Introduction

Background and scope

The mission of the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development (EFARD) is to strengthen the contribution of European Agricultural Research for Development to poverty alleviation, food security, and sustainable development in developing countries by providing a platform for strate-gic dialogue among European stakeholder groups in order to promote research partnerships between European and Southern research communities. EFARD’s mission follows the principles of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) , and contributes to GFAR’s Global Plan of Action, in part-nership with the other regional fora of GFAR. In particular, EFARD has an important advocacy role to play in maintaining agricultural research for development as highest priority in the political agendas at European and International levels.

EFARD Conferences, which are held about every three years, constitute the core element of EFARD’s activities in order to further exchange and promote strategic planning among European and partners from the South. Previous EFARD conferences, which were held in Montpellier (1997), Wageningen (1999) and Rome (2002), were directed towards the identification of common research themes and in-terests on the European level. The EFARD Conference 2002 in Rome focused on the identification of common research priorities related to financing opportunities within the 6th framework programme of the EU. 

The forthcoming EFARD Conference, to be held in Zurich from 27-29 April 2005, will build on these experiences, while taking particular account of the enlargement of the EU and contributing to the con-solidation of regional fora in the South and East.

Objectives of the conference

The main objectives of the EFARD 2005 Conference are:

• to promote the agenda of agricultural research for development among institutions in Europe and developing countries as well as countries in transition;
• to provide a platform for information exchange and development of joint activities to interested stakeholders such as researchers, policy makers, NGO’s, farmers organizations and others, and
• to promote awareness among policy makers and the public regarding the objectives and mission of international agricultural research for development.