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 … Continue reading
This is my final blog posting for 2016. December was rather a short month work-wise as I went on leave on 21 December to travel to Scotland for Christmas. It was good to see my mother and family, albeit only for a week before returning to Nairobi for New Year. Christmas day was the second … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
I was on leave for the first three weeks in August visiting family and friends so did not write a blog in August. Since I returned from leave there have been some real high and low points for ILRI. We recently lost three of our colleagues, Alok Jha, Regional Representative for South Asia, Dickens Odhiambo … Continue reading
This month has seen the most significant event for my country, the United Kingdom, since the end of the Second World War in 1945. On 23 June the UK voted by 52% to 48% to leave the European Union. That decision has plunged not only the UK and the rest of European Union into chaos … Continue reading
In my January blog I described the initiative launched by the President of the Africa Development Bank to leverage the expertise in the CGIAR to support a major investment program in African agriculture. Planning for the ‘Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation’ initiative is now well underway. Steve Staal, Iddo Dror and I were at IITA, … Continue reading
The big event of the month of March was the completion and submission of the full proposals for the second phase of the CRPs. This was a herculean effort on the part of many, many people. We led with our partners the Livestock proposal but were heavily involved in A4NH, CCAFS, Dryland Cereals and Legumes, … Continue reading
It was great to be back in Addis for a week in January and to attend the ILRI staff party on 14 January (with apologies for not wearing my kilt this year!). It’s always good to meet up with former colleagues and old friends. The atmosphere at the party was good and even the rain … Continue reading
I spent the first four days of December at a write-shop at Lake Naivasha Country Club, with a team of about 25 people developing the proposal for the new Livestock CRP. While we worked on updates to the whole document, we concentrated on the C-rated parts of the pre-proposal, taking account of the comments of … Continue reading
I have had a number of comments over the last 9 months about the fact that I have not been writing my monthly ramblings and musings. So I have made an early 2016 New Year’s Resolution to be more diligent, starting from this month. Board meeting The month started in Washington with the meeting of … Continue reading
ILRI Announcements 