Attendees: ISDC, IAES, Senior Leadership Team, DDG Research, CGIAR Research Program Leads, Platform Leads, Initiative Leads and Deputies, Partners.
Background: For years, CGIAR stakeholders have sought to define the System's Comparative Advantage (CA). ISDC aims at putting the concept of CA to effective use in research portfolio management at all levels within CGIAR, now that the One CGIAR transition facilitates and promotes the use of portfolio approaches to research and innovation. A first ISDC virtual workshop took place on August 3, 2022, which allowed to exchange with targeted CGIAR stakeholders and senior research leaders on the methodological approach, and to surface ideas, concerns, and current practices.
Built on these exchanges, the Concept Note Some Reflections on Comparative Advantage as it applies to CGIAR, and Consultation Draft prepared for the 17th CGIAR System Council meeting, ISDC is proposing a CA approach which can potentially lead to mutually beneficial partnerships, increasing CGIAR’s effectiveness through specialization, and redirecting scarce resources toward the System’s relative strengths. The CA analysis is designed to harness the differing competencies of the organizations with which CGIAR interacts in a way that makes “the sum of its parts” as large as possible, maximizing CGIAR impacts.
Aims of the Follow-up Workshop:
- to present the CA approach
- to discuss insights from retrospective applications
- to reflect with targeted CGIAR stakeholders, senior research leaders, and partners, on further development and use
Download the Technical Note, Identifying and Using CGIAR’s Comparative Advantage.
