The month of May started with a two-day visit to Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The university has a fund – the International Research and Education Fund – to encourage joint research in developing countries among its departments. A number of ILRI departments are preparing a proposal, linked to the Livestock and Fish CRP to work on fish and dairy value chains. The broad scope of the proposal was decided during the meeting and if successful the project will fund up to 8 PhD Fellowships and several Masters students to work on topics closely linked to Livestock and Fish.

I chaired the steering committee meeting of the LIVES project on 12-13 May. The committee was very pleased with progress and endorsed the workplans for the coming year. Well done to the whole LIVES team for making such good progress over the past year.

I attended the 6th IFPRI 2020 Vision Conference in Addis on 15-17 May. Focused on ‘Building Resilience in Food and Nutrition Systems, it was attended by about 800 people from around the world including politicians, heads of international organizations and key opinion formers. ILRI was highly visible with staff organizing or taking part in a number of sessions.

The President of IFAD, Kanayo Nwanze, visited the campus on 16 May to meet the CGIAR centres. After hearing a short description of the CGIAR programs he explained how he would like to see greater collaboration between IFAD and the CGIAR System, including stronger synergies between the research grants and the development loans given by IFAD.

The following week the Institute Management Committee met in Addis and we said farewell to John McIntire as he moves to his new job as Vice President, Programs at IFAD in Rome.

The 28-29 May found me in Washington D.C. On 28th I attended a meeting of the Advisory Board of the USAID-funded Innovation Laboratory on Livestock and Climate Change. These programs were previously known as the Collaborative Research Support Programs.

On 29th June I visited the World Bank headquarters where I gave a seminar on Feeding the World: Smallholders and Livestock. I also discussed with World Bank staff opportunities for closer links between the CGIAR and World Bank projects. In particular I had detailed discussions on how ILRI might support a new World Bank dairy project in Sindh Province, Pakistan.

This will be my last Ethiopia blog pot – I have already taken over the role of Interim DDG Integrated Sciences. The past two and a half years have been tough, challenging, exciting and rewarding. Tough and challenging because I arrived in Addis at time when we had to make some hard decisions about how we manage the campus. We outsourced many of our services and re-configured others to reduce costs, become more efficient and position ourselves to cope with the loss of core funding and to allow us to grow.

The past year has seen the benefits of this repositioning with growth in our programs in Ethiopia and the recruitment of more international and national staff. It has also seen us build strong partnerships in Ethiopia and in particular with the Government of Ethiopia. This provides a very solid platform for continuing to grow our program and we will continue to invest in and expand our facilities in Ethiopia.

But the most rewarding aspect of the past two and a half years has been the privilege of working with you all – a group of professional, committed and dedicated people. And you made me welcome in Ethiopia in a way that I will never forget. I am looking forward to visiting Ethiopia often as DDG Integrated Sciences and in that role I am as committed to growing our program and presence in Ethiopia as I have been for the past two and a half years.

See you all soon . . .

Iain

[editor’s note:  Iain will be on campus on 19 June for a farewell coffee morning as well as an evening reception with partners.]