The members of the External Review Panel wish to express their sincere appreciation to the Board, management and staff of ICRISAT for their full and frank cooperation throughout the Review. The Panel is particularly thankful for their constructive and open attitude, and for their generous time and help given whenever requested.
The arrangements made for our visits to the Headquarters and to the regions, including the field visits in India, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, were excellent. We appreciate the support received from ICRISAT staff during our country and field visits.
Dr. Jim Ryan, Director General, and Dr. Waltraud Wightman, Special Assistant to the DG, fully cooperated with the TAC and CGIAR Secretariats throughout the Review, from its planning stage through to completion of this Report. They deserve our special thanks for this and for ensuring that our work could be done efficiently. We also thank Dr. and Mrs. Ryan for their kind hospitality.
The Panel wishes to acknowledge our sincere thanks to Ms. Irmi Braun-Castaldi, of the TAC Secretariat, and Ms. Geetha C., Senior Administrative Officer, RED Secretariat, for the superb work they did in the preparation of this Report. They were ably assisted by Mr. Thyagaraj, D.C., Senior Reprographer II, IMEP, and Ms. Linda Gay, Office Assistant. We express our appreciation to Ms. Usha, C., Senior Computer Assistant II, Computer Services, who ensured that our computers functioned satisfactorily right up to the end. Mr. T. Kalusekhar, Manager, Housing, Mrs. Swapna Shaw, Housing Officer and Mr. S. Mazumdar, Manager, Food Services, all helped to ensure that our basic human needs were fully met, and we express our appreciation to them.
We are pleased to acknowledge the help received from several of the staff of the TAC and CGIAR Secretariats, during the course of the Review. We are particularly thankful to: Dr. Selcuk Ozgediz and Ms. Timni Mahase at the CGIAR Secretariat; and to Ms. Ann Drummond, of the TAC Secretariat, and Ms. Irmi Braun-Castaldi, for their valuable assistance during the planning and organization of the Review.
