Special Program for African Agricultural Research (SPAAR) was established in 1985 to foster collaboration in agricultural research and development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) between donor organizations and African agricultural research systems. It also sought to enable Africa to benefit from the accumulated knowledge of global agricultural research and technology generation and transfer. The SPAAR membership consists of twenty-three donor organizations, comprising of bilateral and multilateral donors, international, autonomous and regional agencies. Its Secretariat is housed in the World Bank. In 1994, SPAAR donors decided to open SPAAR membership to all the national agricultural research systems (NARSs) in SSA.