IPM

We had a very successful IPM on 4-7 October, with the theme Better Science – Better Lives. It provided a great opportunity for those attending to learn more about what ILRI does across the research programs, to hear about and comment on the new program structure, to clarify the role of all parts of ILRI in fulfilling our mission and to meet old and new colleagues and friends from across the globe. I was really impressed by the quality of the discussion and comments on the new programs. There are many very helpful comments and questions that Program Leaders and their teams need to take into account when developing the strategies for the new programs and operationalizing those strategies. A big thank you to everyone who contributed to the organization of a very successful event.

African Agricultural Research Program

FARA (Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa) was recently approached by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to develop a proposal for a new agricultural research program as part of the AfDB-led Feed Africa initiative. Steve Staal, Appolinaire Djikeng and I attended a workshop in Accra, Ghana on 10-11 October to brainstorm ideas for this new program.  Peter Ballantyne worked closely with FARA to prepare the program and facilitated the event. Unfortunately few national research programs could attend but we are now working with FARA to help prepare a concept note for submission to AfDB.

With Tom Aziz Chavangi, CEO and secretary of the National Land Commission in Kenya, after signing the ILRI-NLC MoU

Signing of MoU with National Land Commission of Kenya

On 13 October Lance Robinson, Dorine Odongo and I visited the National Land Commission of Kenya (NLC) to finalise the signing of an Memorandum of Understanding between ILRI and the NLC.

Through the MoU, ILRI will work with NLC to develop an annex to the County Spatial Planning Guidelines that deals with rangelands management in the arid and semi-arid northern counties of Kenya – Garissa, Marsabit, Isiolo, Turkana and Wajir.

You can find more on this story here.

A4NH Program Management Committee

Delia Grace, Eric Févre and I were in Washinton DC on 18-21 October for a Program Management Meeting of the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health CRP (A4NH). For the second phase of the CRP a new management committee has been formed comprising the flagship leaders, representatives of the partners and representatives from the CRP Directorate. The CRP is led by IFPRI with John McDermott, ILRI’s former DDG-Research. Delia and Eric are both flagship leader and I represent ILRI on the committee.We also attended a meeting of the Independent Advisory Committee which met during the week. One of the members is Emmy Simmons, a former Board Member of ILRI.

Board Meeting

In October I spent some time preparing for the Board Meeting which was on 30 October to 2 November in Nairobi. On the morning of 29 October three new members had an orientation session introducing them to ILRI. As part of that session I described ILRI’s research. I also updated the Program Committee on 31 October on progress towards the new CRPs and described the new program structure.

Centre of Excellence for Climate Smart Agriculture in Africa

I made a quick visit to Marrakech to attend a meeting organized on the fringes of the Climate Change COP.  The World Bank and the German Government are planning to establish a Centre of Excellence for Climate Smart Agriculture in Africa and there is an option of having the centre hosted at ILRI, either in Nairobi or Addis. The side event was organized to seek feedback from stakeholders on what the focus of the Centre should be. There was a lot of support for the centre to be linked to the CGIAR, giving it a strong scientific and technical base and allowing providing support and capacity development to governments to develop climate smart agricultural policies and strategies. Further consultations will be held over the coming months.

That’s all for now

Iain