Visit from ICAR officials

On 12–13 February we hosted two visitors from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Sh. Chhabilendra Roul, secretary and Joykrushna Jena, deputy director general (fisheries) and acting deputy director general (animal science). They were accompanied from Delhi by our South Asia regional representative, Habibar Rahman.  We had fruitful discussions on how ILRI and ICAR can work together on a joint agenda, especially as our current three-year joint work program ends in 2018 and we need to start thinking about the 2019–2021 work program. Following a visit to the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) they travelled to Ethiopia and spent a couple of days in Addis visiting ILRI staff and other organizations. I always enjoy visitors from India, having spent over five years with ILRI in Delhi.

A4NH meetings

During the week of 19 February there was a series of meetings in Nairobi on the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). In addition to John McDermott, the CRP director and former DDG of ILRI, we had staff from other A4NH partners and meetings of the Food Systems, Food Safety and Improving Human Health Flagships. I participated in the meeting on Food Systems which was held at Kapiti on 21-22 February. The flagship is led by Wageningen University but we also had participation from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). The aim of the meeting was primarily to explore how ILRI can work with both A4NH and the Livestock CRPs to strengthen research on the role of animal source foods. There was strong willingness from all involved and a number of specific follow-up activities identified, including opportunities for funding. It also became clear that there was a need to increase the attention to livestock in the Food Systems Flagship and we identified some ways in which this could be achieved and supported by ILRI.

Kapiti farmhouse

This was the first time since the farmhouse was renovated that I had attended a meeting at Kapiti and stayed overnight. Kapiti is now a great place to organize small meetings and workshops. The meeting facilities are good, the accommodation is very comfortable and the views are stunning. You are also a short walk away from large numbers of wildlife. Kapiti actually has more wildlife that the Nairobi National Park. So I can thoroughly recommend it as a venue for your next meeting, workshop or retreat. Contact Ilona Glueks for more information and bookings.

Meeting with Christian Berger, the World Bank

The World Bank has been a long-time supporter of CGIAR. It historically provided unrestricted funding system and now provides USD30 million annually through Window 1. The bank also chairs the System Council (the donors). There has been a long-term ambition on the part of the World Bank and CGIAR centres to work more closely together, an in particular for CGIAR to provide technical support to World Bank operations and projects. This has proven difficult to implement because most of the World Bank projects are loans to country governments so it is the countries that need to make the decision to contract CGIAR centres. We have a few examples where with support from the World Bank, countries have contracted ILRI to support projects, including at the moment in Pakistan, India (Assam) and in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Christian Berger, a senior member of the World Bank’s West Africa team, visited Nairobi on 26 February to explore how ILRI might support World Bank activities in West Africa. He met with a number of ILRI program leaders and we identified some specific activities we can support as well as other more generic opportunities. These included conducting studies to support project implementation such as studying livestock trade corridors and routes as part of a region livestock development project in the Sahel, acting as peer reviewers in the design phase of projects, undertaking project evaluations as well as supporting project implementation with technical support and capacity building.

Till next month.

Iain