CGIAR in LAC: A strategic innovation lab for global impact

The CGIAR system has its roots in Latin America—specifically dwarf wheat breading in Mexico at CIMMYT—followed by the creation of three other centers, CIAT, CIP and IFPRI. It arose in response to the widespread concern in the mid-20th century that rapid increases in human populations would soon lead to widespread famine.  Thanks to this early work, over a billion lives were saved.

Today global agriculture is once again at a stasis.  Latin America, as both a biodiversity hot spot and home to more than a quarter of the world’s medium to high potential farmland, once again bears a heavy responsibility to feed humanity while preserving the planet.

The CGIAR vision and engagement in LAC has changed, adapting to new realities and opening new horizons for strategic CGIAR leadership – a critical contribution to the ongoing CGIAR reform. The evolving public-private research collaboration, commitment to even greater strategic open innovation, and research in collaboration with the private sector are enabling solutions to agriculture and sustainability challenges to be delivered to more people, with broader reach and greater impact.

In this webinar, we will offer short presentations followed by a roundtable discussion about innovations from the four CGIAR centers based in the Americas, bridging IT, finance, climate, and food systems, to present: 1) how cross-center collaboration supports and informs this work, and 2) how these innovations support the CGIAR research priorities.