On 02 March 2012 CGIAR Consortium was officially granted International Organization status. At an event in Paris, the agreement conferring the status was signed by Anne Dorte Riggelsen, Ambassador of Denmark to France, on behalf of her government. This officially ratified the agreement. Henri de Raincourt, French Minister of Cooperation, and Sem Laszlo Trocsanyi, Ambassador of Hungary to France, were the first to sign the agreement, in September 2011 in Montpellier, at the closure of the first ever G20 International Conference on Agriculture Research for Development.
The CGIAR Consortium, of which CIMMYT is a member center, represents the world’s largest global agriculture research partnership aimed at reducing rural poverty and hunger. “Achieving International Organization status and recognition is a major step towards enabling the reformed CGIAR to deliver research resulting in real impact; improved food security, health and nutrition alongside sustainable management of natural resources,” said Mr. Carlos Perez del Castillo, CGIAR Consortium Board Chair, who attended the event. “This status will allow the consortium to operate as an independent organization, speak with one voice at an international level, establish better partnerships, and raise awareness of its work at a time when agricultural research is key to the survival of a billion people.”
Since 2010, the CGIAR has been undergoing a major reform to ensure that its research delivers clear impacts. With the Consortium becoming an International Organization, this not only endorses the strategic reform, but by facilitating fundraising and co-ordination it will catalyze the impact-oriented research essential to the lives of millions of smallholder farmers.
For more information, see the full press release.
Capacity development 