ICARDA & The Global Goals

ICARDA is a member of the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers, a global partnership engaged in research for a food-secure future. CGIAR research is carried out by 15 Centers, in close collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations worldwide.

CGIAR’s mission is to advance agricultural science and innovation to enable poor people, especially women, to better nourish their families, and improve productivity and resilience so they can share in economic growth and manage natural resources in the face of climate change and other challenges.

In 2015 CGIAR announced a new Strategy and Results Framework 2016-2030 for designing and implementing a new approach to undertaking research through the establishment of CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs). The strategy guides agricultural research towards practical solutions and innovations to reduce poverty, increase food and nutritional security, and improve natural resources and ecosystem services; these are commonly known as the three CGIAR System-Level Outcomes.

The Strategy and Results Framework sets out common goals and a strategic direction to guide the delivery of the shared CGIAR mission by all 15 CGIAR centers. The CGIAR research portfolio includes 12 CRPs: eight programs focus on innovation in agri-food systems while four are global integrating efforts. The CRPs are supported by three research platforms designed to manage genetic resources, to accelerate research on breeding, and to manage rapidly-growing volumes of scientific data.

Collaboration with CGIAR partners

The programs and platforms are designed to align the work of the 15 CGIAR centers and their partners through various multi-disciplinary research initiatives to address the world’s most pressing agricultural development challenges.

ICARDA contributes to the CGIAR portfolio through active participation in the Wheat; Livestock; Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE); and Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) CRPs, as well as through its engagement in all three research platforms:Genebanks, Excellence in Breeding, and Big Data.

We have also created strategic partnerships with sister centers. With CIMMYT we develop modern bioinformatics breeding systems and partner on strategic initiatives within CRP Wheat; we collaborate with ICRISAT to enhance grain legume and dry area cereal production; and partner with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to explore opportunities to intensify and diversify rice-based systems in South Asia through the strategic introduction of legumes into rice fallows.

We also work with IWMI, IFPRI and World Fish in Central, West Asia and North Africa to solve the challenges of managing scarce water resources; collaborate with ILRI in the area of small ruminant genetics; and work with ICRAF to rehabilitate rangelands and enhance their productivity.