24 March 2004

Dr Per Pinstrup-Andersen
Chair, Science Council
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
Division of Nutritional Sciences
Cornell University
305 Savage Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-6301, USA

Dr Francisco Reifschneider
Director
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
The World Bank
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20433, USA

Dear Drs Pinstrup-Andersen and Reifschneider,

On behalf of the Panel, I am pleased to transmit to you the Report of the Sixth External Programme and Management Review (EPMR) of the International Rice Research Institute.

We find IRRI to be a strong institute that does good science in a highly mission-oriented fashion. It is responsive to the changes in capacity, economy and livelihoods in countries where poverty and sustainability of production need to be addressed. It is also increasingly capturing the opportunities offered by rapidly evolving sciences and technologies, which are associated with a changing pattern required for productive partnerships. Additional opportunities and challenges are emerging within the CGIAR system, where IRRI can view itself as one of the leaders.

We emphasise the importance of strategy formulation and priority setting for continuous effectiveness while accommodating to changes and opportunities. We encourage IRRI to stimulate partnerships and research on rice from its unique position as the holder of an invaluable germplasm collection and associated knowledge. We advise IRRI to establish a basis for weighing its comparative advantage and chance of effectiveness in order to continuously adjust the balance in its focus to favourable and fragile rice production areas. We recommend ways of adjusting the internal organization of IRRI’s research activities to better respond to its mission. We also suggest ways of helping the Board to follow best practice in fulfilling its governance role in guiding the Centre forward.

In this Year of Rice, we feel that IRRI still has an important mission and potential to have major impact towards alleviating poverty and enhancing environmental sustainability, through developing rice-related technologies that improve productivity, enhance nutrition, alleviate the plight of poor women and children and provide sustainable solutions to biotic and abiotic constraints to production.

We would like to record our thanks to the IRRI Board, management and staff, who cooperated with us in every way and provided us with all the information and facilities we required.

Finally, the Panel members and Consultant join me in expressing our appreciation for the opportunity to participate in the challenging task of conducting this Review. We hope that the Report will be useful to IRRI and its partners, as well as to the CGIAR.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Flavell
Chair,
External Review Panel