Message from the Chairman and Director

Dear Colleague:

We are pleased to present you with "CGIAR News," the spring edition.
For your convenience, an e-version is available at www.cgiar.org

We began the New Year with a tremendous vote of confidence in the CGIAR. UK's Department for International Development (DfID) announced an increase in its contribution by £10 million (approximately US$18 million) a year for three years, acknowledging that "the CGIAR reform process is moving in the right direction, governance issues and system-wide reforms are being addressed, and new evidence is emerging of real impacts on poverty." Similarly, Italy has announced that it will double its contribution, and Austria has returned to the CGIAR as a contributing member. Earlier, Canada doubled its level of financial support. In addition, in this first quarter of the year we have also welcomed an extraordinarily well qualified new Science Council (see page 8 for a list of members and an interview with the new Science Council Chair Per Pinstrup-Andersen), initiated two new Task Forces to further examine structure and programmatic alignment among Centers, and a number of Centers have commenced discussions on how to better do business together.

And most importantly, over the last three months, research which benefits smallholder farmers has continued to deliver results. The stories contained in this edition encapsulate these successes while demonstrating the continuing value of CGIAR research to smallholder farmers, producers and consumers alike.

We hope you find this snapshot of CGIAR activities that are helping create sustainable pathways out of poverty for poor people to be of interest. We welcome comments at cgiar@cgiar.org

Thank you for your interest in and support to the CGIAR.


Cordially,

Ian Johnson CGIAR Chairman

Francisco Reifschneider CGIAR Director