The competitors for the ‘Best National Costume’ at the Addis party.

Addis Party

IMC met in Addis Ababa on 11-12 January, which was followed by the Addis End of Year Party. It was good to be back in Addis to celebrate with friends and colleagues.

Meeting with Indian Council of Agricultural Research

At the end of the month I spent a couple of days in Delhi at the annual meeting between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the CG Centres. This meeting provides an opportunity to report to ICAR on progress on our collaborative projects with ICAR and outline plans for the coming year. The ICAR Senior Management appreciated the renewed efforts we made in 2016 to strengthen our collaboration with five new projects. Thanks to Padmakumar, Johanna Lindahl and Michael Blummel for also attending the meeting.

The rest of my month was spent carrying out Performance Appraisals, developing plans for the new Impact at Scale Program, including developing the program strategy and supporting a number of resource mobilization efforts.