IWMI is leading the development of Nepal’s CGIAR Country Strategy Framework, aiming to scale research for impact across agrifood, land, and water system priorities.
As development actors globally grapple with how to move beyond fragmented pilots toward impact at scale, CGIAR has begun piloting a new country-level planning mechanism: Country Strategy Frameworks (CSFs). These strategic frameworks are intended to consolidate research, partnerships, and investments around nationally owned priorities.
Nepal is one of three countries globally where this approach is being piloted. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is acting as the lead agency, and IWMI’s Country Representative for Nepal, Manohara Khadka, was appointed as the CGIAR Country Convener, positioning IWMI at the forefront of CGIAR’s shift toward integrated, system-wide engagement.
CSFs are designed to respond directly to challenges identified in CGIAR’s 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy, which calls for stronger country ownership, fewer institutional silos, and clearer pathways for scaling research and innovation through national systems. This consolidation is reflected in CGIAR’s approach to research integration, guided by the thematic action areas: climate adaptation and mitigation; environmental health and biodiversity; gender equality, youth and social inclusion; nutrition, health and food security; and poverty reduction, livelihoods and jobs.
A recent national workshop in Nepal marked an early but deliberate step in this process, bringing together government, CGIAR centres, and other partners to define how a CSF should function, what it should include, and how it could be governed and operationalised over time. The co-design approach aligns with broader global calls to move beyond stand-alone pilots and toward consolidation, coordination, and institutionalisation of proven innovations – principles long emphasised in development effectiveness and scaling literature.
In Nepal, the CSF is envisioned as a practical mechanism to translate CGIAR’s global systems-transformation agenda into a nationally anchored research and innovation portfolio. Nepal’s agrifood systems and natural resources face mounting pressures from climate change, migration, unsustainable farming, and supply-demand imbalances, making alignment between research, policy, and investment increasingly urgent.
Nepal’s CSF is being co-designed in consultation with national ministries, research institutions, civil society, the private sector, and farming communities.
“The multi-stakeholder participation adds great value when shaping the roadmap of the country strategy framework,” said Deepak Kharal, Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. “I believe the framework would be an essential document in transforming Nepal’s land, food, and water systems guided by the principles adopted by the Government of Nepal.”
Stakeholders identified priority research areas for CGIAR in Nepal, focused on climate-resilient, inclusive, and technology-driven agriculture and water systems that integrate biodiversity, local knowledge, and socio-economic needs. Several social-technical mechanisms built by CGIAR centers were identified to be included in the CSF, for example, the payment for ecosystem services, the multi-stakeholder governance model, the water-energy-food-environment (WEFE) nexus, and collective farming.
Effective engagement for the Country Strategy Framework requires shared planning and clarity of roles. This is especially important across a complex network of stakeholders, ranging from government agencies, research systems, NGOs, the private sector, processing industries, financing institutions, and communities. Stakeholders have committed to sharing data for CSF preparation, supporting the formation of a technical advisory group and thematic working groups, and participating in the drafting, validation, and endorsement of the CSF. Consultations also highlighted the value of reaching out to non-traditional partners such as research bodies not yet engaged with CGIAR, finance institutions, farmer cooperatives, and the private sector to strengthen innovation, capacity building, scaling, and outreach activities.
Stakeholders underscored the importance of ensuring that CSF engagement remains realistic, implementable, and grounded in country ownership. They also stressed the need to shift from siloed approaches toward more collaborative, integrated, and nexus-driven ways of working.
Funding was highlighted as one of the major bottlenecks for CGIAR program alignment and innovation uptake. Procedural approval requirements, limited coordination, and mismatched priorities have constrained resource mobilisation thus far. The CSF will explore solutions to expedite these processes, prioritising scaling of innovations that are fit-for-purpose with clear cost-benefit and social assessments.
The workshop reinforced that integrated platforms, shared governance, coordinated partnerships, and aligned research priorities are central to how the CSF will take shape.
Going forward, a government-led working group will steer the co-creation of the CSF. As the framework progresses toward institutionalisation, these mechanisms are expected to guide how Nepal’s agrifood, land, and water systems can be transformed through a program portfolio that is co-owned with national actors and grounded in Nepal’s priorities.
Source: https://tinyurl.com/9cpd3tz8
