradigm for R4D partnership. The future will be different — partnerships will be ‘leveled’ to foster dialogue in all directions, reaching all the way from governments to smallholders. Today, healthy partnerships build synergies on the complementary expertise of everyone involved.
 Dr S Ayyappan, Director General, ICAR-India meets Dr Dar in New Delhi to discuss the joint agenda for 2010.
Over time, the CGIAR agenda should be increasingly owned by both developing and developed countries. ICRISAT is proud to be #1 in the CGIAR in the proportion of its support that is provided by developing countries, with India as its third largest investor. Likewise, 20% of ICRISAT’s budget is distributed to partners to carry out joint projects. Partners jointly plan, execute and monitor the impacts of these projects For example, India and ICRISAT join forces in a range of activities spanning topics such as crop improvement, biotechnology, watershed and drought management,
socio-economic and policy studies, knowledge management, and Asia-Africa bridging.
Emerging information and communication technologies (ICT) hold revolutionary potential to ‘level the dialogue’ as never before. Even remote villages are rapidly connecting to the rest of the world through cell phones, satellite dishes and localized radio transmissions. Through ICRISAT partnership with advanced Indian information technology institutions, 2.22 million text messages were transacted in 2009 through the SMS-aAQUA platform, which links 17,000 registered farmers in a Question & Answer format to help solve field problems. The approach is being explored in Africa as well.
The forgotten partners: The poor
 Very high resolution imagery helps smallholder farmers in Mali to better manage soil fertility and terrain.
In the past, the poor too often have been treated as ‘targets’ rather than as partners. Particularly in Africa, R4D has been hobbled by a lack of good data on the driving forces, states and trends of poverty, livelihoods, and well-being of rural households. The success of R4D interventions depends on a good understanding of what people in different circumstances need and want. Improving the livelihoods and well-being of women and the children that they care for is especially important for us, because they hold the key to the future well-being of dryland societies.
Building on our longstanding experiences in village-level studies and participatory research, we plan to intensify our use of modern geospatial and other methods to better understand our clients. For example, we embed our West Africa advanced geographic information systems unit in a joint partnership laboratory at the Sotuba station of the national research system of Mali (IER), bringing very high
resolution satellite imagery down to field scale to help small-scale farmers improve their land management decisions.
Parts of a greater whole
Ultimately, the R4D and development communities cannot solve poverty. Our partners, the poor, can, must and will do that. Our job is to remove the obstacles that lie in their path, and open the doors to new opportunity.
To do that, we must know what they want. Partners must listen more than talk, ensuring that the wisdom of all is heard and acted upon. The quietest voices — those of the poor themselves — are often the ones we most need to hear.
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Sincerely yours,
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William D. Dar
Director General |
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