In Costa Rica, IICA, CGIAR and the World Bank hosted a dialogue among regional agricultural innovation initiatives, national innovation systems of the Americas and other private sector stakeholders to discuss ways to enhance research and knowledge transfer to producers throughout the hemisphere
San Jose, 9 May 2023 (IICA) -- The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) will strengthen its role as a liaison between regional mechanisms for agricultural innovation, technology and research in the Americas by expanding dialogue and joint work with those programs. This, in turn, will enable the Institute to support agrifood system transformation in the region in collaboration with CGIAR and the World Bank.
The Director General of the Institute, Manuel Otero, expressed this commitment at the Regional Dialogue on Science, Technology and Innovation in Agrifood Systems of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Costa Rica and attended by more than 100 authorities and experts from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI), national agricultural research institutes from various countries of the Americas and other international organizations.
The event was organized by IICA, the World Bank and CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis.
“I wish to undertake commitments and reiterate our support to PROCISUR (Cooperative Program for Agrifood and Agroindustrial Technology Development in the Southern Cone) and PROCINORTE (Cooperative Program in Agricultural Research and Technology for the Northern Region). We are aiming high. Building bridges is crucial to avoid becoming isolated territories and to achieve progress with respect to innovation systems”, said Otero at the end of the dialogue.
He also ratified IICA’s support for the Regional Fund for Agricultural Technology (FONTAGRO). “Our hope is to achieve a renewed funding mechanism, providing more resources to fund the issues raised in this dialogue”, he said.
With respect to science and technology policies, Otero offered to dedicate a section of the Public Policy Observatory for Agrifood Systems (OPSAa), launched by the Institute in 2022, to highlighting progress achieved with respect to agricultural innovation, science and technology regulations.
Otero underscored the role of science, technology and innovation in modernizing and strengthening the region’s agrifood systems, as well as in meeting current challenges such as sustainability, climate change and the need for food security. He also referred to the search for funding, and noted that he would raise all of these issues at the meetings of IICA’s Executive Committee in July and Inter-American Board of Agriculture (IABA) in October. The latter meeting will take place just weeks before the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28), which will be held in the United Arab Emirates between November and December.
“We must send out clear signals that there is cohesion in our region, as well as emphasize the fact that countries cannot act in isolation and that science and innovation in agriculture are key to overcoming current challenges, such as climate change. At these meetings, we will once again call for collective action and the need to establish a hemispheric partnership to guarantee food security and sustainable development”, he added.
The Director General of IICA also listed some of the pending challenges related to innovation, science and technology in the region.
“We are in need of a network of institutions related to tropical agriculture—a type of agriculture whose institutional framework must be strengthened. We must also systematize forward-thinking, because tomorrow’s agriculture will involve numerous changes. IICA is eager to take part in these efforts, as well as in eventually developing a biosciences platform related to genetics”, Otero explained.
Priorities related to innovation, science and technology
The purpose of the dialogue was to put strategic issues related to the strengthening and transformation of innovation systems back on the international agenda, as well as to identify potential areas of joint work based on national and regional priorities in the Americas. The participants agreed that it is crucial to understand existing innovation networks and the public policies that determine the ecosystem for innovation.
They also concluded that it is crucial to build strategic research and development agendas shared by the national agricultural research and technology institutes of countries of the Americas and international organizations such as CGIAR, and to consider the role that these organizations play in the innovation ecosystem.
They also concluded that it is crucial to strengthen public institutions by enhancing institutional and human capabilities, support services and incentives; to identify potential regulatory changes and funding options that can facilitate and strengthen the role of new public and private stakeholders; as well as to address deficiencies in public and private investment for the generation of public goods.
“We are called upon to participate in an active and coordinated manner in building an increasingly suitable ecosystem for measuring technology in agrifood systems”, remarked Joaquín Lozano, CGIAR Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“We must continue to unite voices and stakeholders, as well as mobilize more resources to invest in science, technology and innovation in the region. This is everyone’s job, and CGIAR will support these efforts to strengthen science, research and innovation in agrifood systems”, he added.
To that end, he explained, it would be necessary to identify new technological public goods for the region and design the work and research agendas required to develop them; these would need to be agreed upon by all national public institutions, international organizations and the private sector.
Participants also cited the need to rethink the existing institutional framework for innovation, science and technology, with special emphasis on its operational agility and coordination with the private sector. They also considered it necessary to achieve progress with respect to financing, public policies and the sharing of experiences between national and international agricultural innovation systems.
“This is a one-of-a-kind and important agenda that will demonstrate our long-term vision, which is of key importance for the sector and for development, investment and policies. There is consensus among all our institutions regarding the need to continue engaging in dialogue to pin down our objectives, identify appropriate funding sources, and continue perfecting and advancing agricultural innovation”, concluded Joanne Gaskell, Senior Agricultural Economist at the World Bank.
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