APPENDIX VI - ASSESSMENT OF IIMI'S PROGRESS IN IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 1990 DONOR SPONSORED REVIEW

The 1990 Donor-Sponsored Review made five programme-related recommendations, and six management-related recommendations. IIMI's response to the 1990 Review has been taken into account in appropriate sections of this report. The panel's Assessment of the Institute's response is summarized in this Appendix in two parts. I - Programme recommendations, II -Management recommendations.

Of the 11 recommendations, IIMI has implemented 5 recommendations in full, and 6 recommendations partially.

I. PROGRAMME RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations of 1990 Review	IIMI's Response	Panel's Remarks	Score
1. Gender Issues in Irrigated Agriculture The Panel recommends "that IIMI consider the implications of the role of women in the agriculture of developing countries in the formulation and conduct of its programmes". (See External Panel Review Report)	The preliminary review decided upon by the Board has been undertaken by a Consultant, Dr. Barbara Lynch, and a report entitled "Gender, Irrigation and IIMI: Issues, Methods and Elements of a Programme" has been completed and published in draft form. The report reviews some of the conceptual issues on gender studies and identifies elements of a programme for IIMI. In 1992, IIMI began implementing a women and irrigation programme, for which IIMI has obtained an Associate Expert from the Netherlands. The Dutch Associate Expert has written a discussion paper on "Gender Issues/Water Issues: A Gender Perspective on Irrigation Management". The report is based on analysis of existing literature and other reports. The Associate Expert has initiated field work in Sri Lanka, Niger and Nepal that will lead to a comparative analysis of gender issues in different irrigation environments. IIMI's Gender Programme has been included in its Medium Term Plan as a cross-cutting topic. Restricted core support for the Gender Programme has been received from the Governments of the Netherlands and Denmark.	A start has been made, but the gender activities have not been integrated into other programme activities and adequately supported and supervised.	1-
2. IIMI's Themes The panel recommends "that IIMI narrow somewhat the focus of its primary programme efforts, concentrating on those themes and related activities that can make the greatest contribution to the achievement of its mission".	Since the Panel Recommendation was received, IIMI has made substantial progress in concentrating effort upon identified priority problems. In IIMI's new Strategy and its Medium Term Plan for 1994/1998, the Institute's research was narrowed further into five programmes: Assessing and Improving the Performance of Irrigated Agriculture, Sector Level Management of Irrigated Agriculture, Improving Public Irrigation Organizations, Local Management of Irrigation Systems and Sustainable Management of Water Delivery and Disposal.	Not yet "substantial progress". There is insufficient prioritization within programmes.	1
3. Over-extension of IIMI's activities The External Review Panel recommends "that IIMI give priority to achieving the highest possible quality of effort in whatever it undertakes and not to jeopardize its ability to do so by over-extending itself either geographically or in the size of its total enterprise".	Since the Panel's recommendation, IIMI has made efforts to consolidate its activities and not over-extend itself, either geographically or in total. The senior internationally recruited staff numbers for January 1990 suggest that IIMI's programme has grown at a manageable rate and is now more concentrated than it was in 1990. Further work to fully address the quality objective inherent in the Panel's recommendation is underway and reported separately. Continuing discussions on critical mass have led to an understanding that further concentration of country programmes may be needed.	Reduction in spread of effort have been forced by budget contractions, not resulting from analysis. IIMI is still dispersed and is not sufficiently clear of its research and other targets. This makes it difficult for IIMI to reach quality performance.	1
4. Quality Control The Panel has recommended "that IIMI institute additional measures to strengthen its quality control mechanisms such as organizing expert reviews of major issues encountered at various stages of a research project as well as special panel reviews of proposed management innovations, to ensure their feasibility, cost effectiveness and adaptability in the given management environment. The costs of such reviews should be a part of the research project budgets".	Management remains fully committed to strengthening quality control procedures. Existing and new instruments for achieving and sustaining quality have been identified. New instruments, which include the Programme and Projects Sub- Committee, and with it, the introduction of more rigorous planning, monitoring and review processes for all on-going projects and programmes, have been implemented. A paper giving full details of IIMI's quality control measures presented to the Board of Governors at its December 1993 meeting.	Attempts are underway, but remain vague. There is a need for clear goals, and procedures for measuring impact and performance. The procedures put in place are still on paper only, and they have come very late, three years after they were called for. Further, the Internal Programme Review process of IIMI has deficiencies.	1
5. Effective communications with personnel in collaborative agencies and those involved in policy making The External Panel recommends "that IIMI concentrate on developing effective communications with personnel in collaborative agencies including those at the highest levels involved with policy making".	IIMI has accorded priority to institutionalizing the forum of the Consultative Committee as a mechanism for promoting communications with key policy makers and senior agency staff. It has been found to be effective in encouraging dialogue and access, and is now incorporated as part of the Memoranda of Agreements that IIMI normally uses as the instruments of entry for collaborative work. (In addition, Study Advisory/Research/Project Coordinating Committees, set up for implementing collaborative projects, help develop linkages with agency staff at all levels). IIMI has also accorded priority to regular visits and meetings with key officials of collaborating countries by IIMI's senior staff, to assist further consolidation of linkages. Seminars and workshops by IIMI have facilitated interchange of ideas on topical irrigation management issues at national and international level. For example, regional workshops for senior policy makers from South-East Asia have been held since 1990. Similar national-level workshops have been held in Sudan (1991), in India (1992) and in Burkina Faso (1993). Such workshops are expected to be a regular feature of IIMI's future programmes, helping to promote regional and international information exchange and an understanding of IIMI's work.	A lot of emphasis is given in the different country programmes to meet the objective of "developing effective communications". This can be further developed but IIMI should not overshoot its capacity. Communications should be functional, feasible and in line with IIMI's research agenda. The Consultative Committee mechanism in place, has good membership, although it is often used more to obtain financial support - than to have intellectual and policy engagement. Sri Lanka Consultative Committee is the most effective but Pakistan with its new Director could also become very effective.	2

II. MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations of 1990 Review	IIMI's Response	Panel's Remarks	Score
6. Pakistan The Panel recommends "that the Institute, possibly the Director General and the Chairman of the Board of Governors, initiate discussions with appropriate officials in Pakistan in an effort to work out an arrangement that would bring IIMI into closer working relationships with irrigation officials and resolve the ambiguity, if any, with respect to the 'autonomy' language in the agreement".	The Director General visited Pakistan twice in the months following the External Review Panel's recommendations. During these visits the Director General discussed the matters raised by the Panel with several officials in Pakistan, including the Minister of Water and Power, the Secretary of Water and Power, and the Secretary (ARD) and Chairman, PARC. All parties agreed that the existing formal arrangements (including Board membership and Consultative Committee Chairmen mechanisms) should be maintained as they are, on the grounds that seeking such changes might damage, rather than strengthen, relations with all relevant parties. However, closer links with the governmental irrigation agencies at both the provincial and federal levels should be sought within these arrangements.	"Autonomy" is no longer an issue. Working relations are said to be good by key Pakistan collaborators. Holding Board meetings in Pakistan was a thoughtful move.	2
	Since the Panel's report, IIMI's relations with governmental irrigation agencies in Pakistan have improved. Relations at the federal level have been facilitated by the fact that IIMI's Deputy Director General, Mr. Khalid Mohtadullah, is an official of the Water and Power Development Agency, and one who enjoys the confidence of all the senior officials of the irrigation agencies in Pakistan at both the provincial and federal levels.
	IIMI has also examined the apparent ambiguity in the wording of the agreement between IIMI and the Government of Pakistan, which notes that IIMI-Pakistan is both autonomous and an integral part of the Institute as a whole. The Director General has discussed the matter with the Directors of IIMI-Pakistan and officials of the Government of Pakistan. All parties have agreed that programmatic and administrative integration can be and is being addressed through the regular internal mechanisms of Management. IIMI's management believes that the principle of integration of IIMI-Pakistan within the Institute as a whole is now firmly agreed upon by all parties. Several specific measures have been taken to reinforce earlier efforts for bringing IIMI into closer working relationships with Pakistan authorities, including the holding of the Fifteenth Meeting of the Board of Governors in Lahore and Islamabad in April 1993. This event provided an excellent opportunity for IIMI's Board and Management to meet with key Government of Pakistan officials; the event also permitted a field visit to one of IIMI's study sites in Punjab, from which a fairly intimate appreciation of the Institute's programme was obtained. Linkages were also strengthened by the appointment as Director for Research of IIMI's former Director for Pakistan, Dr. Jacob Kijne. The results of improved relations are apparent. At the request of the Government, IIMI is now playing a leading role in assisting government agencies in the planning and implementation of the research component of a major WAPDA-executed irrigation and drainage project in Punjab. Considerable progress has been made on the provision by the Government of Pakistan of an office building for IIMI's work in the country. The Government of Pakistan is now clearly aware of IIMI's organizational arrangement with respect to its work in Pakistan, and has accepted that this work forms an integral part of IIMI's programme and therefore cannot be regarded as a separate autonomous body. Since this integration is now more transparent, and has been fully discussed with the Government, changes in the Memorandum are considered to be unnecessary at this stage.
7. Legal Status and Governance The panel recommends "that IIMI Management investigate the strategies that have been developed to obtain international organization status for several of the CGIAR Centres and consider whether the Institute should move to seek such status".	During 1990, IIMI corresponded with the CGIAR and its legal adviser in the World Bank concerning the matter of true international status. The advice from both parties was that if IIMI is not having any serious problems with its present status, IIMI would be advised not to undertake the long and difficult process of a status change. Since IIMI has no problems regarding its status in Sri Lanka, IIMI has accepted the advice of the CGIAR and its legal adviser and has not pursued this matter further.	IIMI has adequately dealt with this Recommendation.	2
8. Organizational Structure The Panel recommends "that the Director General and the Board of Governors consider an administrative organizational structure that will facilitate the design and execution of a cohesive, well-integrated institute-wide programme".	IIMI has implemented this recommendation in two stages: (i) At the June 1990 Board meeting, the Board approved a set of changes in IIMI's organizational structure and coordinating mechanisms, aimed at ensuring that all IIMI's activities could be integrated into one effective and coherent programme. Key among these measures was the creation of the position of Director for Research, to replace the earlier position of Director for Programmes. The Director for Research would be responsible for all the research and training activities of the Institute, both those undertaken by its country units (including Pakistan) and those undertaken by IIMI's thematic staff, and also act as the second-in-command at IIMI. After an extensive search process, Mr. Khalid Mohtadullah was selected for the position, and joined the staff in May 1991. (ii) In mid-1992, the Board approved a further set of changes in IIMI's organizational structure and coordinating mechanisms, aimed at ensuring that IIMI's organizational structure supported the changes in Strategy and Medium Term Plan that resulted from IIMI's entry into the CGIAR system. Key among these measures was the creation of a Deputy Director General post, to enable the Director for Research to concentrate only on research. In January 1993, Mr Khalid Mohtadullah was appointed Deputy Director General, and Dr. Jacob Kijne was appointed Director for Research.	Moves have been made but the resulting structure is not yet satisfactory. The administrative organizational structure has been given relatively too much attention, and in relation to its past, is too complex, oversized and expensive.	1
9. Indirect Costs The Panel recommends "that IIMI's management: a) Review the components of indirect costs to ensure that all legitimate elements are included. b) Move vigorously to incorporate indirect costs into all project budgets and explore the possibility of renegotiating existing contracts".	IIMI's Management Committee at its March 1990 meeting thoroughly reviewed the components of the Institute's indirect costs and made a number of decisions regarding what should be legitimately classified as an indirect cost. These decisions were subsequently endorsed by the Institute's Governing Board at its June 1990 meeting. Since early 1990, every project proposal submitted to a donor, with the exception of those for small training grants, incorporates in the budget an indirect cost recovery element based on IIMI's most recent estimate of indirect costs as a percentage of total direct costs. IIMI has been undertaking its best efforts to have the donors accept both the principle of indirect costs recoveries and the rates proposed and documented by IIMI. The Institute has largely been successful in these latter endeavours. There were several occasions involving USAID projects where IIMI was successful in renegotiating a somewhat higher rate of indirect costs. However, in most instances where renegotiation was possible, the Institute was facing a fixed sum contract, meaning that whatever funds were reallocated to indirect costs would have been at the expense of programme activities. Hence, it was not deemed advantageous to attempt a renegotiation of indirect cost recoveries in such instances.	IIMI has met the terms of the Recommendation in a formal sense, and in some respects may have gone too far.	2
10. Project Budgets and Staff Orientation The Panel recommends "that project budgets be drawn up so as to permit new international staff to spend a substantial period of time at headquarters so that they will come to understand the Institute's strategic and operational goals, organizational culture, and administrative procedures".	Various provisions have been employed as from 1990 to ensure that new international staff understand IIMI's strategy and ethos, as well as IIMI's administrative and financial procedures. The IIMI guidelines for developing project budgets now explicitly call for an international travel provision which provides for up to two visits per year to IIMI's headquarters by the international staff to be assigned to the project, and up to two visits per year to the project's field location by IIMI's senior management personnel. In addition, if routing convenience permits, IIMI routes international staff joining a project through Sri Lanka so that the staff may receive a proper orientation. In cases where project exigencies require joining staff to proceed directly to the project, IIMI endeavors to arrange for such staff to visit headquarters at the earliest opportunity for orientation purposes.	IIMI appears to have met the terms of the Recommendation. However, field staff still consider the interchange between HQ and field inadequate. There is no data on how much time new staff spend at HQ before going to the field.	2
11. Position Classification System The Panel recommends "that IIMI's management design and install a position classification system applicable to all national staff positions".	At the time of the Review, IIMI had a position classification scheme for the "General Category" of national staff in Sri Lanka. The General Category covers staff who do not have either professional qualifications or management (as opposed to purely supervisory) responsibilities, and includes seven categories of staff ranging from unskilled workers to skilled cadres such as maintenance, secretarial, and junior accounting staff. However, at the end of the Review, IIMI did not have a position classification scheme for national staff posts in Sri Lanka that required professional qualifications or managerial responsibilities, and which therefore fall under the "Professional and Management" staff category. Hence the Panel's recommendation and that of the consultant commissioned by IIMI was, in effect, to introduce a position classification system in Sri Lanka for this latter category, a recommendation predicated on the assumption that such a system would accommodate the growth of the national staff in Sri Lanka. A consultancy on this matter was undertaken in late 1992, and refined during the first part of 1993. As a result, a new position classification scheme for professional and management staff has been designed. It is expected that the new system will be in place by the final quarter of 1993.	Some details may still need to be ironed out to avoid long-term negative impact on staff morale.	2-