ACIAR celebrates 40 years of operation in June 2022. The ACIAR business model of brokering science partnerships in agriculture, fisheries and forestry between the Australian innovation system and neighbouring countries in our region is even more relevant today than when ACIAR was established in 1982.

Ensuring that the best of Australian science can be combined with local knowledge and implemented effectively in the field depends on the quality and durability of partnerships between farmers, researchers, industry and government. Our outstanding track record of building and sustaining deep, trusting partnerships over the last 39 years is now a great strategic asset.

The strength of these partnerships enables us to be flexible and responsive in transforming how we work in response to unprecedented disruption. During 2021–22, we will continue to adapt and refine ‘how’ we work in challenging times of restricted travel. The ‘why’ and the ‘what’ are enduring.

Our operational model is designed to deliver against our enabling legislation, Australia’s development program and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, through 6 strategic objectives.

The research portfolio is based on 10 programs that focus on aspects of productivity, resilience, sustainability, opportunity and equity of agriculture, forestry and fisheries systems throughout the Indo-Pacific region, to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods and food security.

We have 3 key areas of work.

1. Global research collaborations: We develop and foster partnerships and relationships with other international research and development agencies, the most significant being CGIAR. We also develop and foster partnerships with development donors and the private sector to pursue shared goals and ensure that ACIAR-funded research results are implemented at scale.
2. Bilateral and regional research projects: We generate knowledge from ACIAR projects and programs to empower smallholder farmers, extension agents, scientists and policymakers to take on the intersecting challenges of growing more and healthier food and reducing poverty while using less land, water and energy.
3. Scientific and policy capacity-building activities: We identify and establish opportunities for individuals and institutions in partner countries to boost their technical, policy and management skills in agriculture, fisheries, forestry and management of land and water resources.

ACIAR partnership model

 

Some of the major influences of our operating environment in the Indo-Pacific region have been in play for some time – such as rapid social, economic and political change within partner countries and an increasingly variable and changing climate. Many of our partner countries also contend with the complex triple burden of nutrition (acute hunger, malnutrition and nutrition-related disease).

ACIAR has well-established ongoing plans and programs to ensure continuity in building the partnerships, knowledge and capacity required to achieve more productive and sustainable agricultural systems, while also enhancing food security and livelihoods. However, all plans and operations must take into account the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is currently the most significant shaper and disruptor of our operating environment.

The work of ACIAR and our partners will be vital in the next few years. Smallholder farmers in the Indo-Pacific region need the knowledge, skills, technology and frameworks to restore disrupted production systems and value chains across the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. During 2021–22, we will be refining the changes and adaptations we made to our traditional operating models during 2020. Historically, the operations of ACIAR have depended heavily on international travel by Australian scientists to partner countries, extensive regional travel within partner countries, and travel to Australia for training by scientists from partner countries.

While a global crisis precipitated this remodelling, ACIAR has been presented with new opportunities to experiment with new technologies and new modalities to achieve our purpose more efficiently. We will continue to strengthen our business models so we can continue to work with our partners on ongoing social, economic and environmental challenges.

This new way of working has built closer links with the more than 800 ACIAR alumni across our region, as we seek to maintain on-ground momentum within ACIAR-funded programs and projects. We look forward to maintaining these stronger connections into the future.

Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic is central to our first strategic objective of ‘improving food security and reducing poverty among smallholder farmers and rural communities’ in our region.

Many of the projects we commission – across regions, countries and programs – have the core endeavour of improving food security and reducing poverty among smallholder farmers and rural communities. This strategic objective means ACIAR is well placed to be an integral and constructive part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in our region, with our ability to harness the strengths of the Australian agricultural innovation system to provide scientific leadership.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health and economic crisis that is disrupting the lives and livelihoods of diverse communities around the world, with impacts to be felt for years to come.

The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities in food systems around the region. However, agriculture has played an important role as a ‘shock absorber’ by sustaining food production, and absorbing significant movements of people and providing useful work.

As partner countries tackle the multifaceted challenge of ‘building back better’, a key aspect of recovery will be improving the safety and resilience of food systems. The ACIAR response to the pandemic reflects the Australian Government’s policy, articulated in Partnerships for Recovery — Australia’s COVID-19 Development Response, published on the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

 

Our second research-based objective, ‘managing natural resources and producing food more sustainably, adapting to climate variability and mitigating climate change’, is fundamental to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, fishers and foresters throughout the Indo-Pacific.

While adaptation to climate change and extreme weather events is intrinsic to all ACIAR research projects, the new ACIAR Climate Change program enables us to focus and strengthen our capacity to work towards this strategic objective.

Commencing its first full year of operation, the new program will focus on agriculture’s contribution to climate change, and opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors in our region. Many of our partner countries are interested in tapping into deep Australian expertise developed through, for example, the Carbon Farming Initiative, as they seek to meet their own nationally determined emissions reduction contributions to the Paris Agreement.

Our enhanced capacity to identify and build new partnerships to facilitate adaptation to climate change in our region also provides opportunities to be involved in the climate change arena at the highest levels. ACIAR will attend events associated with the UN Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP26) in November 2021.

Australia is a member of the Global Research Alliance for Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA), an organisation finding ways to grow more food without increasing greenhouse gas emissions. ACIAR is Australia’s representative on the GRA and ACIAR CEO Professor Andrew Campbell is Chair of GRA for 2021. Australia’s priorities for its year as Chair of the GRA include enhancing GRA engagement with Pacific island countries and developing synergies between mitigation and adaptation research. The GRA and our participation are described in more detail here.

ACIAR works across the Indo-Pacific region with the strategic objective of ‘enhancing human nutrition and reducing risks to human health’. In our region, there are countries, provinces and communities experiencing the triple burden of nutrition – acute hunger and malnutrition alongside increasing levels of obesity and diet-associated diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Leaders in farming, business, science and government recognise that if the UN Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved by 2030, there must be a global transformation in how food is produced, processed, distributed and consumed.

Many projects in our research portfolio are designed with an element of enhancing human nutrition and reducing risks to human health. During 2021–22, ACIAR will continue to develop partnerships and broker research relationships that address the many factors that influence the nutritional value of food harvested and the safety of the food production system.

Our fourth strategic objective is to improve gender equity and facilitate empowerment of women and girls. Gender equality is crucial to alleviating poverty in rural communities and a key consideration in all the contexts in which ACIAR operates. All projects, regardless of country, sector or enterprise, will lead to changes in communities and societies that have gender implications.

ACIAR recognises the potential for improved production, income and family nutrition when women play a more visible and equal role in agricultural decision-making. As more than half the world’s women are farmers, ACIAR cannot credibly pursue its objectives unless we also promote gender equality vigorously, both internally and externally.

The ACIAR Gender Equity Policy and Strategy 2017–2022 informs the design and implementation of our research activities with partners. There is compelling evidence, in both the public and private sectors, that organisations drawing equally on the talents of women and men at all levels outperform those that do not.

Consistent with the strategy and Australia’s aid program targets, we aim for 80% (at a minimum) of ACIAR investments reflecting the principles of gender equity in project design and implementation.

The strategy also guides our internal planning and organisation. The proportion of senior positions occupied by women within ACIAR increased from 11% in 2016 to 55% by June 2021.

Through its strategic objective of ‘fostering more inclusive agrifood and forestry value chains and engaging the private sector where possible’, ACIAR brokers projects that identify opportunities and improve business outcomes for people all the way along the value chain, from the input providers and smallholder farmers, to their households and communities.

Effective, efficient and inclusive value chains have the power to transform livelihoods of some of the poorest regions of the world. Unlocking the potential for people to participate equitably in markets and benefit from the opportunities provided by business is a proven way to create employment, improve business outcomes for smallholders and communities and increase economic security in developing countries.

The ACIAR Agribusiness Program brokers research-for-development to create new or better business systems and build partnerships to increase the efficiency of supply chains, improve food safety, reduce food losses and promote inclusive value chains. However, right across the ACIAR research portfolio there are opportunities to use best practices in agriculture production, supply-chain management and market-based solutions to build inclusive and profitable value chains.

Building capacity in partner countries is a strategic objective for ACIAR. Innovation in agriculture is a key pathway to poverty reduction, increased food security and economic growth. Building the capacity of agricultural researchers, their networks and institutions contributes to innovation potential and supports partners to deploy relevant and effective agricultural practices and policies to reduce poverty.

The ACIAR 10-Year Strategy 2018–2027 committed ACIAR to building its investment in postgraduate research training for individual scientists, as well as value-added training in management and leadership. The strategy also identified the value in developing ongoing relationships with the network of ACIAR collaborators.

In 2021–22, ACIAR will continue formal and informal programs of capacity building. Our formal activities of fellowships and alumni programs will be delivered in modified and adapted ways to ensure success within the restrictions of placed on Australia and partner countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic (see Capacity Building section).

Capacity building is an intrinsic factor in many of the research projects we broker. It ensures that the people we work with have the skills, resources and knowledge to sustain new initiatives, systems and approaches, so our investment leads to lasting change.