Dear All, Today, we start the last phase of our e-consultation. I would like to thank the 50 participants who sent contributions last week and invite all of you to express your concerns and ideas before Wednesday 23 September, by: - Answering the 5 questions We received around 20 contributions to the 5 questions raised last Monday. A lot of useful information has already been generated but we would like to hear from more of you, especially from participants from countries and sectors not sufficiently represented (eg.civil society organisations, donors; and representatives from Eastern and South-East Europe, Russia and other European countries such as the UK ). For details on the questions, please visit http://gcardblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/eu1/ - Selecting one key issue to be put forward on GCARD agenda This consultation aims at preparing the first Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2010) that will take place in Montpellier (France) in March 2010. As indicated in the GCARD brochure published last week "the regional electronic consultations are your opportunity to make sure that issues that are important to you are on the agenda" (see http://gcardblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/gcard-brochure-now-available/). In this last phase, we therefore invite you to indicate one issue that in your opinion, should be on the agenda of the conference. Please indicate one topic and, if possible, explain the reason why it is the most important item to be discussed in Montpellier next year. We will close the consultation at the end of the week. In order to prepare the summary, we invite you to send your contribution before Wednesday. You will find in the attachment a copy of the messages exchanged so far and below a short overview of your answers to the 5 questions. Best regards, Olivier Chartier (EUROQUALITY) Facilitator of the Europe e-consultation Email: Olivier.chartier@euroquality.fr Skype: ochartier.euroquality Web: http://www.egfar.org/egfar/website/gcard/regional-consultations/eu Blog: http://gcardblog.wordpress.com/category/regional-e-consultations/europe/ Overview of answers to the 5 questions Question 1 drivers and challenges The table raised a lot of comments with in particular the need to develop regional and local answers to these global challenges (global by nature or common to geographical areas). Among the missing drivers, participants mentioned change in poverty patterns & income inequalities, change in livelihood strategies, change in the research system or policy & institutionnal changes for East Europe (not exhaustive list) Q2 Does European ARD effectively support global poverty reduction? The answer from several participants is "partly": Europe is already doing a lot but the impact could be improved. Other participants have more negative opinion. Some are of the view that research is too focused on small and medium size business and not enough on the poor. Q3 Does European research effectively support poverty reduction in Europe? We learned one important thing from the answers: many European participants involved in ARD do not have an opinion on this question. This is already an important finding that illustrates a lack of interest of the European ARD community on poverty issues in Europe. The participants who answered are rather negative. The main reason given is the low level of attention given to poverty in the research agenda. Q4 How to improve civil society participation? Answers from the participants confirm the findings of the review that there is a strong need for improvement in this area. Among the many suggestions: the research instruments should be adapted to the the participation of civil society (small research projects are not appropriate, objectives should be relevant etc.), civil society should be involved in research programming and there is a need for capacity building on these aspects (both for civil society and scientists). Q5 How to improve the use of research results? A lot of ideas have already been shared: systematic involvement of user groups, need to reinforce communication (including capacity building on communication for scientists), involvement of users as research partners (not only at the end of research projects), more vocational training for farmers, changes in the rewarding system of scientists (to balance the importance of scientific publications) and the need to ensure that research answers user needs by facilitating users' representation in research programming. Several initiatives have also been mentioned (ESFIM, Generation Challenge Programme, Swiss Guideline etc.).