YPARD attendance at EFARD SC meeting

On June 12th – 13th June 2012, YPARD was present in Brussels as an official member at the Steering Committee Meeting of EFARD (the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development) through Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu.

Reporting back from the EFARD SC Meeting, Codrin mentions that the strategic objectives of the Forum are to encourage dialogue between European AR4D stakeholders by promoting awareness, innovative approaches, and partnerships in order to build a more efficient and impact focused ARD, to support global ARD initiatives within the framework of GFAR and the GCARD process and to promote inter-regional partnerships and collaborative ARD activities for joint research initiatives particularly in developing countries.

The 4 major agenda points that were discussed by the EFARD SC were the role of ARD in Horizon 2020 (the successor of the 7th Framework Programme), the EFARD communication strategy and the contribution of EFARD to the GCARD 2 conference in Uruguay (October 2012).

• In order to continue with efforts to ensure ARD is more prominent in the awareness of policy makers and funders, the EFARD Steering Committee decided that more efforts are needed on Horizon 2020. A letter will be addressed by EFARD to Paolo De Castro, Chairman of the Commission on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament on food security.

• In order to implement the GFAR’s agricultural information and communication management programme which sets out to enhance stakeholders’ access to agricultural knowledge, a desk study was led by CIRAD. The objective of this study was:

1. To review and map the major European information and communication system: portals and websites dealing with Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D);
2. To provide some suggestions on how to integrate European agricultural information resources into the existing global agricultural information and communication management systems.

• The EFARD lead activities in support of GCARD Road Map are Foresight; the role of the ARI’s; Capacity Strengthening and coordination with CSOs and NGOs.

• The representation of different stakeholder groups in EFARD has been discussed and it has been agreed that it is needed that Farmers` Organizations (FO) together with other groups need a bigger representation. This will be the object of a joint activity of Catherine Guichard (Chair of EFARD SC) and Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu (YPARD representative).

Participants:
Catherine Guichard (COLEACP, France, Chair)
Alessandra Giuliani (SFIAR, Switzerland, Vice Chair)
David Radcliffe (EC/DEVCO; Executive Secretary)
Alex Percy-Smith (Consultant to Secretariat)
Sander van Opstal (ERA-ARD representative)
Philippe Petithuguenin (EC, DG RTD, representing EIARD)
Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu (YPARD – Europe representative)
Observer Arno Maatman (ICRA)
Christian Hoste (AGREENIUM/ France)
Caroline Sidi (ACF, France) substitute for Myriam Ait-Aissa
Didier Pillot (AGRINATURA)
Frédéric Lapeyrie (CRAI, France)
Francois Stepman (European Co-manager, PAEPARD)
Observer George Rothschild (UK Forum)
Judith Francis (CTA, Netherlands)
Observer Jennie van der Mheen (WUR, Netherlands)
Nicoliene Oudwater (ETC) substitute for Ann Waters-Bayer
Paolo Sarfatti (AGRINATURA/ IAO, Italy)
Observer Wim Andriesse (WUR, Netherlands)
Francoise de Chevigny (ICRA)

Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu, YPARD Steering Committee member.