NAIROBI, Apr 11 (IPS) – Greater than 13,600 members from world wide registered for the inaugural CGIAR Science Week on the UN Complicated, Nairobi, April 7-12, 2025. Dr. Ismahane Elouafi, the group’s Govt Managing Director, mentioned, “This can be a testomony that persons are thirsty for science and for excellent news.”
“They’re thirsty for hope, and that is what science brings. And that is additionally what CGIAR brings. We carry options to the nation degree and the group the place science may actually thrive.”
Via a video message, Amina J. Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-Basic of the United Nations and Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Improvement Group, mentioned the science convention has come only a few months forward of the 2nd United Nations Meals Techniques Summit Stocktake (UNFSS+4) to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“We may have the prospect to replicate on the progress we have made and, extra importantly, chart the way in which ahead. Progress on the SDGs requires accelerating the transition to sustainable meals programs. Partnerships are important in accelerating progress, bringing collectively numerous experience to drive science-based options,” she noticed.
Stressing that by aligning analysis with coverage and motion and dealing with companions like CGIAR and the high-level panel of specialists on the Committee on the Position of Meals Safety, “We’re constructing meals programs which are resilient, sustainable, and inclusive, guaranteeing lasting impression within the face of local weather change and international starvation.
“But we should additionally stay conscious of the challenges we face, equivalent to geopolitical tensions, the impacts of local weather change, financial uncertainty, and the pressing want for a reformed worldwide monetary structure that helps these efforts.”
Reflecting on the previous 5 days, Dr. Eliud Kiplimo Kireger, Director Basic and Chief Govt Officer of the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Analysis Group (KALRO), the convention co-host, mentioned the previous week offered a vital platform for dialogue, collaboration, and innovation, bringing collectively international leaders, researchers, and companions to handle the urgent challenges of meals safety.
Observing that the discussions underscored the position of science, know-how, and partnerships in remodeling meals programs for a extra sustainable and equitable future. Stressing that the occasion has “uniquely convened agriculture, local weather, and well being stakeholders to handle interconnected challenges threatening meals safety and sustainability. By integrating these domains, now we have moved past cycle approaches to systemic options.”
Additional emphasizing that the Science Week showcased transformative instruments from AI-driven architectural decision-making to climate-smart groundbreaking applied sciences which are prepared for scaling and that “these improvements present actionable pathways to resilience… the subsequent step is prioritization of localized variations of confirmed applied sciences, significantly for smallholder farmers.”
Juergen Voegele, Vice President, World Financial institution/Chair of the CGIAR System Council, advised members that as populations proceed to develop, the necessity for CGIAR’s position is stronger than ever as more and more extreme climate occasions make meals manufacturing increasingly dangerous. And rising battle world wide makes increasingly individuals meals insecure.
“And altering commerce insurance policies, as we see in the previous couple of days, will have an effect on a whole bunch of tens of millions of individuals. On the similar time, we see a decline in public spending for the wants of poor international locations broadly. That additionally means competitors for scarce analysis {dollars} is way fiercer now. For us as a CGIAR system, it turns into ever extra vital to have a compelling narrative.”
Voegele mentioned investing in agricultural analysis has the very best return on the greenback and is a key a part of the answer to a altering local weather, migration, and battle and that “we do want to inform a narrative about what number of lives drought-resistant wheat varieties save or flood-tolerant rice or nutrition-dense crops. It’s impression and scale that matter and would be the most convincing in decrease capitals.
“And we should ask ourselves some elementary questions. For starters, is our new analysis portfolio nonetheless 100% related or do we have to prioritize much more for impression?”
Dr. Rachel Chikwamba, Group Govt for Superior Chemistry and Life Sciences on the Council for Scientific and Industrial Analysis (CSIR), affirmed that CGIAR is uniquely positioned to serve and complement ongoing initiatives via its in depth community of partnerships, and it stays a pacesetter in fostering collaborative efforts to handle these seemingly intractable international challenges.
“They’ve finished it for the previous 50 years in a shifting atmosphere, they usually proceed to do that so very proudly, as now we have witnessed this previous week. For the youth which are within the room, I hope you’ve been impressed, and I do hope you’re taking up careers in science and know-how, particularly, you’re taking up careers in agriculture,” she mentioned.
“You have got seen what is feasible, you’ve seen the position of know-how therein, and you’ve got seen its potential to rework not simply our lives, however certainly how we interact the youth and the way the youth can take cost of our widespread future.”
Mentioned regardless of how advanced the problems within the agrifood programs, the world should take heed to what the scientists are saying, and they’re saying that the options are in science, innovation, inclusion, and partnerships and that nobody needs to be left behind.
CGIAR works with greater than 3000 companions in almost 90 international locations world wide to advance the transformation of meals, land, and water programs in a local weather disaster. Regional director generals from these companions supported the pressing requires innovation, collaboration, and partnership.
The group’s analysis facilities embody the Worldwide Livestock Analysis Institute (ILRI), the Worldwide Institute of Tropical Agriculture, the Worldwide Crops Analysis Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), The Worldwide Potato Heart (CIP), AfricaRice, and The Worldwide Water Administration Institute (IWMI).
In his closing remarks, Kenya’s Principal secretary state division for Agriculture, Dr. Paul Kiprono Ronoh, made an impassioned plea for youth to make a case for themselves and their involvement in resolving challenges within the agrifood programs. Additional emphasizing that the time when choices had been made on behalf of farmers is lengthy gone and that farmers have to be on the desk and on the heart of growing and implementing revolutionary options.
“A disaster like this is a chance to seek out higher options,” he mentioned. “collectively we will rework science programs via science. Allow us to go away right here impressed but in addition resolute in our dedication to utilizing science, thus making a future that’s sustainable for generations to come back. Kenya stays dedicated to being a pacesetter in agricultural transformation and appears ahead to working with all of you.”
IPS UN Bureau Report,
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