As from 2002 ECART and NATURA have been invited annually by DG-DEV of the EU, to submit joint tenders to the EC for provision of consultancy services to monitor and evaluate EU-funded projects commissioned at CGIAR Centres. For the first monitoring exercise, the Commission has selected three ECART specialists from a short list submitted by both organisations.

The Experts selected were:

• Adrienne Martin (NRI) for IITA
• Emmanuel Torquebiau (CIRAD) for ICRAF
• Loek VanSoest (WUR) for IPGRI

In May 2003 the experts selected for the second round of monitoring missions were the following:

• CIAT - Tim Chancellor (NRI) & Andreas Springer-Heinze (GTZ)
• CIFOR- Emmanuel Torquebiau (CIRAD) & Cathy Mackenzie (NRI)
• CIMMYT - Yves Savidan & Carlos Moreno (NRI)
• CIP - Louis van Soest (WUR) & Eric Tollens
• ICARDA - Adrienne Martin (NRI) & Frances Kimmins (NRIL)
• IRRI - Nourollah Ahmadi (CIRAD) & Alastair Orr (WUR)
• IFPRI - Jonathan Coulter (NRI)

In May 2004 the experts selected for the third round of monitoring missions were the following:

• CIMMYT - Jacobsen Jorgen (NATURA) & Martin Adrienne (NRI)
• ICLARM - Lazard Jérôme (CIRAD) & Tollens Eric (NATURA)
• ICRAF - Torquebiau Emmanuel (CIRAD) & Mac Kenzie Catherine (NATURA)
• IITA - Savidan Yves (NATURA) & Fabre Pierre (CIRAD)
• ILRI - Poivey Jean-Paul (CIRAD) & Blench Roger (NATURA)
• IPGRI - Bouvet Jean-Marc (CIRAD) & Chetaille Anne (NATURA)
• WARDA - Ahmadi Nourollah (CIRAD) & Orr Alastair (NRI)

Following contacts between the ECART and FARA Secretariats, FARA invited ECART to nominate two resource persons to assist in the development of FARA's successful CGIAR Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA-CP) project pre-proposal on "Improving Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management in Sub-Saharan Africa". The specialists (Wim Andriesse of WUR and Tim Chancellor of NRI) participated in the Task Force that developed a full proposal and have attended a programme formulation workshop in Accra on 10-13 March 2003. The first draft of the full proposal has been put forward to the FARA plenary meeting in Dakar in May 2003.

Participating organisations were invited to present their views on specific aspects of the SSA-CP in the form of "position papers" that were used to guide discussion at the meeting. NRI and WUR, with inputs from NRIL (former member of ECART), took the initiative to prepare a position paper on behalf of ECART.

Following a meeting with FARA Executive Secretary Monty Jones, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has agreed to support the FARA Secretariat through provision of a technical expert to help write up the proposal. This scientist has been provided by CIRAD, who has identified Ms. Abigail Fallot, an economist specialising in environmental issues, for this post. The Ministry and CIRAD have agreed that this support be considered as a contribution from ECART in support to FARA. Ms. Fallot worked in Accra from March 2003 up to October 2003.

Dr. Andriesse (WUR) and Dr. Chancellor participated as ECART's representatives in the FARA General Assembly (Dakar 19-20 May 2003).

Following the EFARD Meeting (Rome, June 2002), it has been proposed to mobilise all European Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) stakeholders in the preparation of programme proposal(s) for building-up the ARD component of the European Research Area (ERA - ARD). Christian Hoste (from CIRAD) has initiated discussion and outlined proposals to take this further with EFARD, NATURA and EIARD. The ECART secretariat sent to members a document summarising ideas on opportunities for ECART within FP6.

A coordination action proposal was developed with the participation of 11 members state and accepted by the European Commission for funding. This ERA-ARD (The Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) dimension of the European Research Area (ERA)) project has been launched on 01st April 2005.