An Update on Media Coverage of CGIAR Research

The CGIAR's international media presence reaches new heights in the run up to major events on food security and global climate change.

A steady stream of news story promotions kept the international media profile of the CGIAR high over the last several months, in the lead up to major events scheduled for later this year. Particularly important are the World Summit on Food Security, to take place at Rome, Italy, in November, and the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which will be held this December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Summarized below are eight story promotions related to food security and climate change, which resulted from the joint efforts of various Centers, the CGIAR Secretariat and Burness Communications, a private firm with which the CGIAR has a longstanding partnership.

Linking biodiversity conservation with climate change mitigation

Photo: CIFOR

A study on the potential of carbon payments for safeguarding threatened tropical mammals, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, was the focus of a story promotion carried out in conjunction with climate-change talks held at Bonn, Germany, in June. Conducted by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and several partners, the study (see story) was published in the peer-reviewed journal Conservation Letters. It is one of the first to offer quantitative evidence linking the drive to reduce carbon emissions from forests with the push to preserve threatened mammal biodiversity. The promotion resulted in significant global media coverage, drawing attention to CGIAR-supported research that is highly relevant to ongoing climate change negotiations.

Highlights of the coverage included stories by several wire services, such as Associated Press (AP), Reuters and Agence France-Presse, as well as original online stories by BBC News, Discovery News and Scientific American Online. The AP story ran on the Web sites of nearly every major newspaper in the USA, including New York Times Online, Washington Post Online and Los Angeles Times Online.

Weathering the transition from crops to livestock in Africa

A second story promoted in connection with the climate-change talks in Bonn centered on the results of a study predicting that by 2050 climate change will render nearly a million square kilometers of Africa’s farmland unsuitable even for subsistence crop production, with important implications for livestock and their role in human livelihoods. Coauthored by a researcher at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the paper was published in Environmental Science and Policy (see story).

Several wire services (e.g., Bloomberg and the Pan African News Agency) covered the study, while BBC World Service broadcast an interview with the ILRI researcher. The promotion also led to extensive online pickup, including The Citizen in South Africa, The Straits Times of Singapore and Scientific American.

Communications for agricultural transformation in Africa

Subsequent story promotions underlined other dimensions of CGIAR research. One carried out in early June, for example, generated strong media interest in the use of communications tools, such as radio and video, as a force for innovation in agriculture. Carried out by Africa Rice Center (WARDA) researchers, the study was published in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability.

Extensive media coverage included an interview broadcast by SABC’s (South African Broadcasting Corporation) Channel Africa, a New Scientist article and numerous online stories.

Land reclamation empowers women farmers in West Africa

Another story promoted extensively in sub-Saharan Africa concerned a study on an innovative approach for reclaiming degraded lands, developed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), as reported elsewhere in this issue of CGIAR e-News.

Coverage including BBC World Service, Voice of America, a number of African newspapers (such as Nigeria’s Financial Standard) and significant online pickup.

Research for agricultural rehabilitation in Afghanistan

Photo: ICARDA

Media outreach carried out during July, dealing with CGIAR research in support of agricultural renewal in Afghanistan, revealed significant interest in the efforts of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) to bolster the country’s food security through wheat improvement (see story).

This effort resulted in only modest coverage, including an Inter Press Service story and a Voice of America interview. But perhaps more important, it set the stage for more extensive reporting in conjunction with field visits and key events expected to take place after the results of recent national elections have been announced.

High-level visit with African women scientists

Communications support for the CGIAR’s Gender & Diversity Program paid off in significant media coverage of a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack with Kenyan participants in the AWARD (African Women in Agricultural Research for Development) Program.

Photo: Burness Communications

The Kenyan women scientists, in excellent presentations to the high-level visitors, delivered a strong message about the importance of putting women at the center of efforts to reduce hunger and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. This message, in turn, was conveyed to the public through stories by BBC Network Africa, several top regional wire services and a number of African newspapers, including Kenya’s Nairobi Star and Uganda’s Daily Monitor.

A wake-up call on water management in Asia

Photo: IWMI

Important new research findings presented by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) at this year’s World Water Week in Stockholm, held in August, drew strong media coverage, repeating a pattern established at the 2006 event. An IWMI report (see story) launched at the meeting called for major new efforts to restore neglected irrigation systems in Asia to ensure that the region can meet its food needs during the coming decades without resorting to massive food imports.

Highlights.of the coverage included a front page story in the weekly print edition of The Guardian (UK) as well as substantive, original stories in many other print media, such as the UK’s Financial Times and New Scientist, France’s  Le Figaro and Le Monde, Irish Times, and Hindustan Times of India. The promotion also generated several wire stories (e.g., from Associated Press and Asian News International) and broadcasts of radio interviews with IWMI scientists by BBC World Service and others.

In addition, an opinion article by IWMI director general Colin Chartres ran in several notable outlets in Australia, including the Canberra Times newspaper and science journalist Julian Cribb’s Science Alert and Food Crisis Web site.

A crescendo of worldwide interest in agroforestry

Photo: Jeff Haskins

The Second World Agroforestry Congress, hosted jointly by the World Agroforestry Centre and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), generated significant media interest in the role of agroforestry in climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as in combating hunger and poverty in developing countries.  

A press briefing and launch event, held several weeks before the congress, resulted in good coverage, including stories by several wire services (e.g., Agencia EFE and Bloomberg); radio interviews broadcast by SABC, KBC (Kenyan Broadcasting Service), Voice of America and others; and articles in various African newspapers and other publications.

The event itself prompted another, even larger round of coverage focusing on key messages and findings, including a new study that used detailed satellite imagery to show that nearly half of all farmed landscapes worldwide include significant tree cover. Highlights included stories by several wire services (e.g., Xinhua and Agencia EFE; extensive online coverage, including excellent stories by TIME.com and New Scientist Online; radio interviews broadcast by Radio France Internationale, Voice of America and others; and newspaper articles published in Kenya and many other countries around the world.