Overview and Structure

- Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) - Regional Institute: ICARDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas)
- East and South Asia and the Pacific (ESAP) - Regional Institute: World Fish Center
- Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) - Regional Institute: IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture)
- North America and Europe (NAE)
- Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)- Regional Institute: ACTS (African Centre for Technology Studies)

will be undertaken at the regional, national or local scales and will complement the Global Assessment by examining its context-specific aspects.

To read the definition of an Assessment click here

Unique Attributes
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Intergovernmental process with multi-stakeholder Bureau comprised of 30 representatives from government and 30 from civil society;

Multiple international agency cosponsorship (FAO, GEF, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, World Bank, and WHO);

Well-defined user needs grounded in an international consultative process;

Inclusion of hundreds of experts from all relevant stakeholder groups;

Multi-thematic focus embracing nutritional security, livelihoods, human health and environmental sustainability;

Multi-spatial: global and sub-global assessments with an intellectually consistent framework;

Multi-temporal: historical-to-long term (till 2050) perspectives employing use of plausible scenarios;

Integration of local and institutional knowledge;

Assessment of policies and institutional arrangements, as well as KST.

Multiple Stakeholders
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The process brought together governments; Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs); the private sector; producers; consumers; the scientific community; Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs) as well as multiple international agencies involved in the agricultural and rural development sectors to share views and gain common understanding and vision for the future.

Expected Outputs
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A series of published (printed and web-based), critical, in-depth Global and Sub-global Assessments of local and institutional knowledge and experiences will be produced. The Assessment reports will be translated into the six official UN languages, presented, and discussed at international, national and sub-national user forums, workshops and symposia involving the range of stakeholders.

The IAASTD does not aim to predict the future; however, what it will do is create 'plausible scenarios', based on knowledge from past events and existing trends such as population growth, rural/urban food and poverty dynamics, loss of agricultural land, water availability and climate change effects. Based around these issues, 'What if?' questions can be formulated that allow the implications of different technological options to be explored and understood.

The Assessment will not dictate what countries or stakeholders should do, rather it aims to inform processes of future planning and thinking as to what may happen as the world continues to develop from current patterns over the next 30-50 years and therefore what different AKST options, scenarios and policies may bring us if we go down different pathways to address these challenges.

The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) is a unique international effort that will evaluate the relevance, quality and effectiveness of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology (AKST); and effectiveness of public and private sector policies as well as institutional arrangements in relation to AKST. "How can we reduce hunger and poverty, improve rural livelihoods, and facilitate equitable, environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development through the generation, access to, and use of agricultural knowledge, science and technology?" The IAASTD is a three-year collaborative effort (2005 - 2007) that assessed AKST in relation to meeting development and sustainability goals of:                     - Reducing hunger and poverty                     - Improving nutrition, health and rural livelihoods                     - Facilitating social and environmental sustainability The project is a major global initiative, developed out of a consultative process involving 900 participants and 110 countries from all regions of the world. Learn more about the IAASTD and how it has come about. The IAASTD was launched as an intergovernmental process, with a multi-stakeholder Bureau, under the co-sponsorship of the FAO, GEF, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, the World Bank and WHO. For more information on the governance structure of the IAASTD, click here.