On 9-10 July, representatives from 11 CGIAR Centers (Bioversity International, CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IFPRI, IITA, ILRI, WorldFish), CARE, Yale University, and the CGIAR Consortium met for the PIM Management Committee and Focal Points meeting in Washington, DC. The meeting marks the midpoint of the implementation of the first three year phase of the research program. IFPRI’s Director General, Shenggen Fan, delivered the opening remarks stating, “PIM is one of the most inclusive CRPs. We have 11 CGIAR Centers working together and other partners including NGOs and engagement with the private sector.”
Shenggen Fan continued, “We have some of the best minds in this room, key people doing policy research. Different centers bring different expertise. We could have never done this without the CRPs. Together, we can deliver something much bigger and better than our own work through this collaboration.”
Theme leaders and Focal Points met to discuss progress and highlight substantive research in areas including value chains, foresight modeling, and diagnostic tools for market analysis. Drawing from examples as diverse as the native potato value chains in Ecuador to agricultural extension volunteers in Ghana, PIM focal points had the opportunity to share recent developments in their research and collaborate on future applications of the tools and models developed by PIM. Gender-focused research was discussed throughout the two day meeting and was highlighted as one of the main strengths of PIM.
Karen Brooks, Director of PIM, challenged researchers to focus on “how does analysis get funneled into action which gets turned into impact” as a primary objective of PIM research. CIAT’s Mark Lundy also highlighted the need for PIM’s output and research to “engage with decision-makers that are open to evidence and with thought leaders rather than just policy-makers so that research can feed into a broader debate.”
During the two day meeting, Anita Regmi, Senior Science Officer of the CGIAR Consortium, encouraged the Management Committee to develop ways to address urban hunger as well and incorporate the problem of rural to urban migration and “pockets of hunger” in middle-income countries.
Shenggen Fan closed the meeting by stating, “Looking into the future for the next phase of programing for PIM, we recognize that research takes time and impact even longer. We are on track and need to improve PIM’s impact pathways even more to make sure we continue to achieve strategic results.”
