Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research - CGIAR
From: The Secretariat
July 1995
CGIAR Mid-Term Meeting
May 22-26, 1995
Nairobi, Kenya
CGIAR Secretariat · Mailing Address: 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. · Office Location: 701 18th Street. N.W. Tel: (1-202) 473-8951 · Cable Address: INTBAFRAD · Fax: (1-202) 473-8110 · E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
CIAT External Program and Management Review1/
1/ Extract from "Summary of Proceedings and Decisions - Report from the Ad Hoc Evaluation Committee I", CGIAR Mid-Term Meeting 1995, Nairobi, Kenya.
The Fourth External Review of CIAT was conducted by a Review Panel chaired by Mr. Declan Walton.
The Panel felt that CIAT deserved credit for its early initiative in natural resources management (NRM), including the introduction of a well conceived ecoregional approach to research. In 1990, in the face of declining CGIAR funding, CIAT decided to cutback its traditional commodity research in order to establish new NRM programs. This took its toll on staff morale and opened a gap between management and staff as the funding crisis deepened.
Despite a setback from the kidnapping of Thomas Hargrove in September 1994 (Mr. Hargrove is still being held) the Panel found staff morale improving. Much of the credit for this goes to Ms. Lucia de Vaccaro, the CIAT Board Chair, and to Mr. Robert Havener, who has been Interim Director General since October 1994.
However, the Panel warned that the transaction costs of new CGIAR-wide and regional initiatives continued to draw management's attention outside of the Center when there remains an urgent need to improve cohesion within CIAT.
CIAT has kept up a flow of studies to demonstrate commodity research impact and there is also early evidence of NRM impact. CIAT's programs were commended by the Panel. There was praise for the humane way in which the Center had dealt with the need to reduce staff.
Among the main issues raised by the Panel were the following:
· There should be no further erosion of commodities research to expand NRM programs. These newer programs should be consolidated to ensure quality in their implementation and expanded as results attract further funding.· The Genetic Resources Unit remains without a senior scientist at its head. Given the higher profile for genetic resources, it is imperative this post be filled as soon as possible.
· The role of Land Management remains uncertain. The Panel found its recent designation as a Scientific Resource Group unconvincing. The Panel urged that it be redesignated as either a program or a research unit serving the other programs, depending on its future role in CIAT.
· Training and the support for networks decreased over the period, and there was some negative reaction from NARS to these results of staff reductions. CIAT, however, revived its training efforts significantly in 1994.
· The Panel expressed the view, also expressed in the 1989 review, that a gap between program and institute management needs to be closed by drawing program heads more closely into institute management policy formulation.
At the meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee I, participants welcomed the Review Panel's conclusion that science at CIAT had remained both relevant, as evidenced by its impact, and of high quality, despite the funding and management crisis at the Center over the last two years. There was praise for the Board Chair and the Interim Director General for bringing the Center out of its crisis, and praise to CIAT scientists for maintaining standards over a difficult period.
Regional representatives expressed relief mat the Center had emerged from the crisis and asserted that Latin America and the Caribbean required continued support from CIAT and the CGIAR System. Participation in the International Network for the Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER) was specifically mentioned.
The Center was commended for its catalytic role in generating support from farmer organizations and the private sector in the region for research on irrigated rice. Further, several speakers expressed pleasure that the review perceived CIAT as being at the cutting edge of integrating commodity and natural resources management research in the ecoregional approach.
In this context members noted that the review had not dealt adequately with social sciences at CIAT. They emphasized the need for social science capacity to balance technical disciplines in implementing ecoregional programs. They suggested this as one focus for the internally managed external review of natural resources management research being mounted by the Center later this year.
Members asked that the report of this review be made available to interested stakeholders. They noted that CIAT had already taken action to initiate a science driven information strategy paper. In this same vein members expressed the view that the review had not adequately recognized CIAT's pathfinding work in farmers participatory research.
CIAT was commended for its excellent relations with Colombia, the Center's host country. However, the Committee noted that tensions had arisen with some NARS from too little consultation in decisions on staff reductions and the need for more regular NARS consultation at a policy level.
The Committee proposed that the recommendations of the review be endorsed. This was done by the Group.
