IAASTD-2008

Int. Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technol. for Development

Completed

https://www.agassessment.org/
Type of Structure: assessment
Regional Scope: global
Parent Organisations: IAASTD
Child Organisations:
Duration : 2005 to 2008 COMPLETED
Contact Address: no office contact defined


General information and objectives

  • Undertake global and sub-global assessments of the role of knowledge, science and technology (KST) as it pertains to agriculture in reducing hunger and poverty, improving rural livelihoods, and health, increasing incomes and facilitating equitable, environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development;
  • provide robust information for decision makers on how to ensure that policies, practices and institutional arrangements enable KST to contribute to reducing hunger and poverty, improving rural livelihoods and health, increasing incomes, and facilitating equitable, environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development; and
  • bring together the range of stakeholders (consumers, governments, NGOs, private sector, producers, scientific community, international agencies) involved in the agricultural sector and rural development to share views, gain common understanding and vision for the future.

Overarching Question: How can we reduce hunger and poverty, improve rural livelihoods, and facilitate equitable, environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development through the generation, access to, and use of agricultural knowledge, science and technology?
Goals:
  • assess the effects of agricultural KST policy and institutional environments, as well as practices, in the context of sustainable development ;
  • make the resulting state-of-the-art, objective analyses accessible to decision makers at all levels – from small producers to those who create international policy;
  • identify where critically important information gaps exist in order to more effectively target research; and
  • further the capacity of developing country nationals and institutions to generate, access, and use agricultural KST that promote sustainable development.


The IAASTD is a three-year collaborative effort (2005 - 2007) that will assess AKST in relation to meeting development and sustainability goals of:
  • Reducing hunger and poverty
  • Improving nutrition, health and rural livelihoods
  • Facilitating social and environmental sustainability The project is a major global initiative, developed out of a consultative process involving 900 participants and 110 countries from all regions of the world. Learn more about the IAASTD and how it has come about. The IAASTD was launched as an intergovernmental process, with a multi-stakeholder Bureau, under the co-sponsorship of the FAO, GEF, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, the World Bank and WHO.

    Full report can be downloaded electronically

    Govenrnance and Management of the Assessment

    The IAASTD has an intergovernmental governance structure, which resembles that of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but contains a Bureau similar to the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Board of Directors.
    The geographically based multi-stakeholder Bureau, is comprised of 30 government representatives [Sub-Saharan Africa (6); Latin America and the Caribbean (5); Central and West Asia and North Africa (4); North America and Europe (9); and East and South Asia and the Pacific (6)], 22 representatives from civil society [the private sector (6); non-governmental organizations (6); consumer groups (4); and producer groups (6)], representatives from 8 institutions, and 2 co-chairs. The cosponsoring agencies serve as ex-officio members of the Bureau.
    The Plenary (i.e. the Panel of participating governments) elected the government representatives of the Bureau, with each region selecting its own members, taking into account areas of expertise and gender balance. Decisions are taken by the panel of participating governments and the Bureau, where appropriate. The Plenary is comprised of representatives from the member states of the 7 cosponsoring agencies. At the first Plenary, the governments approved the scope, goals, structure (global and sub-global assessments), governance and management structures, budget and timetable for the IAASTD. At the conclusion of the IAASTD process, the Panel will be responsible for accepting the Full Report and for subjecting the Global and Sub-Global Summaries for Decision Makers to a final line-by-line approval in a session of the Plenary.
    The IAASTD has a distributed Secretariat with the major component being in Washington DC and other components in FAO (Rome), UNEP (Nairobi), and UNESCO (Paris). The Secretariat provides management and oversight of the project, as well as liaising with governments, civil society organizations and the Bureau to ensure project implementation. Other members of the distributed Secretariat include staff located at the Sub-global Management Entities.
    The intergovernmental process ensures ownership by governments, while the integrated Bureau allows the full range of stakeholders to meet as a single body creating opportunities for constructive exchanges and building consensus.

    For further details, link to the IAASTD-2008 Home Page

    Last update: 4/27/22
    Source of data: ProClim- Research InfoSystem (1993-2024)

    Go Back