ICARDA Caravan, Issue No. 20/21

Special Report

ICARDA and the Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals
1-	Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2-	Achieve universal primary education
3-	Promote gender equality and empower women
4-	Reduce child mortality
5-	Improve maternal health
6-	Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7-	Ensure environmental sustainability
8-	Develop a global partnership for development

Halving poverty in the dry areas by 2015

t the United Nations Millennium Summit, held in September 2000, world leaders and their

development partners committed themselves to a set of targets to be achieved by 2015, aimed at providing better lives for the millions of people still mired in poverty around the world. The Millennium Development Goals provide a concrete framework to guide all actors in development.

ICARDA’s research and training activities are impacting poverty and improving livelihoods in the dry areas in line with the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly those related to agriculture. The Center is making a contribution to the attainment of five of the eight Millennium Development Goals.

Goal one: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
In the dry areas the environment is harsh, stressful and variable, and agriculture is more complex than in areas with adequate rainfall. ICARDA is working with national agricultural research systems to develop crop varieties suited to these environments, and improved crop production technologies and better water management systems that enable increased food production and better incomes for the poor.

Goal three: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
As more men migrate to urban areas in search of better paid work, women are left with increasing responsibilities on the farm. In many instances, women are responsible for providing food and other basic needs for the home. Therefore, ICARDA scientists are working more on mainstreaming gender in research activities. Results show that where women are empowered, through knowledge of better agricultural technologies, food production and livelihoods have improved.

Goal four: Reduce Child Mortality
A major cause of child deaths in poor countries is lack of adequate nutrition. ICARDA scientists are developing improved varieties of protein-rich legume crops, such as faba bean, lentil and chickpea, for the countries where populations depend on these crops for their nutrition. The Center is working on systems for improved small ruminant production in CWANA to increase availability of milk and dairy products. Social studies on child nutrition and its impact are also being carried out.

Goal seven: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Managing natural resources in a sustainable way is at the core of ICARDA’s research agenda. The Center is working with national programs to rehabilitate rangelands—through practices that discourage range and soil degradation—and to promote better water-use practices by developing water-harvesting systems, enhancing water-use efficiency and encouraging the use of indigenous water-harvesting systems.

Goal eight: Develop a Global Partnership for Development
Addressing the challenges faced by people in the dry areas requires full participation of a wide range of actors at national, regional and global levels. ICARDA’s research strategy hinges on partnerships with national agricultural research systems, regional agricultural research networks, international agricultural research institutions, and other partners. The Center is also at the forefront in deliberations aimed at improving the plight of the poor in the dry and conflict-prone areas through emergency interventions as well as the implementation of medium- and long-term projects for sustainable rehabilatation of the agricultural sector.

Sharpening the poverty focus: ICARDA’s New Research Portfolio
ICARDA is taking steps to sharpen the focus of its research activities for the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals. Starting in January 2005, the Center will implement a realigned research portfolio to increase impact on poverty, and address the priorities identified for agricultural research by all stakeholders in Central and West Asia and North Africa. ICARDA has redesigned its research as a single coherent poverty-focused program, sub-divided into six mega-projects. The new structure ensures continuity of the current research activities and additionally accommodates a number of new approaches and avenues in research. These newer avenues include: improved income generation from high value crops and adding value to staple crop and livestock products; rehabilitating agriculture in conflict/post-conflict situations; and closer alignment of agricultural research with mainstream development programs through research-for-development applications.
The six mega-projects address specific thematic problems.

Mega-Project 1.
Management of scarce water resources and mitigation of drought
By definition the dry areas are regions of water scarcity. Renewable water resources are limited and rainfall is highly variable and unpredictable. This short-term climatic variability is likely to be exacerbated by longer term climate change. Countries with predominantly rural economies and high dependence on dryland agriculture will be at most risk as they are highly vulnerable to shifts in seasonal climatic patterns. This project focuses on developing strategies for the more efficient and effective use of limited water resources in agricultural production and drought mitigation.

Mega-Project 2.
Integrated gene management: conservation, improvement and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity
The CWANA region contains three major centers of plant diversity, where numerous species of temperate-zone agriculture originated and where their wild relatives and landraces are still found. The region also is the Center of considerable small-ruminant biodiversity. These are a valuable source of genetic material for future germplasm enhancement. The ex situ collections developed and maintained by this project provide continuous and reliable access to genetic resources required to develop germplasm with higher and more stable yields, better resistance to evolving biotic and abiotic stresses (particularly drought and heat) including those emanating from climate change, and better end-use and nutritional quality.

Mega-Project 3.
Improved land management to combat desertification
An estimated 45% of the total area of irrigated and rainfed arable land together with the vast areas of rangelands in CWANA is subjected to some degree of land degradation with consequent reductions in biological productivity. The project aims to identify options for rehabilitating degraded land resources, and improve and strengthen systems of land management to control degradation and sustain future production.

Mega-Project 4.
Diversification and sustainable improvement of rural livelihoods
Within dry areas the majority of the rural population is involved in the agricultural sector and the development of agriculture is recognized as the engine for national economic growth and development. Given the natural resource constraints in the ecoregion, especially in more marginal areas, productivity increases alone will not be sufficient to combat poverty and improve rural livelihoods. Innovative options are needed to diversify income generating opportunities. Such options include diversifying cropping systems and the utilization of high-value plant species, and increasing the quality and end-use value of agricultural commodities. This project contributes to the overall aim of developing productive and sustainable systems that conserve the resource base while supporting rural livelihoods in the dry areas.

Mega-Project 5.
Poverty and livelihoods analysis
In the dry areas, poverty in all its dimensions (economic, nutritional and natural resources) is widespread. In the CWANA region an estimated 70% of the poverty is in rural areas even though only some 43% of the total population lives there. The rural population is largely dependent on agriculture, which is facing a number of converging environmental trends that reduce options, drive migration and threaten the future sustainability of livelihoods, particularly in marginalized areas (e.g., mountains and desert margins). The project provides a deeper understanding of the determinants of poverty, and the livelihood strategies adopted by rural communities. The analysis is needed to continually refine the targeting of ICARDA’s research and identify pathways out of poverty.

Mega-Project 6.
Knowledge management and dissemination for sustainable development
Given the importance of agriculture in national growth and development, the sound management of the knowledge generated from science and technology and its alignment/linkage into use by end-users for sustainable development is crucial. This project includes research activities that link with development and knowledge management and dissemination that were not previously explicit in ICARDA’s research portfolio.

All the above projects will be implemented in close collaboration with national programs within the region, the international research centers, and other partners. The implementaion will take cognizance of the changing trends in international agricultural research, the new tools of science, as well as the various national priorities.

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