Originally posted on CIAT’s News Blog.
Open letter to the heads of state attending the 70th UN General Assembly, September 2015, New York
Co-advancement of Agricultural and Natural Resource Management within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
The 17 global goals which you have supported the creation of
are an unrivalled span of human aspiration
covering everything from sharing prosperity,
to protecting the planet, to promoting a more peaceful world.
The commitments, resources and accountability
that you have offered in support are tremendous,
and have helped to fill a huge political gap by acting collectively.
Reducing rural poverty, ensuring food and nutrition security,
and improving natural resource systems
are key dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
These are also the shared strategic goals of the 15 centres of CGIAR.
Together we stand ready to engage and be accountable for
our contributions to the entire SDG ambition, specifically to:
SDG1: Poverty
SDG2: Food security and nutrition
SDG6: Water
SDG7: Sustainable energy
SDG13: Climate change
SDG15: Land use
The collective of 15 CGIAR centres is more than 40 years old and works
in over 70 developing countries through extensive partnership networks.
Its 12,000 staff focus on delivering actionable knowledge, robust evidence
for policy and investment decisions and capacity development for, inter alia:
Sustainable agriculture practices
Rural livelihood improvements
Improved crop varieties
Biodiversity conservation
Climate change adaptation and mitigation
Sustainable management of landscapes
We have aligned our new strategies with the SDGs
and we offer realistic impacts by 2030 of:
→ 350 million smallholder farmers
with access to improved varieties and management practices
→ 500 million people—
at least 50% of them women—
no longer suffering from nutritional deficiencies
→ 100 million people
lifted out—and staying out—of poverty
→ 0.8 gigatonnes
fewer greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture each year
→ 190 million hectares
of degraded lands restored
No other group of organizations combines
advances in agriculture development
and natural resource management better,
or more comprehensively,
than the CGIAR centres.
A key to successfully achieving the SDGs will be sufficient means of implementation.
Here the CGIAR centres are concerned by the fluctuating recognition of
coupled research and development endeavours in priorities and financial commitments.
Accordingly, at the 70th UN General Assembly in New York next week,
we call on world leaders and key development actors to recognize and document
their appreciation for the importance of groups such as the collective of CGIAR centres.
Furthermore, we call on them to incorporate new commitments and continued support
up to and beyond 2030 for advancing our innovative programs
in alignment with, and strongly contributing to, the SDG ambition.
Two main questions for you:
(1) Can we include you
along with other countries and key actors as champions
of the co-advancement of agriculture and natural resource management?
(2) Which agencies in your country
should we more actively engage with in this co-advancement?
Please respond with answers or any further information required,
either directly to any of the signatories of this letter
or centrally to the CGIAR centre representative:
CentreRep@CGIAR.org
If we had all the knowledge, technology and capacity we needed,
then we would not need coupled research and development endeavours.
We remain at your service to help combine the science of discovery
with the science of delivery of positive agriculture
and natural resource management impacts.
Yours sincerely,
