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International Science Policy

United States Government

 
U.S. Agency for International Aid
There are three important organizational vehicles for conducting global, international and regional research in the agricultural and environmental sciences. These include:
  • Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
    The CGIAR is an informal group of donors (about 60 at present) which has its headquarters at the World Bank in Washington DC. It sponsors 16 international research centers distributed throughout the world (13 in developing countries) which cover a wide array of basic food commodities and natural resource issues. The CGIAR goal is to produce public goods that are freely available to all.
  • Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSP)
    The CRSPs harness the expertise of U.S. universities in low-cost, high-impact programs that contribute knowledge, trained personnel, and technology to agriculture worldwide in the fight against hunger and poverty. CRSP programs help build national agricultural research capacity in developing countries as well as benefit American agriculture. CRSP programs embody the mutual dependence of research, outreach, and training, in which training is integrated with research, and applied solutions requiring outreach.
  • Middle East Regional Cooperation (MERC) Program and the U.S.-Israel Cooperative Development Research (CDR) Program
    Both CDR and MERC fund competitively reviewed, applied research projects. CDR supports joint research projects involving U.S. and Israeli scientists working with counterparts in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America on topics relevant to the needs of the developing-country partners. MERC supports development in the Middle East via projects that involve direct Arab-Israeli cooperation.

U.S. Government's (USG) Sustainable Development Partnerships
The USG partnerships operate under the Global Development Alliance (GDA) business model: USAID is currently participating in more than three hundred active partnerships. Additional information regarding these partnership efforts may be found on the United Nations (UN) Commission on Sustainable Development's website at www.un.org/esa/sustdev/partnerships. For more information about the USG's partnership activities, please visit www.SDP.gov. The Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES) works bilaterally and multilaterally to promote the U.S. government's sustainable development agenda. For example, within the UN context, OES leads the Department of State’s efforts with the UN Commission on Sustainable Development .
 

Conferences & Meetings

 
UN Commission on Sustainable Development
The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UN CSD) met in New York City between May 5th and 16th of 2008. The UN CSD was created December, 1992 to ensure effective follow-up of the 1992 United Nations' Conference on Environment and Development (also called the UNCED or Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At the Earth Summit, world leaders adopted Agenda-21, a 300-page plan for achieving sustainable development in the 21st century. This review year (2008) focuses on the progress in implementation, obstacles, and constraints against targets, goals, and timetables related to sustainable development within the thematic issues of agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification, and Africa. At the May, 2008 session participant countries stressed long-term solutions for sustainable agriculture which included a "generation of technologies and farming methods which will make possible a second green revolution, one which permits sustainable yield improvements with minimal environmental damage and contributes to sustainable development goals." (see press release).
 
ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Events at UN CSD 16
At CSD-16, ASA, CSSA, and SSSA, and The Fertilizer Institute sponsored a “Learning Centre” called A Global Tool Box to Manage Water and Nutrients for Agricultural Communities. The event took place on May 14, 2008 and highlighted the options for water quantity and quality, and basin management.
 
A Global Tool Box to Manage Water and Nutrients for Agricultural Communities
Water and nutrient management are essential global tools for sustainable agricultural development to mitigate hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Adoption of a broad spectrum of low-cost, readily available nutrient and water management tools by land managers can reduce vulnerability of agricultural communities to food insecurity, drought, land degradation, desertification and flooding. These tools adopted independently or in combination to help achieve international goals for sustainable development include conventional and supplemental irrigation, water harvesting, tillage, nutrient management, and adaptive management.
 
ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Events at UN CSD 17
The Science Policy Office (SPO) attended the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development 3rd Implementation Cycle: Policy Session (UN CSD 17) on May 11th and 12th of 2009 in New York, NY. The SPO advocated for language in the final text that expands public and private investments in agricultural knowledge, science, and technology (AKST) to support sustainable development. Please see the UN CSD 17 advanced unedited text for information on the outcome of the session. ASA, CSSA, and SSSA priorities for the UN CSD 17 can be found here.
 
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