If you can envision the CGIAR as a large, coordinated system where staff and partners are better informed and connected, where innovation is facilitated, and where information and knowledge are easily accessed and shared broadly, you will understand the main objectives of the 2004 ICT-KM Program Investment Plan.

The CGIAR System includes fifteen research Centers scattered around the globe. These autonomous Centers house some of the most dedicated and brilliant people in their respective fields: communities of practice comprising individuals who have come together with a shared passion and a common goal, people who are united by a desire to find solutions to a specific class of problems.

Unfortunately, passion and drive, even when coupled with the resources that are accessible to each Center, are not enough for the CGIAR to realize its full potential.

Much of the information and knowledge generated by any one Center is often inaccessible to people from the other Centers, to say nothing of the broader world beyond the CGIAR. Inadequate communication infrastructure, lack of standards, dispersed information and poor sharing habits are at the root of this problem.

By sharing information and knowledge quickly across networks, decisions can be made much faster and more effectively than before, and the Centers will be better equipped to achieve their respective objectives – making them better partners.

Although the focus of the 2004 Investment Plan is mostly internal, the poor farmers whose livelihoods often depend on agricultural innovations will undoubtedly benefit from a stronger CGIAR System that works in a unified fashion.

Several projects funded by the 2004 ICT-KM Program Investment Plan are now being implemented along three thrusts: ICT for Tomorrow's Science; Content for Development; and A CGIAR without Boundaries.

Projects in the first thrust will improve CGIAR connectivity both system-wide and in support of specific scientific communities of practice. The second will ensure that information of interest to all is easily available in the forms users need. The third thrust will help the CGIAR collaborate, via new techniques and knowledge management approaches, building a culture of cooperative global agricultural research.