At the Mid-Term Meeting (MTM) in May 1997 in Cairo, the Group endorsed Centre proposals and TAC recommendations on medium-term resource allocation 1998-2000. At that time, the Group also agreed that Centre Medium-Term Plans (MTPs) should be three-year plans with a rolling annual horizon. To this end, every year, centres should submit a revised plan, thus ensuring a regular update of the relatively short-term financial forecast while maintaining their longer-term research perspective. Subsequently, Centres submitted their proposed programmes and budgets for 1999, along with their intentions for 2001, for discussion at TAC 74 that took place during the last week of March 1998. This document reports on the results of TAC's deliberations at that meeting and is divided into four sections, the first being this introduction. The second section deals with the criteria used in TAC's analysis. Section three provides: (a) an overview of changes in each Centre's agenda for 1999 as compared to the 1998-2000 MTP which had been endorsed by the Group; (b) a synthesis of Centres' initial proposals for the year 2001; and (c) TAC's assessment of, and recommendation on, each Centre's proposals. Finally, the fourth section provides a brief overview of the implications of Centre proposals for CGIAR priorities, particularly with respect to undertakings, production sectors and commodities.
