On 8 March our Sports Day which coincided with International Women’s Day. There was an excellent turnout and thanks to all who made this event possible, including CIMMYT who sponsored this year’s event. The following day a number of our female staff participated in the Addis Women’s 5km run. Well done to everyone who took part.

On the evening of 10 March I attended a dinner at the National Palace at the invitation of the Prime Minster, H. E. Hailemariam Desalegne on the occasion of the State Visit to Ethiopia by the President of Kenya, H. E. Uhuru Kenyatta. The dinner was attended by representatives of the international organizations in Ethiopia as well as officials from the Governments of Ethiopia and Kenya. Two things struck me about the attendees. Of the 200 or so people attending, only three were non-Africans (including me!). This is exactly as it should be. On the other hand nearly all the senior women in attendance were from outside Ethiopia – almost all the senior Ethiopians were men. While there are some Ethiopian women in senior positions they are few and far between – something that the government and Ethiopian society in general needs to address.

I had my initial medical check-up on 20 March as part of the new Employee Occupational Health Program that we are rolling out for staff in Ethiopia. The doctor from St Yared’s told me she thought this was the first occupational health program in Ethiopia. Such schemes are standard practice in the UK and in many other countries and it’s good to know that ILRI is at the forefront of providing this service to employees in Ethiopia. I encourage you all to participate. Let’s ensure that we all keep healthy.

The Global Yield Gap Analysis Atlas project held a workshop on campus on 25–26 March. The organizers asked for a field trip and Kindu Mekonnen did an excellent job of arranging a visit to the Africa RISING field sites at Debre Berhan. I took the opportunity to go along as I had not been to that site. The participants enjoyed the trip immensely and engaged in discussions with the Africa RISING team and local partners.

The Rural Economic Development and Food Security Thematic Group brings together the Ministry of Agriculture and 22 major multi and bi-lateral institutions engaged in the agriculture sector. It aims to coordinate, harmonization and alignment activities in the Ethiopian Agriculture Sector through a series of committees and task forces. Some CGIAR Centres participate in some of these activities but our involvement as a CGIAR System could be more strategic and systematic. On 30 April we invited the secretariat to present the work of RED&FS with a view to exploring how the CGIAR could be more involved. We will now discuss within the CG Centres how to take this forward.

Windy Wilkins and Yi Cai of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation visited us on 30 March to see how the project on developing a Livestock Master Plan (LMP) was progressing. This important project, funded by the foundation is supporting the Ministry of Agriculture by undertaking a series of studies and analyses on the Ethiopian agriculture sector in support of the LMP. Overall the foundation is very pleased with the progress and some very constructive discussions were held. Well done to Barry Shapiro and his team – keep up the good work.