IITA hosts One-Health kick-off webinar under CGIAR’s Two Degree Initiative
July 17, 2020
As part of CGIAR’s Two Degree Initiative (2DI) for Food and Agriculture, CGIAR-IITA hosted a kick-off webinar on the “One-Health platform for climate-driven pests and diseases in West Africa” on 30 June. The One-Health platform is Regional Grand Challenge 1 (RGC1), one of eight grand challenges under the 2DI, which comes from a need to transform the food systems in the world.
Giving an overview of the initiative, Bruce Campbell, Program Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), highlighted the need to do things differently because it would be impossible to achieve the United Nations SDG-2 by 2030 using the current development research initiatives, especially against the backdrop of climate change. Increasing incidents of climate-related catastrophes are affecting the farming communities and, by extension, agricultural productivity. CCAFS, led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, put together the Two Degree Initiative.
One of the necessary changes Campbell spoke about is a transformation in the agricultural research-for-development community, which measures success in the number of publications rather than in societal impact. He said, “This kind of system makes it extremely difficult to deliver end-to-end sustainable and scalable solutions. So one of the transformations we see has to happen among ourselves.”
To change this, CGIAR has made tackling climate change a high-level objective of the entire CGIAR and a significant focus of its future research strategy. “The Two Degree Initiative is part of an attempt to do research-for-development differently, as ‘business unusual’,” Campbell said.
Changing the narrative of the research community would require a holistic approach to research and dissemination of solutions. The One-Health platform in West Africa is part of a multi-regional strategy focusing on ambitious targets with a global challenge to reach 500 million farmers in the next decade ultimately.
In his welcome remarks, IITA Board Chair Christian Borgemeister linked “One-Health” to climate change and the need to engage key stakeholders for an active partnership and synergies to address climate change holistically. He outlined the three objectives of the meeting:
One of the necessary changes Campbell spoke about is a transformation in the agricultural research-for-development community, which measures success in the number of publications rather than in societal impact. He said, “This kind of system makes it extremely difficult to deliver end-to-end sustainable and scalable solutions. So one of the transformations we see has to happen among ourselves.”
To change this, CGIAR has made tackling climate change a high-level objective of the entire CGIAR and a significant focus of its future research strategy. “The Two Degree Initiative is part of an attempt to do research-for-development differently, as ‘business unusual’,” Campbell said.
Changing the narrative of the research community would require a holistic approach to research and dissemination of solutions. The One-Health platform in West Africa is part of a multi-regional strategy focusing on ambitious targets with a global challenge to reach 500 million farmers in the next decade ultimately.
In his welcome remarks, IITA Board Chair Christian Borgemeister linked “One-Health” to climate change and the need to engage key stakeholders for an active partnership and synergies to address climate change holistically. He outlined the three objectives of the meeting:
- Getting the buy-in of critical regional and international stakeholders to the One-Health RGC1
- Identifying participants’ perspectives on significant pest and disease challenges in West Africa
- Getting participants’ advice as to how the One-Health RGC1 can add value to ongoing and planned initiatives under the four strategic priorities of RGC1
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