Putting the CGIAR 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy into action
CGIAR’s new Investment Prospectus provides a body of research and innovation to deliver on the priorities set out in the CGIAR 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy. Covering the 2022–24 business plan period, the Investment Prospectus proposes a set of CGIAR Initiatives to be supported with pooled funding.
CGIAR Initiatives
CGIAR Initiatives are major, prioritized areas of investment that bring capacity from within and beyond CGIAR to bear on well-defined, major challenges. Thirty-two Initiatives are covered in the Investment Prospectus, which builds on a track record of 50 years of research and collaboration to accelerate innovative solutions to achieve impact aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. CGIAR Initiatives meet a common set of requirements, articulated in System Council documentation and evaluable through the Independent Science for Development Council quality of research for development criteria.
The Investment Prospectus is organized by the three Action Areas detailed in the CGIAR 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy: Systems Transformation, Resilient Agrifood Systems, and Genetic Innovation. Each Initiative is placed under a primary Action Area, yet most Initiatives will involve collaboration across more than one Action Area. Click on an Action Area below to learn more and see the related Initiatives:
All Initiatives will seek to achieve results across the five Impact Areas identified in the Strategy: Nutrition Health and Food Security; Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods, and Jobs; Gender Equality, Youth, and Social Inclusion; Climate Adaptation and Mitigation; and Environmental Health and Biodiversity.
Six of the 32 Initiatives are Regional Integrated Initiatives that will ensure that there is an integrated response to local demands from across the Action Areas. Regional Integrated Initiatives are a key vehicle for delivering priority development solutions from integrated research and innovation. They will operate by co-identifying challenges and research foci with key partners, and by co-designing, co-creating, and co-learning with these partners throughout the innovation process.
Five Impact Area Platforms will support the Initiatives and Action Areas on impact strategies, metrics, and partner engagement.
Read more about the 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy and explore the portfolio of Initiatives.
You can also download the CGIAR 2022–24 Investment Prospectus and the Companion Document.
CGIAR’s Theory of Change
The Initiatives in the Investment Prospectus are integral to CGIAR’s theory of change.
CGIAR seeks to drive change through innovation systems towards a world with sustainable and resilient food, land, and water systems that deliver more diverse, healthy, safe, sufficient, and affordable diets, and ensure improved livelihoods and greater social equality, within planetary and regional environmental boundaries.
CGIAR will strategically connect to and work with demand partners that are key agents of change in food, land, and water systems. Dialogue with these partners will identify specific challenges and barriers to transformation that CGIAR research and innovation can contribute to resolving. CGIAR will work with innovation partners and scaling partners to develop priority innovation packages — interlinked actions across technology, capacity building, and policy — that can bring innovations to scale through relevant pathways.
These partnerships and pathways are set within three spheres: the sphere of control, within which CGIAR has direct control of activities that result in outputs; the sphere of influence, which refers to outcomes from innovations and research that have been directly influenced by CGIAR; and the sphere of interest, which involves outcomes and impacts that have been indirectly influenced by CGIAR.
CGIAR’s theory of change helps ensure that our activities, and our partnerships, are fully focused on achieving impact across the five Impact Areas.
Header photo: Pratima Baral (right), a CGIAR researcher based at CIMMYT, demonstrates the use of a farming app in the field with Sita Kumari (center), farmer, and her friend Nilam (left). The technology assists farmers in remote areas, who would otherwise have limited access to information on market prices and services. Photo by C. De Bode/CGIAR.