We are catching Dr Frank Rijsberman, the new CEO of the CGIAR Consortium, on the eve of his “first day on the job”. We won’t give anyone a hard time before they start their new position. So today, we’ll have a “heart” talk, curious as we are to know Frank’s intentions. But… we also agree to have a “hard” talk, within three months, to take stock of progress made.
Q: Frank, welcome! The start of a new beginning! Excited?
Frank: Excited?! I can’t quite tell you just how excited I am to formally start my new role as CEO of the CGIAR Consortium tomorrow. The past two months have been pretty intense already, preparing for my first day. I already had many meetings with key CGIAR people, the Board Chair, and other Board members, and my staff in the CGIAR Consortium office. I had a lot to catch up with, since I left CGIAR five years ago. And I am sure there are still going to be moments where I will discover new things. But, the past months have given me a good appreciation of both the impressive progress made and the challenges down the road.
Q: So you are familiar with the “old” CGIAR…..
Frank: Yes, from 2000-2007, I was Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) one of the 15 centers members of the CGIAR Consortium. In 2007, I left Sri Lanka to join the start-up management team of Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google where I was Director Program. I led grant making in the public health initiative and was responsible for programs and partnerships in health, disaster response, geo-informatics and climate change adaptation. In 2010 I was appointed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as their first Director Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. I became responsible for ramping up grant making for this new strategy focused on sanitation that works for the poor and led the development of a science and technology initiative. I left the Gates Foundation to re-join CGIAR.
Q: Comparing the “old” CGIAR, when you left, to the “new” CGIAR of today, what is, according to you, the progress CGIAR made in the past years?
Frank: The big change relates to the CGIAR reform process. Progress, which, in my assessment, is quite impressive indeed. If anybody had told me in 2007 that the fifteen CGIAR research centers would sign up to the new constitution, vote in a Consortium Board, set up a new, single, international organization and develop a combined portfolio of CGIAR Research Programs – and that the investors/donors would establish a single Fund with a Fund Council, sign up to a Joint Agreement, and commit rapidly increasing funding to this new system – with an incredible growth rate projected by the centers of 30% to over $900M in 2012 – I would not have believed it. So bravo to all in the CGIAR system!
Q: This is the good, but what are the challenges you see ahead?
Frank: While I can see clearly how much progress has been made, it is not quite cemented and not all promises of the reform have paid off yet. The final steps can be just as hard as the first couple, and are critical to reaping the benefits of the reform. I hear very often that deep down in the trenches a lot of front line workers, from researchers to back office staff to Center Board members, still don’t quite know, or believe, that the reform is for real. I have a pretty good sense of what the priorities are that have landed on my plate today.
Q: What would those priorities be, and what would be your role in that?
Frank: First, I aim to build strong relationships with key stakeholders inside the CGIAR system as well as with key partners. This is a top priority I have started to work on pretty much from the day I was appointed, now a few months ago, and I aim to keep it at the top of my list. The Consortium Board Chair and I have started to develop a solid working relationship. I spent several days working with the Board Chair, and several of the Board members, last week. The Board Chair has approved my goals and work program for 2012, and we came to agreement on our respective roles and an effective governance-management interface for the Consortium.
This year I plan to visit at least six centers, possibly more, starting with CIMMYT, right after the Agriculture and Rural Development Day we are organizing during Rio+20 – and I would aim to visit most if not all other centers in 2013. Some I will visit with the Board Chair – AfricaRice and IITA in July. I would also like to visit as many key partners as feasible, starting with EMBRAPA in Brasilia. Finally, I will contribute to resource mobilization, working closely with the Fund Office and the Board Chair, starting with a visit to the Netherlands next week and followed by a visit to Australia to join the Crawford Fund’s Parliamentary Conference later in the year, just as an example. Jonathan Wadsworth of the Fund Office and I have started to plan for joint work on strategic resource mobilization.
Q: You are also heading the Consortium Office, what do you see as your priorities there?
Frank: I see “building a strong Consortium Office” as another priority for me. We have to get clear targets on products and services we will provide, and agreed service levels, as soon as possible. We have also restarted, or will soon start, the recruitment for a number of the key positions. It will be another 6 months or so until we have a complete Consortium Office leadership team in place, but I am committed to developing an effective, solid leadership and management team as soon as reasonably feasible.
Q: You said to highly value the CGIAR reform process. What is your role in that?
Frank: Indeed. I would say “The Last, but not the Least” of my top three priorities! I have thought long and hard, and consulted quite widely, on what would be absolutely critical to make the reform work for all concerned — member centers, investors and partners — over the next year or two. That would be the last mile, the final inch – the capstone for the reform. My vision for what it will take, builds on all the work done by CGIAR over the last several years and includes a number of elements already ongoing. I added a few elements into what I would like to refer to as a Performance Management System for the CGIAR.
Q: A “Performance Management System” for CGIAR. What would that consist of?
Frank: There are basically four elements in that. We need quantitative outcome targets for the four System Level Outcomes (SLOs). Linked to that would be quantitative – or as quantitative as reasonably possible – CGIAR Research Program (CRP) outcome metrics: a limited number of meaningful intermediate outcomes that are proxies for impact that track the contributions of each CRP to the System Level Outcomes.
Combining the SLO and CRP targets in a single table would yield a single CGIAR score card, at top level, which can be cascaded down with more detail at CRP, sub-component and theme level etc.
And that, will then contribute to harmonized CRP progress and financial reporting that enables verification of progress and assessment of value for money against agreed targets.
Q: That seems like “easier said than done”!
Frank: Yes, to realize such a performance management system will require the good will and solid efforts of pretty much all stakeholders – just like the rest of the reform. It will be challenging, but I believe quite possible, and even more so, it is in fact: necessary. If all goes well, I would aim to have the key “design” elements of such a system on the table for discussion and hopefully approval in October. Implementation will take most of 2013. It is important work that will require a lot of consultation – and a gradual, pragmatic, and iterative approach.
Q: Such a Performance Management System is, of course, “a tool”. What do you see as “the goal”, and overall, what do you see as your key mission?
Frank: As Kenneth Cassman, the chair of the Independent Science and Partnership Council, reminded me eloquently over dinner last week “producing enough food without destroying the environment is the greatest challenge facing humanity in coming decades”. That is what drives and motivates me – and I feel truly privileged to have been given the opportunity to contribute to that mission. Within that mission, our reform process is critical. I am committed to helping make the reform a success and I am committed to doing that in a way that calls in everyone to contribute.
Q: I am sure I speak in the name of many, in wishing you success with your new position as the CEO of the CGIAR Consortium. We will meet again in three months, for our hard talk. Best of luck!
Frank: Thank you, and looking forward to working with many of you!
Read also Frank Rijsberman’s interviews:
in Reuters: Agricultural research funds escape austerity cuts (also in AlertNet)
in VOA News: Making Farming Better in Developing Countries (also in Vietnamese)
in Noticias Agricolas: Seca nos EUA pode impulsionar forte alta dos alimentos, diz instituto internacional (Also in Expresso MT)
in Turkish Weekly: Making Farming Better in Developing Countries
in Igihe: Food Security: Farm Smarter Not to Plow More Land (also in iRwanda)
in Portal do Agronegocio : Seca nos EUA pode provocar alta dos alimentos, diz entidade
in SciDev News: CGIAR consortium chief pledges to ‘cement’ reforms