Agriculture is at the heart of both the problems and solutions that link nutrition to climatic and environmental change. The immense challenges demand novel solutions, putting research for development at the center of shared agendas for action and transformation.
CGIAR is the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network. In 2018, CGIAR’s 15 Research Programs and Platforms across the CGIAR Portfolio continued their efforts to advance agricultural science and innovation to reduce rural poverty, increase food security, improve human health and nutrition, and ensure more sustainable management of natural resources in the face of climate change and other challenges.
Institutional innovation to work together as a System was a hallmark of 2018. The approval of the 2019-2021 CGIAR Business Plan set in motion the genesis of a 2030 Plan – an opportunity to achieve greater focus and coherence across CGIAR’s research portfolio, delivery mechanisms and institutional arrangements, and enhance our contribution to the world’s collective effort to deliver on the SDGs.
Elwyn Grainger-Jones, Executive Director, CGIAR System Organization
CGIAR, active in a global network of partners for agricultural research and development, made critical research contributions to supporting broad-based food security in the face of rapid environmental change during 2018. Drawing on its key assets – scientific skills, unique infrastructure including genebanks, and a worldwide reach – CGIAR worked with partners to generate nearly a thousand scientific innovations and more than two thousand peer-reviewed publications over the year.
Moving from 2018 into a new Business Plan cycle, CGIAR remains dedicated to research and partnerships that reduce poverty, enhance food and nutrition security, and foster sustainable management of natural resources. We focus on innovative science and deliver at-scale impact to help achieve the SDGs in a climate-challenged world.
Marco Ferroni, Chair, CGIAR System Management Board
The primary value of this science is its contribution to positive impact on people’s welfare. 2018 saw the publication of a compilation of 25 rigorous impact assessment studies of CGIAR work from the prior five years. Demonstrated impacts of CGIAR research included a long-run reduction in infant mortality, at 3-5 million infant deaths averted per year, as well as sustained increases in both gross domestic product (GDP) and farmer incomes across multiple countries. Additional impact studies published in 2018 showed, for example, clear impacts of drought-tolerant maize varieties on household incomes and food consumption in Africa’s most populous countries, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
FULL VERSION OF THE 2018 CGIAR SYSTEM ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORT