The CGIAR has been on record for predicting that a global pandemic such as COVID-19 was going to happen. The CGIAR research agenda for many years now has been focused on reducing public health risks related to disease transmission through food systems and avoiding demonizing the market systems that the poor rely on.

 This joint presentation by CGIAR research program directors Thomas Randolph and John McDermott provides an overview of what the CGIAR has been doing to support governments and other stakeholders prior to and during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, within a One Health perspective. The CGIAR portfolio includes research on technologies, practices and policies to reduce the risk of disease emergence and transmission through effective biosecurity and food safety especially in smallholder farms and informal market systems outside the purview of government regulation.

While continuing to address the long-term threat of future pandemics in specific agricultural contexts, the CGIAR is also contributing to responding to Covid-19 by using its laboratory capacity to support testing and its field capacity to monitor the impact among rural communities.

In addition, through the newly created CGIAR COVID-19 Hub (http://a4nh.cgiar.org/covidhub/), CGIAR researchers are using integrated modeling to provide policy recommendations and address urgent issues on the role of agriculture in spreading zoonoses and how we can avoid future crossover events.