Mandate & Functioning

Formal MACS members are the ministries or governmental bodies responsible for agricultural research in the respective G20 states as well as leading research institutions which strategically advise these decision makers. Other interested countries and multi-national organizations (CABI, CGIAR, CIHEAM, FAO, GFAR, GODAN, ICARDA, OECD, Wheat Initiative) attend as MACS guests. MACS members are in the position to make decisions and to adopt MACS communiqués, MACS guests participate in advisory capacity.

The work of MACS-G20 is based on annual meetings hosted by the G20 state which respectively holds G20 presidency. Participants inform each other about existing agricultural research systems in their country resp. organization (infrastructures, capacities, programmes, funding formats, etc.), about ongoing activities and scheduled future developments. Adapted from this information exchange MACS participants identify issues of utmost relevance and crucial needs for joint action in the future. Since 2012 these efforts already resulted in a couple of concrete MACS activities led by several G20 states.