ILRI Four Years after its Establishment
The integration of ILCA and ILRAD into a new institution with a global mandate off January 1st, 1995, was a reflection of structural adjustment discussions held in the CGIAR in the early 1990s. These discussions were intended to complement and, at the same time, to streamline the CGIAR System. While the discussions on the expansion of the System resulted in the successful integration of various International Research Centres into the CGIAR, ILRI remains the only Institute that is the result of the amalgamation of two previously independent CGIAR Centres.
This is the report of the first External Programme and Management Review of this Institute. The Panel has therefore addressed the question whether the objectives of seeking to capitalise on potential synergies and achieving economies in the CGIAR's global livestock research were achieved by this institutional integration.
In doing this, the Panel recognised that in any integration the idiosyncrasies of the units to be merged are very important factors affecting the success or failure of the resulting enterprise. In the case of ILRI, the CGIAR System could have hardly identified two centres which were more dissimilar in their research approaches and institutional cultures than ILCA and ILRAD. While ILRAD, over twenty years, was committed to an essentially basic biological research agenda in the area of animal diseases and their control, ILCA was carrying out a largely applied if not adaptive research programme in animal production. Apart from sharing the same geographical mandate area, there was little interaction between the two institutions, with the exception of the highly successful African trypanotolerance network for which both Centres shared responsibility. Given these drastic differences in institutional cultures and scientific approaches, the level of integration so far achieved is, in the Panel's view, commendable. Staff, Management and Board deserve applause for this achievement.
There is, obviously, some way to go, but the Panel wishes to make clear that it has, after careful assessment of the Institute, no doubt that the decision of the CGIAR to integrate the two Centres was correct, and that the Institute has responded positively to this decision. The Panel also believes that this integration has provided ILRI with the necessary conditions for positioning itself as a major contributor to the resolution of key research problems relating to the rapidly evolving and expanding animal agriculture in the tropics.
The contributions of ILRI and of its predecessors, ILCA and ILRAD, to livestock sciences and to the understanding of livestock production systems in the tropics are valuable assets in this endeavour.
The Institute now needs to address some aspects that require further strengthening. The Panel has commented on these in previous Chapters of this report and has identified areas where decisive action is required (vision, strategy, and priorities - Chapter 3; leadership and organizational structure - Chapters 4 & 5; research focus and quality - Chapters 6-8, 11; partnerships - Chapters 9 & 10; and cost effectiveness - Chapter 12). The Summary and Recommendations Chapter gives an overview. The Panel was pleased to note the positive attitude taken by Management and staff to the EPMR process.
The Panel has noted that, since the establishment of ILRI, there has been some convergence of the ex-ILCA and ex-ILRAD components in that the livestock production parts of the programme (ex-ILCA) have made an effort to place themselves in a more strategic position (not least expressed in their contribution to scientific literature), while the disease control side (ex-ILRAD) has moved closer to an applied emphasis (e.g. vaccine development). The Panel believes that ILRI's donors should take favourable note of this important convergence.
The Panel is convinced that it is in the strategic, upstream research that ILRI will continue to have its comparative advantage. Therefore, the Institute is strongly encouraged to continue to protect these strategic areas of its programme, and to communicate them convincingly to the donor community and to national, regional and international partner institutions.
The Way Forward
The Panel has undertaken a thorough, analytical assessment of the Institute's programme and management and has endeavoured, on the basis of this analysis, to emphasise a strategic, forward-looking dimension in its deliberations. It has agreed on fourteen recommendations, each of which addresses important aspects of this strategic approach.
The Panel took as a point of departure a global perspective on animal agriculture in the tropical world (Chapter 1), and decided to use this perspective as a guiding framework for the review of ILRI's programme. Tropical animal agriculture is currently in a very dynamic process of evolution and expansion with unprecedented challenges and exciting opportunities for research and development.
In establishing ILRI and in equipping the Institute with a global mandate, the CGIAR has given itself a potentially powerful means for proactively addressing these challenges and opportunities in a variety of institutional alliances. The Panel strongly believes that the strategic animal disease, nutrition, animal production, policy, and natural resource management research agenda of the Institute, complemented by advanced information technology applied to tropical animal agriculture, can position the Institute at the core of the international livestock research agenda. The intention of the Panel in Grafting its recommendations on programme and management was to support the efforts of the Institute to live up to the very high expectations with which it is faced. At the same time the Panel endeavoured to contribute to a renewed commitment and trust of ILRI's investors and stakeholders.
The Panel believes that ILRI has an enormous potential to contribute to human well-being in the tropical world. If the technical advances in core areas of its research (genomics, biotechnology, bioinformatics) continue as in the recent past, and if the Institute prepares itself to use productively the results of this dynamic global process, there is potential for very significant impact, particularly in the disease control area. The Panel believes that its suggestions and recommendations will help to position the Institute correctly for achieving such impact.
In its analysis of ILRI's programme and management structures, processes and procedures, the Panel has identified key areas in which decisive action is needed.
(a) A compelling vision of the Institute needs to be developed and used for gaining support among staff for enduring corporate values,(b) The Institute is strongly advised then to revisit its long-term strategy in the light of the rapidly changing external environment. In this context, the Panel expects ILRI-to develop a position with regard to its role in research on monogastric animals' Similarly, a clear position on the implementation of ILRI's global mandate needs to be developed.
(c) There is, in addition, an urgent need to improve processes by which priorities are set and implemented across the Institute, by which project and programme planning is then undertaken, and by which quality control of output is done,
(d) Of particular importance is the more systematic effort to integrate research efforts across the Institute for which, in the Panel's view, the position of a Deputy Director General (Research) is one important prerequisite.
The Panel believes that, if the above actions are properly implemented, the areas of concern and the opportunities for building strength can be adequately addressed.
Areas of concern with respect to biological research relate to:
- slow progress, lack of focus, and unchecked feasibility of vaccine development efforts, inevitably associated with an erosion of the Institute's credibility in this research,- unspecified position on delivery and future developments in diagnostics,
- downward trend in output and quality, except in disease resistance research,
- weaknesses in animal nutrition research in both quality and focus.
Biological research opportunities, on the other hand, relate to:
- enormous promise in research on disease resistance and tolerance, and genetic mapping,- significant promise in immunology and molecular biology to exploit the fruits of genomics research,
- powerful options for the use of epidemiology, and
- ILRI's key role in generating, through its NARS linkages, the necessary data for enhanced efforts in the conservation of domestic animal genetic resources.
The Panel noted with interest the concept submitted by ILRI of maintaining 'platforms of essential capacity' as an attractive means of establishing core competencies and critical mass in essential disciplinary areas. This approach is particularly useful in the context of ILRI's attempts to address its global mandate. Examples of where ILRI is encouraged to retain such core expertise of high quality are in the areas of immunology, molecular biology and genomics/genetics, so that ILRI is placed in a position of comparative advantage to exploit the data from genome sequencing, mapping and bioinformatics.
For the production systems research, the Panel argues in the report that ILRI needs to focus more closely on market opportunities in line with the ongoing protein food revolution in the tropical world. In suggesting this important strategic shift, the Panel does not advocate a particular commodity focus for the Institute (e.g. dairy), but it urges ILRI to relate more closely its production systems and natural resource management research to livestock market opportunities. In undertaking this strategic shift and in refocusing its production systems research portfolio accordingly, the Institute will have, in the Panel's view, substantially enhanced its ability to contribute to food security, poverty alleviation in rural as well as urban communities, and resource conservation.
The Panel's recommendation to emphasise market-oriented livestock systems explicitly and systematically implies enhanced opportunities for the generation of impact at the farm family level through higher income, regardless of the livestock species or configuration of the production system.
The Panel is confident that ILRI, when strategically re-positioned as per the recommendations made, can - in strategic partnership with relevant research institutions -become a major force for generating the next food revolution in the tropical world. It strongly encourages the donor community to invest in this highly worthwhile endeavour.
