Report of the Thirteenth Meeting of the CGIAR Private Sector Committee

Report of the thirteenth meeting of the CGIAR Private Sector Committee, held in Washington on October 21-22, 2000, just prior to ICW 2000, Sam Dryden presiding. CGIAR Chairman Ian Johnson joined the meeting for an hour. He reiterated the imperative need for public/private partnerships. Dryden spoke of private sector perspectives and questions about the concept of global public goods and their relation to germplasm improvement activities at CGIAR Centers. World Bank representative Shawki Barghouti briefed the Committee on Bank plans for a high level policy dialogue with the private sector on new agricultural technologies and their significance to the global development agenda. The Committee discussed the future governance and organization of the CGIAR. It favored regional priority setting, and suggested changes needed to implement that approach. Use of consultants was suggested. Other items on the agenda were the future role of the Committee, the need to educate the public on the importance of germplasm improvement, and the review of plant breeding in the CGIAR. The Chairman briefed the CGIAR meeting on the work of the committee, and this written report was circulated as part of the summary report of ICW 2000.