ILRI ‘Impact book’

In June we have had John McIntire, our former deputy director general (DDG), in Nairobi. John is editing a book that we will be publishing describing the impact of research by ILCA/ILRAD/ILRI over the past 40 years and has been working with the authors of a number of chapters over the past few weeks. The book will be an important publication. We are continually asked by our donors and stakeholders ‘What has ILRI achieved?’ so the book will be an important record of the scientific and development achievements of ILRI and its predecessor institutes.

CGIAR Science Leaders meeting

The CGIAR System Office in Montpellier, France.

Tom Randolph and I attended the CGIAR ‘Science Leaders’ (deputy directors general–research and CRP directors) annual meeting at the System Management Office in Montpellier on 12–15 June. Among the topics we discussed were:

• Collaboration between CRPs/platforms
• CGIAR country collaboration
• Gender in CGIAR research
• Update of the Independent Evaluation Arrangement
• Report on Independent Science and Partnership Council
• Results based management

Community of Practice of DDGs research

I have been working with my fellow DDGs Research in the other CGIAR centres to establish a Community of Practice of DDGs Research. We took the opportunity of most of us being in Montpellier to have the first meeting of the group. We are finalizing the terms of reference for the group but we see it providing a) a platform to discuss topics of common interest, b) an opportunity to share concerns, best practice and opportunities in research management, including sharing policies, processes and procedures with the long-term objective of moving towards alignment to minimize transaction costs of cross-centre collaboration and CRP interaction, c) a single point of contact through which other organs of the CGIAR System can interact with and consult centres on matters that impinge on research, research management and implementation, and d) a means by which the DDGs Research can present points of view of the group as a whole.

I have agreed to be the facilitator of the group until the end of the year and then we will appoint a facilitator annually.

Impact at Scale program

To help us develop the Impact at Scale program I engaged Jock Anderson as a consultant for a couple of weeks. He is a well known agricultural economist who spent many years at the World Bank and also knows CGIAR well. Jock spoke to many staff in Nairobi, Addis Ababa and the regions – many thanks to those of you who spent time with Jock. He gathered views from staff in ILRI but also brought an external perspective to help us develop the strategy for the new program. Overall, he thought the program strategy was developing along the right lines and gave some ideas of where it needs to be strengthened. We will develop the next draft of the strategy and then ‘road test’ it with a small group of external stakeholders before finalizing it.

Best wishes to all.

Iain