2.1 Background
2.2 The Strategy for the Nineties
2.3 Implementing the Strategy: An Assessment
2.4 Concluding Remark
The CGIAR's creation in 1971 brought international agricultural research to the front lines of the battle against hunger and poverty. It didn't take much time to realize that such a task could not possibly be accomplished without the support of strong national agricultural research systems (NARS) and accordingly, in 1979, ISNAR was created as a service with the broad mandate of providing assistance to the NARS, by strengthening their capacity of utilizing their resources in an effective and efficient manner. Staffed with professionals highly experienced in the direction and management of research organizations, it attempted to build experience by working through various types of collaboration on a global basis.
In 1986, ISNAR conducted its first strategic planning exercise, which defined its goal as "to help developing countries to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their agricultural research systems, by increasing their capacity in four specific fields: policy, organization, direction and management".
In order to achieve this goal, ISNAR organized three complementary functions: advisory services, applied research, and training. These three components of its initial strategy have remained through time as the basic areas of action for the institution.
In order to define the thematic fields for concentration of efforts, twelve factors were identified as critical to NARS performance. These factors were grouped into three major categories, respectively related to the policy context, the structure and organization of research systems, and the management of the research institutions.
In consultation with NARS leaders and according to specified criteria that included the country demand for services, the relevance of each factor in the achievement of NARS performance, ISNAR's own comparative advantage and the expectation of achieving impact through its collaboration, the following six areas were selected for the concentration of efforts:
· formulation of research policy, priority setting, resource allocation and long-term planning;
· structure and organization of research systems;
· linkages between NARS, technology-transfer systems and beneficiaries;
· program preparation and budgeting;
· monitoring and evaluation;
· development and management of human resources.
Early in the nineties, two major factors led ISNAR to re-examine its strategy: the significant changes that had taken place in the global environment during the eighties and the lessons learned from its own accumulated experience working with NARS for more than a decade. Accordingly, a new strategy ("Service through Partnership") was developed in 1991-1992.
With the goal of assisting developing countries in bringing about sustained improvements in the performance of NARS, the new strategy defined ISNAR as a research-based service organization, which implied that through its multidisciplinary research it would develop and adapt policy and management approaches and technologies that would support the services provided to improve the performance of NARS.
The new programmatic structure of the organization included three major Programs: Research Policies and Systems Strategies (RPSS), Research Program Design and Management (RPDM), and Management of Organizations and Resources (MOR). In addition to the Programs, three special services were created: Collaborative Services and Training, Information Management, and Administrative Services. According to the strategy, each Program was to:
· carry out research to generate new knowledge;
· provide technical advice and support to NARS;
· deliver training and develop materials;
· disseminate knowledge and information gained through research and advisory services.
In 1994, these three programs were consolidated into two: (1) Policy and Systems Development and (2) Management. Additionally, in an attempt to build on the lessons learned from experience as well as specific problems considered as challenges to ISNAR's performance in the years ahead, five major strategic directions and three themes were defined to guide the development and the execution of its programs and services through the nineties. Major strategic directions included:
· target services to the needs of national systems at varying stages of development;
· cover a wide range of research entities;
· strengthen work on research policy;
· forge strategic alliances with other organizations;
· seek multipliers for increased impact.
Major themes considered were:
· institutional sustainability;
· assessment of institutional performance;
· institutional implications of research on natural resource management.
While specific efforts were made to define a service strategy that included three different delivery modes (comprehensive institutional development, strengthening of research policy and management components, and generation and dissemination of knowledge and information), strategies in regard to research and training were not specified separately.
Beyond the above-mentioned fields, the strategy addressed other areas of importance for the future work of NARS, basically related to ISNAR's allies and partners and including the emerging significance of regional and transnational approaches to research and service.
2.3.1 Has ISNAR implemented a sound research-based strategy?
2.3.2 How adequately has ISNAR focused its country services?
2.3.3 Has ISNAR been able to forge strategic alliances to deal with the increasing volume and complexity of the country demands?
2.3.4 Are the staff composition and program structure consistent with ISNAR's strategy?
2.3.5 How has ISNAR addressed the strategic theme of institutional sustainability?
The assessment of ISNAR's strategy cannot possibly ignore the rather difficult environment in which the institution carried out its work. In fact, the period under consideration was characterized by financial insecurity and budget reductions both at the international level and in its partner countries. At the same time this financial crisis was taking place, the needs and demands from NARS were significantly increased due to a changing global scenario that called for a much broader research agenda. NARS had to develop new areas of expertise, such as biotechnology, as well as consider new dimensions in research, such as the internalization of consumer attitudes, as a necessary component of their research activities in support of agriculture's competitiveness. This unbalanced scenario in terms of available resources and demands certainly had a negative effect on the potential impact of ISNAR's work.
In assessing ISNAR's strategy, the Panel focused its attention on ISNAR's adequacy to fulfill its mandate, the relevance of its strategy to beneficiaries, its usefulness to guide the institution's work, and its coherence with CGIAR priorities. Both, the content and the processes involved in the activities carried out were taken into consideration. In doing so, the Panel has identified a number of issues that are considered relevant in defining the future strategic directions of the institution. The Panel's observations were grouped under the following headings.
· Has ISNAR implemented a sound research-based strategy?· How adequately has ISNAR focused its country services?
· Has ISNAR been able to forge strategic alliances to deal with the increasing volume and complexity of the country demands?
· Are the staff composition and program structure consistent with ISNAR's strategy?
· How has ISNAR addressed the strategic theme of institutional sustainability?
The underlying logic of the research-based strategy calls for a mutual reinforcement of research, advisory services, and training. Both within and across programs, the three types of activities should actually support each other with the basic objective of improving the quality of the services delivered and creating capacity at the country level rather than substituting local staff in direct action.
There are two major components of a research-based service strategy. Services should be delivered in specific areas where ISNAR has either done research or adapted knowledge produced in other institutions to country needs. On the other hand, research ought to be of a problem-solving nature, responding to the needs of NARS, accumulated through the experience of the services provided to them.
A number of activities carried out by ISNAR would qualify as research-based services. Its publications on policy research and their dissemination, policy dialogue workshops, approaches and tools such as priority setting and master planning, IBS and NRM work, PME in LAC and INFORM represent varying degrees of attempts to integrate research and services. But there are also activities where this type of integration is not in evidence. When tools are borrowed from an existing knowledge base but the lessons of experience from their application on the ground are not learned or synthesized to improve upon future services, the research-service link would appear to be weak. The same applies to training programs that are not linked to research, as was noted in some cases. The Panel concludes that an adequate integration between both types of activities is yet to be achieved.
Services
Most of the areas in which the ISNAR services were provided have been supported by adaptive research. However, as demands from the countries increased, ISNAR's services, possibly because of budgetary constraints, have been led by country requests and the availability of donor funding, with only limited attention to internal priority setting that would have allowed a better integration of its research and service activities. A more proactive role, anticipating NARS needs and developing research programs to meet them, is called for.
According to ISNAR's own staff, the institution has done only a partial job in reinforcing their country work with learning from experience. Institutional learning from service design and delivery is critical to the task of research-service integration. Synthesis of the lessons of past experience is one way to achieve this objective. Efforts toward this end have been made in some cases but much remains to be done in terms of institutionalizing the process. The limited field presence of ISNAR in the regions could also have acted as a barrier to effective communication and learning from below.
After the original identification of critical factors that took place in the mid-eighties, the determinants of NARS performance have been only partially researched either through cross-section or time-series analysis of NARS. The same applies to the development of case studies, including any on developed-country research systems, an area emphasized by the last EPMR which has not been fully reflected in ISNAR's work. Research thrusts of this nature could potentially strengthen a research-based service strategy.
Training
The Panel recognizes the important role of the Training Unit in improving the formal aspects of the training activities. However, establishing an explicit set of criteria to plan and prioritize training activities at the program level could have improved the integration of training with other programs of work. The need for a Corporate Plan, referred to in the ICER of ISNAR's training function supports this view.
The PM&E project wherein participatory activities were carried out in some cases (in particular, the ISNAR-IDB project in LAC) with the trainees gradually becoming trainers and acting as effective multipliers for ISNAR's activities, is a good example of training being reinforced by research. Its sound conceptual and practical approach elicited positive comments from NARS leaders during the Panel's field visits.
Most of ISNAR's research is aimed at senior managers and policymakers. Their ability to use ISNAR results in their work is addressed through policy dialogues in the form of workshops and seminars. Much of the training efforts, however, are directed at middle- to low-ranking staff, a fact that ISNAR might wish to review. A research-based training strategy would imply the need for more careful targeting of training. Similarly, although incorporated to some degree in PM&E training, the soft but important area of management that covers themes such as leadership, guiding values, governance, and culture of organizations is seldom emphasized by ISNAR's training work, possibly because research does not seem to focus much on these aspects.
Although from its very beginnings ISNAR recognized the need to work with systems rather than with individual institutions, the reality was that at the country level, well-organized systems, comprising a diversity of entities (public research institutions, universities, research foundations, NGOs, and private organizations) working with common goals, seldom existed. Therefore ISNAR concentrated its activities working either with research organizations (NAROs) or research institutions (NARIs) in an attempt to improve their performance by strengthening their capacity in policy and management. This institutional perspective, as opposed to a more outward perspective, is still relevant for individual organizations and institutions. But, the major changes that have been taking place in the external context of national agricultural research during the last decade require that appropriate attention be given to other dimensions of strengthening NARS as well.
Many services have been delivered and tools and approaches applied in specific NAROs. Other institutions, consultants, and international research centers have also adopted them. This reflects well on ISNAR's work and reputation. However, there is evidence that some of these services did not have long-lasting results at the country level. There is no doubt that the difficult NARO environment is part of the problem. An in-depth analysis of these results could provide important lessons that should prove useful for future work in this area.
In the Panel's opinion, an outward approach that entails looking at the NAROs' linkages with other relevant actors for their research strategy will become increasingly important. The NAROs' performance will be decisively influenced by their capacity to articulate their work with that of other institutions involved in research and technology transference, either public or private, in their own country or abroad. Establishing adequate links with the agroindustrial sector so as to adapt the research strategy to consumer demands is also important. High quality and relevant research must be directed towards improving NARS performance in this respect.
ISNAR has devoted some of its efforts to this task, particularly in the context of organizing and participating in regional fora. However, it is perhaps too early to expect results from the activities in this area. On the service side, the IBS project and university-NARS linkages are examples of attempts to strengthen the capacity of NARS to develop their links with other system institutions. In recognizing this, the Panel notes that ISNAR has introduced a new vision in this respect in the draft 1998-2000 MTP.
During its early years, ISNAR concentrated its efforts on providing advisory services on comprehensive institutional development to individual countries. The 1990 strategy, recognizing that different countries had different levels of development and diverse demands for ISNAR's services, shifted to a more demand-driven service orientation, trying to satisfy different types of demands with modes of different service delivery.
This strategic change made very evident a problem that lies at the root of the institution's existence: ISNAR has very limited capacity to meet the complex demands of NARS, both because it cannot have all the expertise required in house and because of its budgetary restrictions. Under these constraints, it cannot have a direct impact on a large number of countries through its assistance.
In trying to address this issue, the 1990 strategy suggested that forging strategic alliances with other organizations would help ISNAR complement its own expertise in fields where it was lacking, while working with other institutions on the delivery side, seeking multipliers, would strengthen and broaden its outreach and impact.
This important strategic direction is well understood by senior staff. While steps are being taken to implement this strategy by exploring potential collaborators in several areas, a generalized vision about the meaning and importance of these alternatives to improve ISNAR's performance is still to be achieved.
On the supply side, for example, ISNAR has made use of the expertise of outside individuals to support its own work. However, it is the Panel's opinion that forging relevant alliances on a long-term basis requires institutional commitment rather than individual participation. In this respect, several initiatives such as collaboration with NAARM in India and with selected northern academic centers are being pursued. There will be a need for additional funding to stimulate the creation of these types of partnerships.
On the demand side, some cases of successful cooperation with other institutions to multiply ISNAR's impact have taken place, according to staff and as confirmed by the opinion of NARS leaders in the field. In such cases, a multiplier effect was achieved. However, this is an area that deserves further attention so that ISNAR's impact can be broadened.
The emergence and consolidation of various regional research associations represents a positive external change that can greatly contribute to a more cost-efficient delivery mode as well as to a substantial broadening of the institution's impact, particularly when they group relatively weak NARS. ISNAR is involved in different kinds of cooperation with regional associations. Evidence on how well this type of collaboration is working is yet to be assembled.
Although new strategic directions were identified within the 1990 programming exercise, no specific responsibilities were assigned within or across the programs in such important fields as developing links with other institutions to allow a higher quality and broader impact of ISNAR's activities. The DG may have carried out this work himself for the most part. The program structure needs to be strengthened to reflect these important strategic directions.
The Panel concurs with the information provided by some of the Program staff members that the professional expertise of the organization does not fully match the requirements of emerging institutional needs. It is evident that despite a high concentration of ISNAR's work being on management problems, there are relatively few formally trained persons in this area of expertise.
In order to fulfill its mandate, it is important for ISNAR not only to formulate a sound strategy, but also to adjust its structure and staff composition to meet the requirements of a changing environment, a process that is not easy to achieve in any type of organization.
There are different dimensions related to institutional sustainability, a theme that is emphasized in the 1990 strategy. Sustainability is a function of two factors: local capacity and country commitment.
In respect to capacity building, ISNAR's focus has been to build local capacity in NARS through the direct delivery of services to them. But there are clear limits to this approach. Eventually, what is required is the creation of in-country capacity to generate research, advisory, and training services that ISNAR cannot possibly perform on a permanent basis or on a large scale. How to approach this issue is a matter for careful consideration.
The second dimension related to institutional sustainability refers to country commitment. Whether it is explicitly recognized or not, ISNAR's work involves a process of institutional reform in developing countries. The experience of many processes of this kind carried out by multilateral financial institutions has demonstrated that the single, most relevant variable in determining the failure or success of such reforms is the country's commitment to it. The sustained use of ISNAR's approaches and tools in several NARS is evidence of commitment at the country or institutional level. But there are also cases in which the efforts of many years of work have been eroded in a short period due to many different reasons whose common denominator is the absence of commitment. In defining the priorities for individual country assistance, ISNAR may not have fully taken this perspective into consideration, particularly in a donor-driven and fund-constrained operating environment. The Panel considers that at times of severe budget constraints, one of the most important mechanisms to assure commitment to the reform of research institutions is to be able to demonstrate the institution's impact to stakeholders and policymakers. The assessment of a NARO's impact constitutes the best alternative to demonstrate accountability, a field where most NARS, particularly the weaker ones, have not succeeded in implementing adequate procedures. This is a subject on which ISNAR proposes to do more in the future.
In light of the foregoing discussion, the Panel is of the view that ISNAR's stated strategy for the 1990s and its activities on the ground have not always moved well together. Some parts of the strategy have been better implemented than others. To some degree this reflects the problems in ISNAR's own environment and the conflicts between the requirements of the strategy and the compulsions of external project funding of some of ISNAR's activities. Similarly, the shift toward a more demand-driven service orientation, called for in the 1990 strategy, was not always in harmony with the objective of building a more research-oriented institution. These divergent pressures may have caused operational problems that the early strategy did not address properly. While there is evidence of progress in dealing with these tensions in recent years, it is an area to which ISNAR should give continued attention.
