Chairman's immediate reflections

 

Sitting on the plane from Cape Town, I feel a strong impulse to immediately share with you some of the very fresh impressions from our days together.

 

First of all, a very warm thanks to the South African local host. I think that all of us who attended feel a gratitude for the warmth and hospitality that characterized the week. The National Research Foundation of South Africa had indeed put a lot of effort and resources into the IGFA event. Those of us who came in the beginning of the week to attend the "back-to-back" conference (the South African Global Change Symposium), got a very good view of the quality and ambitions that were expressed by the speakers in that conference. It was indeed interesting to get a chance to have a much broader view of South African global change research than what is normally exposed in international fora. The link to the general international Global Change Research Agenda seemed quite well established. Indeed there is thus a body of South African knowledge that looks very relevant and interesting. That conference was held before the IGFA meeting at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden, a world famous establishment and a great experience in itself for those of us who had not been there before. This will surely be confirmed by those of you who used part of the lunch period to look for yourselves under skilled guidance.

 

The IGFA meeting started after lunch on the 29^th October, and for those who did not attend, I have to start with some general information. Every year a few themes are highlighted in the discussions, presentations and outcomes. The main themes of this yearÕs IGFA meeting were three and they covered:

-       The North-South relations

-       The need for integration of various pieces of knowledge from vastly different traditions, and what that means in terms of institutional and financial arrangements

-       The global observation systems and their connectedness to the international research agenda

 

With regard to the first theme, the choice of conducting our meeting in South Africa, on the kind invitation of the NRF, was more than symbolic. It was the first IGFA meeting in the South since the start of IGFA in the beginning of the 1990s, and it took place one year after the WSSD in Johannesburg. Several of the presentations and the discussions were definitely coloured by that frame. Indeed we saw the perspectives of the "South" expressed and expanded upon, not the least through the highly interesting South African inputs in terms of the speech by Minister Ngubane (which was read for us), the speech by the head of NRF, Dr. Mokhele and by Dr. von Gruenewaldt (also NRF). The perspectives brought to us by Dr. Mohamed Hassan, at this event representing the African Academy of Sciences, but who also connected this IGFA meeting to the outcomes of the large TWAS Annual Conference (and 20-year celebration) only two weeks ago in Bejing, made a strong impact. The reflections by professor Thomas Rosswall, ICSU, and Dr. Bob Corell, former IGFA Chair and co-chairing the committee for joint collaborative international efforts in the Global Change research domain, both provided a highly relevant international perspective on these issues. I also found that the reflections brought to the table by APN, IAI and START were of high importance in this regard.

 

The very qualified presentations by our guests, the presentations by the Member Organisations and individual interventions in the debate were of high value to make the perspectives from the South as well as from the North both clear and diversified. Thus, a long cherished ambition in IGFA to be more open to ÒSouthÓ issues and perspectives have at last improved a lot. It now remains to try to see if we can find ways to connect to the ODA-world in order to link agendas and ways to operate in Global Change Research.

 

This was also one of the points we could highlight in our letter from IGFA to the Ministerial Conference of NEPAD taking place the week after our meeting, to which IGFA was kindly invited to contribute by Minister Ngubane.

 

In my mind this invitation to IGFA by Minister Ngubane to get into a working relationship with NEPAD, along with the formal presence of IGFA among the Annex II organisations in "the Earth Observation Summit" (in Washington July 31^st) and the connected GEO-process, are indications of a broadened function and use of IGFA in the international system. This is not to say that we are moving away from our core tasks , functionally and operationally,  to provide a base for discussions and joint actions by Òfunding agenciesÓ in the global change research domain.

 

The second strategic issue discussed at the conference, the issue about integration, is one of these "eternal" topics that reoccur at regular intervals in IGFA and elsewhere. However, as was stated, the context is ever changing and thus the value of reawakening the discussion is there. The presence of the directors of the international programs in the ÒintegrationÓ session as well as in the other thematic blocks is gratefully acknowledged. It all led to an enhanced feeling of an intellectually vibrant ÒseminarÓ.

 

Regarding the third theme on observation systems, we are also in this area in a formative phase where our presence in IGOS (as partner) and in GEO has to be further consolidated and elaborated upon in the future.

 

The annual outlook, presented by the member organisations, is always a highlight of IGFA meetings. This year, the message was clear. The last few years of ambivalent and even eroding tendencies towards funding of GCR has stabilized in many places, to the extent that it is possible to see it as a broader expression of willingness to invest globally in GCR. But of course the situation varies a lot from place to place. In some quarters, such consolidation efforts and rearrangement processes have not matured yet. This just express the state of art.

 

In the financing sessions, the highlights of the year were the IGFA evaluation of DIVERSITAS, which was well received, and the financially problematic medium term situation of the IHDP. For these two programs Ð and maybe to some extent also for others - there is a need for specific pointed efforts. The precision of these needs thus to be further elaborated upon.

 

As expressed in the introductions the first day by Prof. Rosswall and Dr. Corell, as well as during the strategic sum-up session the last day of the conference, there is a need for a broad cooperative effort in linking various Global Change Research related communities in the world more strongly. This holds true for the science communities, the funding world in all its shapes and the business and policy worlds. The strategic medium term operating plan of IGFA that was endorsed is intended to contribute to that international effort.

 

These are the things that came immediately into my mind. My plane has now landed in Stockholm. Outside the window, the coloured skies of South Africa on the brink of turning into summer have been replaced by the grey, cold, late autumn skies of the northern latitudes. That is also a pointer towards next years meeting, on Iceland.

 

Once again, thank you South Africa for hosting our IGFA meeting 2003, thanks to those who were there and so ably contributed, and thanks to the Secretariat, Staff Group and other staff that helped create the IGFA meeting. I now look forward to Iceland in the autumn of 2004.

 

Greetings to all of you!

 

Uno Svedin,

Chair of IGFA