IAASTD contd ….

The purpose of the IAASTD is to “assess agricultural knowledge, science and technology in order to use it more effectively to reduce hunger and poverty, improve rural livelihoods, and facilitate equitable, environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development”. Dr. Andy Hall participated at two assessment design meetings held this year. The first was a consultation involving 100 natural and social science experts from developed and developing countries. It took place between 30 th January and 4 th February 2005 at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok . Subsequently, a smaller design team consisting of 45 experts met from 23-25 May in Montpellier , France to revise the working document and present the final design to the Advisory Bureau for the IAASTD. The Advisory Bureau is a multistakholder group drawing members from the public and private sectors, from research, civil society, and donor communities and from the developed and developing world.

The process will involve both regional assessments and a global assessment. The final design includes: a historical review of the use of agricultural knowledge science and technology (AKST) and emerging lessons on ways of most effectively deploying it in the development process; a scenario building exercise exploring a number of different plausible development futures and the role of AKST in these future scenario; and finally a critical assessment of the implications of different future scenarios and the range of policy and institutional options that need to be considered with regard to building capacity and effectively deploying AKST. In the coming months the Bureau will select panels of expert authors for both the regional and the international assessment. It is anticipated that the assessment will form a major point of reference in the development community for agricultural science and technology planning.