The SGRP is the culmination of a long-standing collaborative partnership among CGIAR Centre scientists and technicians involving sharing of know-how and joint action to address common research problems. The focus of the collaboration has always been the CGIAR Centre genebanks’ plant genetic resources collections and the challenges surrounding their management.  
In 1987, the first step was taken in formalizing the collaboration among the Centres through the creation of the Inter-Centre Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources. This comprised the CGIAR genebank managers plus an representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the Untied Nations (FAO), and was given the remit of developing common policies and activities for managing the collections.
 
A review of CGIAR priorities and strategies conducted in 1992 by the then Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the CGIAR identified an urgent need for a system-wide strategy and programme on genetic resources. Conscious of the importance of the collections and the need for their effective and responsible management, TAC then commissioned a Stripe Study of Genetic Resources in the CGIAR. The study, initiated in 1993 and reporting in 1994, strongly advocated for an integrated, system-wide programme. The response was swift, with the establishment in the same year of the SGRP, coordinated through a Secretariat based at IPGRI/Bioversity International and the Inter-Centre Working Group, and with specific collaborative activities complementing individual Centre genetic resources programmes.
 
The SGRP of today echoes many of the individual recommendations of the Stripe Study with collaborative activities including research on the economic valuation of genetic resources, on policies for handling genetic resources, on conservation technology and collection management, a standardized system of information management, development of in-trust arrangements, and safety duplication of all the genebank collections held by the CGIAR Centres. Importantly, SGRP reflects the genetic resources interests of all Centres, and every Centre has a voice in shaping the Programme through membership of an expanded Inter-Centre Working Group, covering plant, livestock and aquatic genetic resources.
 
Find out more about the governance of SGRP.