1. WHAT SHOULD BE THE ROLE OF THE IARCS IN WEST AFRICA?

The rapid growth of the national agricultural research systems (NARS), the heavier presence of the IARCs since about 1980, lagging agricultural growth, and concerns about the efficiency of the CG system have prompted a review of the IARCs' role in West Africa ¹. This report provides a reconsideration by asking: What is the appropriate role of the IARCs in West Africa, given (i) the changes in the national programs, including possible contributions from the private sector; (ii) the novel ecoregional perspective; (iii) the likely evolution of farming systems in the region; and (iv) lessons of IARC experience in the region and outside, including the recommendations of the Impact Study, external reviews of individual centers, the Priorities Study and the various Stripe Reviews?

1 West Africa means Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Bamako usually refers also to Samanko, Niamey to Sadore, and Kano to Bagauda.

Specifically:

What does the evolution of the national programs mean for IARC activities?

What changes should be made in IARC relations with partners?

What can the Centers most efficiently contribute to the institutional development of the national programs?

Are there any IARC responsibilities that should be devolved to the NARS, including commodities, themes, or ecoregions?

What are the views of the NARS on these questions and on the activities of the IARCs in general?

How do the activities of the Centers conform to the ecoregional approach?

Should there be major changes in the regional organization of the IARCs, to accommodate the ecoregional approach or other proposed institutional alternatives? What are the alternative roles (eg, those proposed by the vision paper)?

Is there costly duplication across IARCs in activities?

Are there costly gaps in the Centers portfolio?

Are there other measures that the IARCs can take to make their commitments more efficient?

Do the Centers use adequate methods to measure all their impacts?

Materials

The report relies on a Desk Study done by the TAC Secretariat of Center spending, staffing, and programs in 1992, supplemented by information from ISNAR about Center activities in 1986. The Desk Study is the database of this report. The first draft of the Desk Study was distributed for comment to the Centers in March, 1994; the second draft of June, 1994 reflects those comments. The Panel visited Côte d'Ivoire in June 1994 and Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, the Cameroon and the Gambia in August 1994 to gather other information and to interview staff in the IARCs and in the NARS. It presented a draft report to TAC 65. It then received comments from TAC, the Centers, the national programs of Togo, Ghana, and the Gambia, and other participants at TAC 65, which it incorporated into this final report.

Outline

The report first sketches the main agricultural characteristics in the region (Section 2). It continues with a summary of the principal types of research institutions (Section 3) before discussing the major issues of the report (Section 4) and summarizing the recommendations (Section 5).