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Preface
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The involvement of CGIAR Centers in
rebuilding agriculture in countries affected by conflict and natural
disasters spans nearly three decades and has benefited more than 47
countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. But the information
on the role played by the Centers and the impact of their work is
fragmented and dispersed. This study consolidates that information
and analyzes it to extract key lessons about how to use emergency
aid in the future. It should serve both as a reference source and
an indicator of ways to build more effective partnerships between
research and emergency aid organizations.
It is not always easy to delineate conflict/disaster work from the
ongoing research of Centers that contributes to preventing or mitigating
these crises. Often there is no clear line between an impending or
subsiding disturbance, and an emergency significant enough to be labeled
a disaster/conflict. For this study our focus was on climatic disasters
and violent conflicts, which excludes certain other types of disaster/strife
that are nevertheless of enormous consequence to the poor, such as
HIV/AIDS, crop disease and pest epidemics, and non-violent political
instability.
The first task in getting this study off the ground was to collect
information from the CGIAR Centers that have been involved in rebuilding
agriculture, and conduct searches to fill the gaps in the information
collected. By the deadline set for material collection, we had case
study reports provided to us for 31 countries by our colleagues from
12 CGIAR Centers involved in rebuilding agriculture. Therefore, our
coverage of 31 of those countries should be viewed as a representative
rather than a comprehensive survey.
Instead of presenting the work of the Centers in chronological or
geographic order, we felt that a thematic analysis of the major benefits
gained and lessons learned might be more valuable. Since the themes
covered in this study are interlaced, and since the major case studies
contribute to more than one theme, they are revisited in different
chapters. We appreciate readers' understanding of this inevitable
repetition of the various case studies in the text.
Chapters 1 and 2 review the nature of the conflict and disaster problems
that face developing countries, and how the CGIAR Centers' comparative
advantages and capabilities form a strategic resource for rehabilitating
agriculture. Chapters 3-7 explore specific cases in which the CGIAR
Centers have contributed to alleviating hunger; preserving agrobiodiversity;
rebuilding human and institutional capacities; reducing future vulnerability
to conflicts and disasters; and making relief aid more efficient.
The study found that the CGIAR Centers' efforts to help countries
rebuild agriculture have been heavily dependent on partnerships and
the generous support of development investors. The contributions of
those valued supporters are highlighted in this study. |
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