ISNAR's management and Board of Trustees would like to thank the members of the review panel. As will be seen below, we concur largely with the panel's analysis and conclusions, and we endorse most of the recommendations contained in the review report. We believe the panel did a commendable job of understanding ISNAR, pinpointing some of its major strengths and weaknesses and suggesting some promising - certainly thought-provoking - changes in direction.
The EPMR report contains a relatively short main report and more lengthy annexes with detailed assessments of program and management. The report contains four main recommendations (drawn from the main report) and eight other recommendations (drawn from the annexes). In the following two sections, we respond to these recommendations. A final section contains an additional observation.
Main Recommendations
I. The panel recommends that ISNAR define and interpret its niche both to guide its own future planning and to improve the understanding of its role by its clients and the donor community.
Endorsed.
ISNAR appreciates the need to more clearly define its "niche," - mission, mandate, strategic directions and areas of comparative advantage - in order to improve planning and the use of scarce resources, and also to communicate more effectively with its stakeholders and partners. As part of a review of the ISNAR strategy (recommendation IV), ISNAR will seek to clearly define its niche and elaborate methods for setting its priorities and focusing its activities.
II. The panel recommends that ISNAR move more towards the research-based end of the service spectrum, gradually leaving the less research-based part to other service providers.
Endorsed.
We concur with the panel that ISNAR should strengthen its research activities. Linking research and service produces synergy that benefits both functions; having a research base improves the quality of service activities, and involvement in service activities feeds lessons from the field into the research process. Hence, as we move toward the "research-based end of the service spectrum" we will strive to:
· develop more effective methods for integrating research, service and training
· learn from our field involvement
· institutionalize the lessons learned
· disseminate results to various client and stakeholder groups
III. The panel recommends that ISNAR move up in the capacity-building ladder, concentrating more on building institutional capabilities both within and outside NARS in countries and regions so that the functions/services being provided by it from a distance could be increasingly performed by appropriate organizations/groups in closer proximity to NARS.
Endorsed with a qualification.
We agree with the panel that ISNAR should work to strengthen NARS capacity to help themselves. ISNAR's strategy argues for development of tools and approaches that others can use in delivering institution-strengthening services in NARS; this has been a hallmark of much of our work in the past.
Where our views may differ from those of the panel is in the strategies that ISNAR should use to develop NARS institutional capacity. The panel states that ISNAR should increasingly pay attention to building and strengthening institutional capabilities in organizations outside NARS, which can in turn provide services and training for NARS. This idea has been debated on a number of occasions at ISNAR and even experimented with. So far, the results have not been up to our expectations. However, ISNAR will continue to explore this and other avenues to identify and deliver alternative sources of support to NARS for institutional development.
IV. The panel recommends that ISNAR reformulate its strategy in light of the changes in its environment and its assessment of the emerging challenges, review the activities/functions it needs to divest in order to address the new challenges and tasks it plans to undertake, and specify the changes in the mix of skills it will attempt to put in place in support of its strategy.
Endorsed.
The current ISNAR Strategy has proven flexible and continues to provide direction to ISNAR's work. However, we envision a process in which the new Director General, interacting with the Board of Trustees, will review the strategy and organization of ISNAR, taking into account the recommendations of the External Review and the Medium-Term Plan. This review of ISNAR's direction and activities may require revision of the MTP-1998-2000, as well as identification of the professional and other resources needed to implement the new strategy.
Other Recommendations
1. The panel recommends that ISNAR's Policy and System Development Program take steps to:
· focus on a related set of problems and issues in a more integrated manner
· develop a research agenda that leads to better identification and understanding of key policy factors affecting the overall performance and effectiveness of the research system
· build capacity to integrate lessons drawn from other parts of the program, from the Management Program, and from other sources, and contribute all this to ISNAR's institutional memory
· improve quality through better conceptualization of research, better research design and teamwork, and in particular, interdisciplinary research
· improve targeting of publications for policymakers
· develop strong allies, both regional and international, including long-term outposting and secondment of staff, where this accelerates learning and/or implementation
· improve the staff mix of scientific disciplines in relation to major problems and issues identified
Endorsed. The program, like ISNAR as a whole, needs to clarify its niche and enhance the coherence and integration of its activities. This will be done in the context of the review of ISNAR's strategy, mentioned above.
Identifying and understanding factors that affect the performance of research systems will be a priority for both the Policy Program and the Management Program.
We appreciate the need to improve ISNAR's research, including the process of learning from field activities and making the lessons available to a range of stakeholders. ISNAR's two programs should also learn more from each other's experiences. Additionally, ISNAR will make efforts to interact with other centers of knowledge and expertise in its field of work and will seek to access and use information available in these centers.
ISNAR appreciates the need to ensure high quality in specific research activities and in its programs as a whole. The Policy and System Development Program has a good track record in externally published books and peer-reviewed articles. ISNAR management and board fully accept the challenge of monitoring research quality and ensuring that the Programs employ adequate mechanisms for interdisciplinary teamwork.
We are in agreement with the suggestion to target more of our publications for policy makers. Effort will be made to package research results for policy audiences in existing publications such as our policy briefs and to disseminate findings through policy dialogues. A readership survey planned for 1997 should provide useful information for targeting our publications to the needs and interests of policy makers.
ISNAR will continue to aggressively seek to develop alliances, and in specific cases, where both a strong need and an opportunity (particularly funding) exist, outposting may be considered.
The recommendation to improve staff mix will be considered in the new strategy and revised program of work.
2. The panel recommends that ISNAR's Management Program take steps to:
· expand its work on benchmarking, particularly with respect to experiences from the private sector
· define clearly what its future role would be in the development and implementation of information systems, in the light of developing-country needs, availability of alternative suppliers, and other demands for ISNAR services
· plan its future activities in the management area through rigorous needs assessments and priority setting
Endorsed. We intend to further expand our benchmarking activities, and to pay particular attention to capturing experiences in sectors outside of the traditional national agricultural research organizations, including the private sector and NGOs as well as other service providers in the public sector. We will also look beyond the developing countries, to capture experiences of advanced research institutes and other types of organizations in industrial countries.
A thorough review of our work in management information systems will be carried out in the near future.
The Management Program will systematize and analyze information on NAROs' needs in the management area and will carry out a formal priority-setting exercise for the Program's activities.
3. The panel recommends that ISNAR develop and implement an explicit public-awareness strategy with the assistance of qualified public-relations professionals.
Endorsed.
ISNAR will develop and implement a public awareness strategy, involving public-relations professionals where appropriate.
4. The panel recommends that ISNAR benchmark best practices regarding spousal employment at other international organizations operating in The Hague, and actively search for a solution in order to enhance the center's ability to attract and retain the quality of professional staff it requires to fulfill its mandate.
Endorsed.
ISNAR places high priority on the issue of spousal employment, and there are on-going discussions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this subject.
5. The panel recommends that ISNAR make every effort to attract internationally recruited staff with advanced degrees in management.
Endorsed.
In future, ISNAR will place high priority on recruiting staff with advanced degrees in management. We will also continue to establish close ties with external centers of management excellence, in both industrial and developing countries.
6. The panel recommends that ISNAR develop mechanisms to link the annual staff performance appraisal to tangible forms of recognition and reward, and to replace the current seniority-based pay system with one which explicitly links pay increases to performance.
Endorsed.
ISNAR will strive to improve the annual performance appraisal process and to strengthen the links between performance and pay increases.
7. The panel recommends that ISNAR design and implement an integrated strategy for human resource management at ISNAR with the benefit of input from a qualified human resource professional with experience in similar organizations.
Endorsed.
We will develop a human resources strategy, with the input of qualified specialists in human resource management and experience in similar institutions.
8. The panel recommends that ISNAR carry out a formal work-process reengineering study with regard to Central Files in order to understand its needs regarding the circulation and filing of written communications in today's environment, and design, utilizing today's advanced information technology (which is readily available from ISNAR's Computer Services Unit), a more appropriate system to satisfy the center's needs.
Endorsed.
ISNAR will carry out the recommended work process study regarding the circulation and filing of written communications, and to design a more appropriate system to satisfy the center's needs.
Additional Observation
The review panel indicated that the Board of Trustees had not carried out any sort of formal performance evaluation of ISNAR's Director General.
The board would like to communicate that it did carry out formal annual evaluations of the Director General, and that results of these performance evaluations were communicated to the Director General by the chair of the board.
