Busy summer for Strategic Partnership NL-CGIAR

A working group convened by F&BKP on behalf of the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs is presently exploring how a strategic partnership between the CGIAR and the Netherlands, both through its financial support and collaboration with Dutch knowledge providers, can be developed with the aim to significantly contribute to the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The initiative is very timely, because the CGIAR has just started the development of pre-proposals for its next set of large research programs (CRPs), which are expected to start in 2017.

Stakeholder consultation within the CGIAR and in the Netherlands, including a well-attended meeting on April 24, in The Hague, has indicated that there is a lot of synergy between the priorities of the CGIAR as presented in its 2016-2030 Strategic Results Framework, and those of the Dutch Government as described in the policy letter on global food security. The Dutch government encourages both the CGIAR and Dutch knowledge partners within the Dutch Diamond (research, government, civil society and private sector) to explore opportunities to work together in strategic partnerships.

In July and August pre-proposals for the new research CGIAR portfolio will be developed. As a first step within a larger framework, meetings of Dutch stakeholders are planned on Friday July 3 around the cross cutting themes of Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, and Climate Change (including water use in agriculture). These meetings aim at positioning the Dutch contribution to the future CRPs and as such give substance to the NL-CGIAR strategic partnership.

Knowledge providers known to be particularly active or seriously interested in those subjects are already being identified and invited for these meetings. If you and your organization are also specifically involved in these fields with the CGIAR and you have not been contacted yet, but would like to be involved, please contact F&BKP (+31(0)70-3043754; ) as soon as possible.

Additional opportunities to develop the NL-CGIAR Strategic Partnership are expected to emerge in the near future, which will be shared through the F&BKP website.