How can developing countries dramatically increase their knowledge base for agricultural development within a relatively short period of time, but without incurring enormous expenditure and overwhelming existing institutions? The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is proposing a promising answer to this perennial question in the form of the Global Open Agriculture and Food University. A distance-learning initiative that would be open to all qualified candidates, the university would strengthen the capacity of postgraduate students in food and agriculture (including livestock, forestry, and fisheries) in order to speed up agricultural development, poverty reduction, and progress toward food security.

The university would help developing- and developed-country universities offer courses based on CGIAR research and academic teaching in partnership with regional and national institutions. By complementing and leveraging existing distance-education courses, the university would provide flexible, affordable, and accessible postgraduate education while rapidly building high-quality capacity for agricultural development.

To move forward with the initiative, the CGIAR brought together potential partners from developing and developed-country universities, university associations, distance-learning institutions, and donors from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America for a one-day dialogue this past August. Held at IFPRI, the initiative’s facilitator for the CGIAR, the dialogue allowed representatives to discuss the need for and potential of distance learning for agricultural development; identify ways that developing- and developed-country actors could collaborate on this initiative; and ascertain the approaches and institutional arrangements that would sustain it.

The dialogue helped set the stage for the next four steps of the initiative: establish a credible advisory body; identify key partners from the CGIAR, open universities, and international organizations that would help pinpoint and implement course modules and curricula; revise the program document to reflect the recent dialogue; and hold a meeting for those interested in the project at the CGIAR’s October 2004 Annual General Meeting.The Science Council of the CGIAR has also endorsed the initiative and will help in establishing its Program Advisory Committee.