The view from Iain’s office Nov-Dec 2019

Meeting with Seed Systems Group
I met Joe DeVries and Paul Tikani, CEO and COO respectively of The Seed Systems Group on 8 November. The not-for-profit was set up to establish regular, dependable supply of high-yielding, resilient seed of a wide range of food crops among poor, smallholder farmers to help them improve their crop yields, nutritional status, and income in Africa. Prior to establishing The Seed Systems Group, Joe DeVries led the seed systems program at AGRA. We discussed the challenges of establishing forage seed systems in Africa and agreed to convene a workshop of key players in forage seed systems in Kenya with view to identifying what support is needed develop viable forage seed systems businesses.

Washington DC
On 12-14 November I was at IFPRI in Washington DC attending meeting of the Planning and Management Committee and Independent Steering Committee of the Agriculture Nutrition and Health CRP. I also visited USAID on 15 November to meet key staff and give a presentation on the role of livestock in food security and resilience. I had a particularly useful discussion with the Private Sector Engagement Team in the Bureau of Food Security and Resilience.

ILRI to 2025 Investment
During the last few weeks of November and the first week of December I spent a considerable amount of time on the concept notes for the ILRI to 2025 investment which have now been submitted to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and will be shared with a group of other potential donors. I believe that we created a strong portfolio of projects but we will await the feedback from the donors.

CapDev Challenge 2019
On 2 December I welcomed the finalists of the CapDev 2019 Grand Challenge. The 25 graduate fellows had to give a three-minute ‘pitch’ about their research to a panel of judges. The winners in the different categories were announced in an email from Wellington Ekaya on 4 December. I had the honour of presenting the winners with their prizes at the end of year party in Nairobi.

ICAR Visitors
We had two visitors from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in Nairobi from 2-5 December – Dr Raghavendra Bhatta, Director of the National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology and Dr. L. C. Choudhary, Indian Veterinary Research Institute. They were in Nairobi as part of a joint ICAR-ILRI project on greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and in particular to visit the Mazingira Centre. John Goopy is advising on establishing similar facilities in India. Despite India having huge numbers of livestock, there are currently no chambers in India for making direct measurement of greenhouse gasses from livestock.

Farewell to Lina
After five years at ILRI and as my Executive Assistant we said farewell to Lina Wanga at a dinner on 3 December. Lina will be moving to Washington DC to study for a Graduate Certificate in Global Gender Policy at Georgetown University. We wish Lina good luck and success in her studies.

Diplomatic Visitors

We received, HE Annett Günther, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Ms. Katrin Hagemann, Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union, Mr. Patrick Egloff, Deputy Head of Mission Embassy of Switzerland at ILRI on 5 December. Germany, Switzerland and the EU are strong supporters of ILRI and the visit was an opportunity to describe ILRI and our work to staff from the local embassies. Our visitors were very impressed by our research and facilities.

Daniel Korir describes the Mazingira Centre to our visitors

Livestock CRP Program Management Meeting
I made my first visit to the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, in Uppsala, Sweden on 10-11 December to attend a meeting of the Program Management Committee of the Livestock CRP. Professor Ulf Magnusson of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science hosted the meeting. Ulf leads the Animal Health Flagship within the CRP.

Meeting the Dalberg Consultants
I met the consultants from Dalberg, who are undertaking the Organizational Review, on 17 December, as part of their first scoping visit to the institute. They met with some staff but will return in February for more in-depth discussions with a wider group of staff and I would encourage you to engage fully with them if requested.

Finally, for those of you who were at Jimmy’s Town Hall on 29 November where he publicly announced my late arrival because I had been attending my twins’ nursery school concert and nativity play, I want to share with you a photo of Charlie and Kayleigh on stage.