This is the Report of the External Review Panel appointed to review the programme and management of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The Panel members and their backgrounds are listed in Appendix I.
The detailed Terms of Reference for this Fourth External Programme and Management Review of IITA (main phase in April 1995) are shown in Appendix II. The Panel's approach to the Review has been open, participatory, and forward-looking. In conducting the Review, the Panel has followed the general guidelines for the CGIAR review process.
The information on which the Panel based its assessments and conclusions was gathered in a number of ways. The Panel spent a week at IITA from 26 November to 1 December 1994 and three weeks in April 1995, in each case interviewing and meeting with the management and many members of the staff and some spouses. During the first visit the Panel received presentations from management and staff and interacted with the Board. During the main phase, the Panel received further presentations, and held informal briefing sessions with management on several occasions. The Panel Consultant on governance and finance visited IITA from 24 November to 4 December 1994, at which time all the Trustees were interviewed individually.
In groups or individually, the Panel members visited agricultural scientists, government officials and others knowledgeable about IITA's activities in Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Kenya and Uganda. The panel members also met with, in various locations, representatives of ICRAF, WARDA, CIP, ICIPE, ICRISAT, CIMMYT, ILRI and CIAT. A list of institutions and persons visited is shown in Appendix III.
In addition to the above country field visits, the Panel gathered information through several ways: a questionnaire sent to a wide cross-section of agricultural scientists, administrators and policy makers in countries of sub-Saharan Africa (the results are summarized in Appendix IV); responses to a letter sent to other CGIAR Centres, international organizations and advanced institutions collaborating with IITA; a survey of IITA international and national staff asking their views on programme and management issues; responses to a letter sent to all CGIAR members and regional representatives and discussions with agricultural scientists familiar with IITA in some industrialized countries. Finally, the Panel had access to a large array of documents and data made available by IITA. Additional documents were provided by the TAC and CGIAR Secretariats. A list of documents made available to the Panel is shown in Appendix V.
Altogether, we believe we were able to obtain sufficient information to enable us to respond with confidence to our terms of reference. We certainly do not claim to be fully informed on every aspect of IITA's work and circumstances. But we consider that we have sound evidence on which to base the analysis, conclusions and recommendations presented in this Report. We hope that the Report will be useful to TAC, to the CGIAR, and most of all to IITA itself.
