Summary for Strategic Framework

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This document provides a Strategic Framework for research and development activities with underutilized plants for Asia, including the Pacific Islands, and for Sub-Saharan Africa. With a vision to 2020, it is intended to provide guidance to research and development practitioners and investors from the public and private sector, helping them to identify areas of possible intervention and collaboration.

The document was developed through a consultative process. It was drafted in January 2006 by the International Centre for Underutilised Crops (ICUC), with input from the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species (GFU). In early February 2006, a cross-section of over 200 experts in underutilized plant species research and development – representing universities, national agricultural and horticultural research systems, international research centres, government institutions, non-governmental organisations, regional networks, donor organisations and the private sector – was invited to provide feedback on the draft document. In addition, the draft document was posted on several relevant listservers, including FAO’s NTFP Newsletter, the Forest Information Update, the Global NTFP Partnership listserver and the Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn listserver, as well as on the websites of ICUC and GFU.

In March 2006, 27 participants from ten countries in the Asia and Pacific region (Jaenicke et al., 2006) met in Colombo, Sri Lanka for a two-day expert consultation. In May 2006, 31 participants from 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Jaenicke et al., 2006 b) met in Nairobi, Kenya for a similar consultation. During these meetings the draft documents were discussed and refined, problem trees were developed and operational plans for key activity areas were drawn from the problem-tree discussion. For Asia and the Pacific, the key areas identified were research, marketing, demonstrations, education, policy, and the general knowledge base; for Africa, they were research, marketing, education and capacity building, policy, knowledge, and partnerships.

By June 2006, input had been received from 78 individuals and institutions involved in research and development (see Annex 3); the input from donor organisations and the private sector was weak. In total, about 35 percent of the individual recipients of the draft document responded.

Following the workshops, the strategy document was revised by ICUC, GFU and a group of reviewers comprising participants from the Colombo and Nairobi workshops.

Another extensive round of public consultation and input was realized in mid-2006 through the posting of the revised draft version on the websites of various partner organisations.

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