CropLife International comments on FAO Science and Innovation Strategy
Dear FSN Moderator,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on barriers and opportunities to help inform policies for agri-food systems. Our organization has commented on the content of FAO's new Strategy for Science and Innovation. We share some thoughts below.
1. The importance of science and innovation
We applaud the decision by member countries to use science and innovation to strengthen FAO's strategic framework further and use it as the basis for all its activities, including the transformation of food systems to promote better production, nutrition, environment, and livelihoods.
> The complexity of the current challenges to our food systems requires a broad range of solutions. We, therefore, recommend that the Strategy make more explicit reference to the need for support for a broad array of solutions, technologies, and practices that can help make the environment more conducive to scientific progress and innovation and better respond to the effects of global crises.
2. The pillars
We agree with the three pillars of the Strategy - notably decision-making in support of science, strengthening the science-policy interface, and promoting innovation and technology at regional and national levels.
Advice to improve knowledge management, communication, and partnerships with public and private research institutes is also highly relevant.
The implementation of activities related to this pillar of the Strategy will also undoubtedly have a considerable impact. FAO is a global leader and interlocutor on agricultural and technological issues, and we welcome the Strategy's commitment to improving science communication - especially on new technologies and innovations.
> We recommend that the Strategy mentions all potential public and private partnerships for research and innovation in more detail.
3. Enabling principles and factors
More inclusive strategies lead to more voices and more innovative solutions. We welcome that the Strategy is committed to more partnerships with the private sector and better collaboration with other UN organizations to avoid duplication and maximize resources. We also emphasize the importance of stressing the need for an overall framework of enabling factors, including legal certainty, a functioning regulatory framework, and an effective and balanced intellectual property system.
Within this enabling framework, broad and equitable access to innovations will be essential to achieving more productive, nutritious, and sustainable food systems. It is also important to emphasize the right of individuals to benefit from these innovations and technologies.
> To place the right of access to agricultural innovations in the proper context and to highlight the barriers to realizing this fundamental right, we recommend that the Strategy encourage the creation of policies and partnerships that support not only research and development but also the commercialization of innovations and technologies that benefit sustainable food systems.
4. Challenges, Needs, and Opportunities
We commend FAO for developing the Science and Innovation Strategy. We welcome the fact that the Strategy states that all countries must base their policies on science and innovation to address food systems' complex social, economic, and environmental challenges.
> To further enhance the Strategy, we recommend highlighting the need to promote an enabling policy environment for scientific progress and innovation, including opportunities for intellectual property protection, balanced and non-restrictive calls for proposals, and other opportunities to create an enabling environment, including regulatory pathways for commercializing innovative agricultural products.
> We also recommend that the Strategy condemn policy barriers that limit the right of access to science and innovation - both within a country and in third countries, which may result from trade policy measures that impose non-tariff barriers to trade.
> For science and innovation to flourish, we also recommend that FAO, as part of the Strategy, plays a role in monitoring distortions in these areas and systematically call on the countries concerned to take steps to remove barriers.
We welcome the opportunity to extend our warmest wishes for the continuation of such an important work.
Robert Hunter, Interim President and CEO
Romano De Vivo, Vice President of Sustainability
CropLife International | avenue Louise 326, box 35 | B-1050 Brussels, Belgium | www.croplife.org
Dr. Romano De Vivo