The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was a three-year international collaborative effort (2005–2007) initiated by the World Bank in 2002, which evaluated the relevance, quality and effectiveness of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology, and the effectiveness of public and private sector policies and institutional arrangements.
The project involved 900 participants[citation needed] and 110 countries with co-sponsorship of the FAO, Global Environment Facility, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, the World Bank and WHO.
The IAASTD had a distributed secretariat for management and oversight in Washington DC and others in FAO (Rome), UNEP (Nairobi), and UNESCO (Paris).
[2] A series of published (printed and web-based) critical, in-depth Global and Sub-global Assessments of local and institutional knowledge and experiences was produced.
The reports created 'plausible scenarios', based on past events and existing trends such as population growth, rural/urban food and poverty dynamics, loss of agricultural land, water availability and climate change effects.