The members of the External Review Panel wish to express their sincere appreciation to the Board, management and staff of IIMI for their cordial, frank and full cooperation throughout the Review. The arrangements made for our visits to the Headquarters, and for the field visits in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso were excellent. We appreciate the assistance received from IIMI's country staff and cooperators, who met with us and openly shared their views. The background documents prepared for the Review by IIMI were wholly satisfactory.
Dr. Roberto Lenton, Director General, and Dr. Khalid Mohtadullah, Deputy Director General and the Liaison Officer for the IIMI Review, fully cooperated with the TAC and CGIAR Secretariats throughout the Review, from its planning stage through to completion of this Report. They were ably assisted by Ms. Vasumathy Somasundaram during the entire period of the Review. We express our grateful thanks to them for ensuring that our work could be done under optimal conditions at all times.
We gratefully acknowledge the help received from several of the staff of the TAC and CGIAR Secretariats, and of IIMI, during the Review. We are particularly thankful to Selcuk Ozgediz for guidance on management aspects; to Ms. Ingrid Hagen at the CGIAR Secretariat for help in the compilation of the information from the survey of IIMI staff; to Mrs. Jennifer Kitching-Parise at the TAC Secretariat for helping in organizing the Review, and for compiling the information from the survey of national institutions on IIMI's past and future programmes; to Ms. Marioara Lantini at the TAC Secretariat for her valuable assistance and logistical support during the course of the Review; and to Mr. Upali Amarasinghe of IIMI for help in the statistical analysis of the information from the survey questionnaire on IIMI's past and future programmes.
We express our special thanks to Mrs. Irmi Braun-Castaldi, of the TAC Secretariat, and Ms. Avril VanderSay and Ms. Veronica Lumanauw, both of IIMI, for the superb work they did in the preparation of this Report.
