Opening Session
1997 Programme and Budget Proposals
Review of CGIAR Priorities and Strategies
Priorities and Strategies for Soil and Water Aspects of Natural Resources Management Research in the CGIAR
Strategic Study of Postharvest Technology
Strategic Study of Policy, Management and Institution Strengthening Research in the CGIAR
Future Reviews
Systemwide Initiatives and Programmes
Future Meetings
Other Business
The TAC Chair, Dr. Donald Winkelmann, opened the meeting and welcomed the 11 TAC Members present including new members Drs. C. H. Rao and Lucia de Vaccaro; a consultant to TAC, Dr. Richard Harwood; the representative of FAO, Dr. Stein Bie; the Chair of the Centre Directors' Committee, Dr. Lukas Brader; the Chair of the Centre Board Chairs' Committee, Dr. Wanda Collins; a number of Centre Directors, Board Chairs and Observers; Dr. Shellemiah Keya, the Executive Secretary-designate of the TAC Secretariat, and staff of the TAC and CGIAR Secretariats. IRRI's Director General, Dr. George Rothschild, welcomed participants on behalf of the Centre which hosted the Meeting.
The report of TAC 68 was adopted without amendments. There were no matters arising from TAC 68. The provisional agenda for TAC 69 was adopted with the addition of several items under Other Business.
Mr. Ravi Tadvalkar of the CGIAR Secretariat reported on developments in the CGIAR since TAC 68. His report highlighted plans for MTM and ICW'96; activities of CGIAR committees; the growth in developing country membership in the CGIAR; and the System's financial prospects. MTM'96 will adopt as its theme, the CGIAR research agenda - facing the poverty challenge. ICW'96 will be the occasion for the 25th anniversary celebration of the CGIAR and its programme will link with other significant events, including FAO's World Food Summit and the World Bank Conference on Sustainable Agriculture. The Impact Assessment and Evaluation Group's April workshop in The Hague will be attended by the TAC Chair, thereby ensuring consistency between its work and TAC's review processes. The potential for collaboration with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union will be explored by a CGIAR task force meeting in Prague in May. Its recommendations will be on TAC's agenda later this year prior to CGIAR decision-making on specific actions to be taken. Some 80 percent of contributions to the CGIAR's 1996 financing plan have been secured, although gaps remain in the matrix which the Chairman has urged the Members to fill.
TAC considered Centres' 1997 programme and budget proposals simultaneously with its review of CGIAR priorities and strategies, paying particular attention to the consistency of centres' proposed programmes with their medium-term plans for 1994-1998. The Committee's analysis focused on both Centre-based and Systemwide programmes or initiatives. Virtually all centres requested increases in their funding levels for the coming year, either for new programmes or the transfer of existing complementary programmes to the agreed research agenda. TAC considered these requests in terms of its previously specified criteria for evaluating changes in 1997 funding envelopes - new scientific breakthroughs which influence centre activity, changes in priorities of national systems and the development assistance community that introduce changes in the research environment and hence impact a centre's programme, and the introduction of new Systemwide and ecoregional initiatives. TAC recommended a funding envelope for the CGIAR's 1997 research agenda of US$ 311.7 million; the funding guideline was US $293.9 million. This increase over the 1997 guideline by US$ 17.8 million is made up of US$ 5.0 million in transfers from complementary work to the agreed agenda, US$ 7.3 million for additional work on Systemwide activities and US$ 5.4 million in new additions to agreed programmes.
TAC considered a draft of its Report on CGIAR Priorities and Strategies against the background of the medium-term resource allocation process for the period 1998-2000 and the outcomes of the NARS regional fora. Sections of the draft benefitted from comments by Centre Directors. The Report's analytical framework with its focus on activities, sectors, commodities and Systemwide work was reaffirmed. The point of departure for TAC's recommendations on a new pattern of resource allocation for the System's major undertakings - increasing productivity, protecting the environment, saving biodiversity, improving policies, and strengthening national programmes - remained the 1997 allocations, adjusted to reflect the CGIAR's priorities of poverty alleviation and natural resource conservation in developing countries. The future balance of priority to activities was addressed by means of qualitative judgement, taking into account implications for poverty and changes in science or alternative sources of supply affecting probabilities of success. TAC undertook a quantitative analysis of the relative importance of commodities in the CGIAR's portfolio based on their estimated, poverty-modified value of production in 2010. The derived values were then adjusted for relative priority based on prospects for scientific breakthroughs, probabilities of success, strength of NARS, or alternative sources of supply. A similar approach was used to rebalance priorities by sectors. TAC will finalize its recommendations on commodities and sectors after working with centres to develop their medium-term plans. Finally, TAC judged the relative priority to be accorded to the two types of Systemwide activities, ecoregional and disciplinary, as well as mechanisms for their future review and evaluation. The Committee also made decisions on finalizing the draft report for submission to the Group at MTM'96.
The Committee considered the final draft report of this strategic study in the light of comments made on an earlier draft at TAC 68. The study reconfirmed that strengthening research on natural resources management (NRM) and environmental issues was needed in the CGIAR. The necessary conditions of the System's undertaking such research were that it be linked explicitly to the goals of poverty alleviation and food security and address both the on-site and off-site effects of agriculture, forestry, or fisheries. While it was desirable for the CGIAR's research to take into account the goal of environmental conservation per se, reliance for this aspect should be placed on alternative suppliers. The study concluded that there was need to improve the state of information on land and water degradation and its impacts on agricultural, forestry, and fisheries production; to develop an integrated natural resources management research framework and focus such work on explicit issues, among them, those related to water resources; and to develop uniform and consistent criteria for judging priorities for NRM activities/research in the CGIAR centres and programmes. The study recommended that the System develop improved collaborative mechanisms for centres to undertake NRM-related research with other partners and to focus increased research and institution strengthening on issues related to adoption, adaptation, and utilization of existing NRM technologies and knowledge. The report and related background papers will be made available to the Group at MTM'96, together with the Committee's recommendations, as an input to the review of CGIAR priorities and strategies.
TAC considered a draft report of this study, commissioned at TAC 67, which focused on priorities and strategies for CGIAR postharvest technology research. The study found that current CGIAR postharvest research was closely related to centre mandates and primarily involved genetic improvement of quality and storage characteristics of food commodities. Adopting the framework of a production-consumption continuum, the study suggested that the productivity emphasis of current research be complemented by work on efficiency in product utilization; it specifically recommended that the CGIAR give greater priority to the harvest and postharvest components of this continuum. It urged that centres review and strengthen where necessary their capacities for designing and implementing such research and work collaboratively with other centres, national research organizations, advanced research institutions, and the private sector in carrying it out. A Systemwide programme was recommended as a means of moving this work forward, together with a strengthening of the monitoring and evaluation of harvest and postharvest research through existing review mechanisms. TAC commented on the study, generally endorsing its production-consumption strategic framework, but it advised that the CGIAR move selectively in its choice of research foci and modalities since the nature of the continuum varied significantly by commodity. Further, TAC preferred that such research be done through informal coordinating mechanisms rather than a Systemwide programme. The study report will be transmitted together with TAC's commentary and discussed by the Group at MTM'96.
The Committee considered the final draft report of this strategic study synthesizing the results of the TAC-commissioned reviews of institution strengthening and public policy/management research in the CGIAR. Both fields of research generally received favourable assessments by their respective reviews, although a number of suggestions were made to improve their focus, effectiveness, and impact. Among other things, it was recommended that the System's mandate on research policy and management be broadened to include the role of private organizations particularly as they interface with the public sector; that policy and management research incorporate the perspectives of the new institutional economics and political economy; and that institution strengthening research address the requirements of NARS' institutional development using techniques drawn from management science. The study recommended ways of improving inter-centre coordination of the System's policy/management and institution strengthening research. TAC commented on and generally endorsed the study's recommendations, qualifying or amplifying them where necessary. The Committee will submit the synthesis study and the review reports to the Group for discussion at MTM'96.
TAC discussed planning for the 1996 external review of ICRISAT which will be chaired by Dr. Ronnie Coffman (USA), Associate Dean for Research, Cornell University; the 1996-97 review of IPGRI which will be chaired by Dr. Calvin Qualset (USA), Director, Genetic Resources Conservation Programme, University of California, Davis; and the 1996 review of ISNAR which will be chaired by Dr. Samuel Paul (India), Chairman, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore. The chair for the 1996 review of IFPRI remained to be determined. Future external reviews were scheduled for IRRI, CIFOR and CIMMYT in 1997, and ICLARM and ILRI for 1998.
The Committee also discussed planning for the strategic studies on Marginal Lands and on CGIAR Commitments in Latin America. The Marginal Lands study will be conducted by Dr. Michael Nelson (New Zealand) supported by a small group of consultants and resource persons. It will be conducted in 1996 in two phases: an information gathering preparatory phase from April to June, and a main phase from June to November. The draft report of the study will be discussed at TAC 71. Plans for the Latin America study were discussed in the light of the outcome of the recent NARS consultations for Latin America and the Caribbean. It was decided that TAC's study would be undertaken following completion of the review of regional priorities by the Latin America NARS regional forum and the development of its action plan for strengthening relations with the CGIAR. TAC will identify a panel chair at TAC 70; the study will be launched after ICW'96.
TAC considered in the context of its review of priorities and strategies the future funding arrangements for and management and evaluation of Systemwide Initiatives and Programmes. The Committee reaffirmed its understanding that Systemwide activities were comprised of two phases: a design or initiative phase and an implementation or programme phase. There was need for greater consistency in CGIAR funding arrangements for these phases. TAC recommended that initiative design costs be included in a column of the matrix of the CGIAR's agreed research agenda. For Systemwide programmes, it recommended that the additional transaction costs of coordinating programmes be added to and identified in centre budgets. Under special circumstances, TAC would recommend funding for research and research-related costs of such programmes. TAC also decided to recommend that, in the absence of strong new arguments, no new Systemwide ecoregional activities be added until the current ones had been evaluated and the ecoregional approach assessed. While the Committee would adopt a more flexible approach to endorsing future disciplinary initiatives to strengthen the CGIAR's work in specific areas, it cautioned that new initiatives would be the exception rather than the rule. The Committee also drew up a plan for the creation of a TAC Standing Committee to evaluate Systemwide activities during the 1998-2000 period.
TAC also considered under this Item a proposal by IIMI for an Inter-Centre Initiative on Water Management. The proposal was endorsed. TAC's decision on this proposal was made in the context of its consideration of centres' 1997 programme and budget proposals - (Agenda Item 2).
TAC reconfirmed and/or amended dates and venues for the following meetings:
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TAC 70: |
30 July-6 August 1996, CIAT, Cali, Colombia |
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TAC 71: |
25-30 November 1996, ILRI, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
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TAC 72: |
20-28 March 1997, FAO, Rome, Italy |
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TAC 73: |
14-19 July 1997, ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India |
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TAC 74: |
24-29 November 1997, CIMMYT, Mexico City, Mexico |
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TAC 75: |
24-28 March 1998, FAO, Rome |
· TAC considered ICLARM's revised proposal for an expansion of its work into the WANA and sub-Saharan Africa regions. The proposal was not endorsed on technical grounds. It also considered IIMI's request for additional resources to support and expand its core scientific staff. The proposal was endorsed with modification. TAC's decisions on these proposals were taken in the context of its consideration of centres' 1997 programme and budget proposals. (Item 2)· During the course of TAC 69, the Committee interacted with the CGIAR's NGO Committee, and with leaders of Asian NARS.
· On behalf of the members of TAC, the TAC Chair expressed sincere thanks to Dr. Guido Gryseels, Officer-in-Charge of the TAC Secretariat from January 1995 to 15 April 1996 for his outstanding service despite often very difficult circumstances.
