Lessons Learned

The research programme International Cooperation of the Agricultural Research Department (DLO-IC) of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) was founded in 1998 with the aim to support agricultural and environmental research for development and strengthen North-South partnerships. The programme that embraced contributions from all five science groups of Wageningen University and Research centre (Wageningen UR) consisted of two phases (1998-2001 and 2002-2005). Within those eight years, about 70 multi-annual collaborative North-South projects were carried out under the umbrella of DLO-IC, of which about half were related to Rural Development and Sustainable Agriculture (RDSA). The remaining half was classified in the themes global food chains, agrobiodiversity, nature management, integrated water management and enabling policies (North-South Centre 2004). The objective of this chapter is to summarize the results from the scientific, capacity-building and policy-oriented activities, draw major lessons and outline the way ahead on the basis of the experiences and new developments as outlined in previous chapters, and emerging opportunities. We will first reflect on ideas that shaped research approaches in agricultural and environmental sciences for development, then re-visit the objectives of the DLO-IC research programme between 1998 and 2005 (DLO 404) and, finally, provide a frame for assessing the programme’s accomplishments and future challenges in the field of sustainable agriculture and rural development.